FORAGERS
a film by Jumana Manna
FEATURE PRESENTATION
MAY 31, 2024 • 9:00 PM
@ THE BUS STOP THEATRE
(2203 GOTTINGEN STREET, HALIFAX)
2022 / PALESTINE / 65 mins
In Arabic & Hebrew with English subtitles
For centuries, native plants such as za’atar and ’akkoub have been part of Palestinian culture and identity, upholding stalwart roles in the kitchen and home with their culinary and medicinal uses. Yet within the last few decades, the Israeli government has banned Palestinians from foraging these wild crops under laws claiming to protect these plants, though they grow abundantly and naturally flourish when regularly picked.
In this meditative and alchemical brew of documentary, archival footage, and scripted fiction, Palestinian filmmaker Jumana Manna examines how propagandistic and legal apparatuses can exploit the natural world to disempower and alienate people from their traditional land. Shot in Jerusalem, Golan Heights, and the Galilee,Foragers shines a stark light on tyranny while revealing the warm resilience of Palestinians’ devotion to their land and to each other. —Kelly Li
TRAILER
ABOUT THE FILMMAKER
Jumana Manna
Jumana Manna is a visual artist and filmmaker. Her work explores how power is articulated, focusing on the body, land and materiality in relation to colonial inheritances and histories of place. Through sculpture, filmmaking, and occasional writing, Manna deals with the paradoxes of preservation practices, particularly within the fields of architecture, agriculture and law. Her practice considers the tension between the modernist traditions of categorisation and conservation and the unruliness of ruination, life and its regeneration. Jumana was raised in Jerusalem and lives in Berlin.