Program #2: Radical Solidarity

DAY 3: Radical Kinship: Reimagining Communities Through Solidarity

The films in this program invite us to traverse the labyrinths of colonial violence, resistance, and radical imagination. They explore how communities, beyond oppression and alienation, can forge connections with one another. By examining the shared experiences of groups affected by colonialism across different geographic contexts, the program fosters solidarity between communities suffering from colonial violence and its aftermath.

Starting from the Vietnamese diaspora, the films delve into forced migration and cultural survival, exploring how living archives are constructed through personal histories. These intimate insights challenge dominant narratives shaped by power structures, which are perpetuated by selective forgetting. These works examine the complex process of negotiating identity "in the belly of the beast". This confrontation with identity under colonial legacies is not only an act of survival, but also reclaiming of self in spaces shaped by systemic forces of control.

The second part of the program shifts focus to film as an archive of resilience, one that documents testimonies of colonial violence. These works disrupt established historical narratives and open new pathways to present collective suffering and resistance. The films urge questioning the systemic conditions that distort or erase the testimonies of marginalized subjects, encouraging new ways of listening and understanding. The screen becomes a space for deconstructing past and present traumas, enabling the creation of alternative methods and perspectives of documenting vulnerability.

The concluding section shifts towards radical imaginations from black and Kurdish resistance movements: What could a world beyond colonial legacies look like? These films imagine ways of living, creating, and being together outside the structures of imperial control. Through documentation of revolutionary practice, they break inherited hierarchies and propose alternative visions grounded in justice, reciprocity, and liberation.

In presenting these perspectives, the films invite the audience to view solidarity as a tool for healing and transformation.

Program #2: Radical Solidarity

Short film program:

Letter To Obama (D: Mohanad Salahat; 2014; 6'; Arabic, English subtitles)
In a Gaza Strip refugee camp, two boys sent a Facebook message to President Obama, urging him to end the siege and visit the area with his wife to see the hardships. Receiving no reply, they recorded an angry video message to him on behalf of the camp's people.

The tank of my sketchbook (D: Sherko Abbas; 2021; 6'; Kurdish, English subtitles)
The film blends found imagery and animation to depict 1980s Iraq, where reality and propaganda intertwined. It contrasts state-sanctioned cartoons glorifying war with the harsh realities faced by Iraqi families, exposing the lasting trauma of a generation shaped by violence and manipulation.

Buurman Abdi (D: Douwe Dijkstra; 2022; 29’, Dutch/Somali/English, English subtitles)
How can you understand a violent past? Somali-born Abdi is furniture designer and support worker. He reenacts his life, marked by war and criminality, with the help of his neighbour and filmmaker Douwe. By means of playful reconstructions in a special effects studio, Abdi and Douwe embark on a candid and investigative journey through a painful history, focusing on the creative process throughout.

Graffiti (D: Paria Mohammadi/Rasoul Mohammadi; 2024; 5'; Farsi/English, English subtitles)
Two film students living in two different countries - Iran and Germany - are interested in the walls and graffiti of city life. That's why they start filming the graffiti in their cities at the same time. The result is the experimental short film Graffiti.

Paper Puppet Testimony (D: Sherko Abbas; 2019; 8'; Kurdish, English Subtitles)
The 1991 Kurdish uprising against Saddam Hussein, symbolized by Amna Suraka—The Red Prison—was pivotal. 11-year-old Sherko witnessed a haunting scene that stayed with him. Now, he uncovers the silenced stories of female inmates, aiming to reveal hidden histories and confront denial through memory, trauma, and justice.

Nebsei (D: Gabrielle Tesfaye; 2023; ; Tigrigna, English subtitles) 
Nebsey, meaning ‘my body/soul’ in Tigrigna, is a short animated film revealing the story of women who faced sexual and gender based violence
during the war in Tigray. The film responds to research surrounding the themes of gender-based violence during the ‘Tigray War’, its
psychological effects on society, and hopes of reconciliation, justice and healing.

+ Screening at the Foyer
Voices of Bakur (D: Two Rivers and a Valley; 2019; 32'; Kurdish, English Subtitles)
Voices of Bakur delves into the 2015-2016 Kurdish movement in Northern Kurdistan, where southeastern Turkish towns declared autonomy. Featuring interviews and banned footage, it highlights the fight for democratic autonomy, women’s liberation, and self-defense during a brutal conflict that claimed 1,552 lives.

Curated by Schaho Balbas, Idil Xaashi Hassan, Lan Mi Lê and Safiya Yon