Program #2: Resisting Oblivion

DAY 2: Our Eyes Have Exhausted the Vocabulary of Death

Borrowing its title from Etel Adnan’s Jenin, this program brings together films that challenge the colonial and authoritarian use of visual media. By reframing archives as spaces of resistance and reclamation, these works highlight memory’s survival and vulnerability, offering insights into how storytelling can preserve histories, forge solidarity, and foster hope amidst loss.
Organized into three sections—Two Rivers and a Wind, Resisting Oblivion, and Vocabulary of Absence—the program traverses landscapes of conflict and displacement, connecting stories across borders to expose shared struggles and resist erasure.

Program #2: Resisting Oblivion

Resisting Oblivion uncovers hidden scars of history in Iran and the Afghan diaspora, revisiting narratives erased by authoritarian regimes or national exclusion. The chosen film explores identity and belonging amidst displacement, showing the power of memory to resist oblivion and reclaim lost histories.

Film program:

The Silhoettes (D: Afsaneh Salari; Iran/Philippines 2020; 79'; Persian (Farsi/Dari), English subtitles)
At the height of the USSR’s invasion of Afghanistan in 1982, 1.5 million Afghans took a long journey to the border of Iran to flee war. TAGHI, born after that generation, and unwilling to inherit the limitations of his parents’ refugee status, navigates outside the protective walls of his family to trace his identity and the doors to his future in the homeland he never knew. As war continues to rage in Afghanistan, what future awaits him in which land?

Curated by Vincent E., Sarah Savalanpour and Shadi Tabibzadeh