"Bang Bang Cut" & "O4O

Open Access

Abstract

The two videos I've created for my project, entitled Bang Bang Cut and O4O, each represent a stage in my development as both an artist and a human rights advocate over the course of my final year at Bard. The first of these, shot in the fall during my semester at the Al-Quds Bard Honors College in East Jerusalem, documents my encounter with a new (to me) cultural, political, and artistic environment. The second, shot this spring throughout New York City's five boroughs, reflects an interaction with a more familiar space, recently altered and energized by a grassroots human rights movement. Despite the extreme difference between my experiences in these two worlds, the videos they produced bear a critical similarity that has come to define my relationship to the processes of film making and advocating for human rights: collectivity and collaboration. At its core, Bang Bang Cut is the study of a relationship between two artists – two activists – from two different places. It was arranged by the college, at random, that I would live with Salah Shbak and his family during my time in the West Bank. A filmmaker as well, Salah and I immediately began making films together, coming to understand one another through our stylistic decisions. The political conversations flowed naturally from this. My reactions to events we encountered in the field were either condoned or critiqued by my new roommate, fostering regular discussion of the issues that surrounded us: occupation, separation, liberation. Quickly we found that our goals, both artistic and political, were distinctly similar. And while it certainly felt natural at the time, it is clear to me now that a certain amount of the motivation behind our partnership was driven by necessity, at least on my part. That is, I could not have imagined saying something coherent about such a complicated space on my own, without the guidance of a person from there. Countless individuals and locations we shot – not to mention the impetus for shooting them in the first place – would have ...