Filming the world from home: windows in personal documentary films in Israel/Palestine

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis article examines documentary diary and essay films made in Israel/Palestine from 1973–2009, where windows play a central role as architectural elements, cinematic frames and embodiments of the relations between the private and public spheres. The films represent personal, artistic and political turning points: David Perlov's Diary, made in 1973–1977, began with the transformative event of the 1973 war, the film was a turning point in Israeli filmmaking which had until then consisted primarily of Zionist social realist documentaries and popular dramas; Michel Khleifi's Fertile Memory (1980), the director's feature documentary debut, it marked the beginning of a new period in Palestinian filmmaking, by its focus on personal rather than collective. The third example is Anat Even's Closure (2009), a camera positioned on a window reflects on death, loss and transformations in urban history. In all films, the window is both a physical and a symbolic space, mediating private and political, constituting a new material awareness of their interrelations, which is eliminated in contemporary technology based communication. The encounter between camera, window, and viewer reflects and facilitates the act of observing and engaging with conflicts, arguing that it is an opportunity for both self-reflection and political critique.