DIR Sarah Trad / USA / Experimental / 6 min
A found-footage collage video exploring the process growing up in an Arab family deeply affected by death and grief. Using footage from the Lebanese film “In the Battlefields,” as well as “Candy” and “The 100,” and audio from archival recorded Lebanese funeral laments, the video looks at how men and women express grief and anger under the patriarchy, as well as how trauma and childhood experiences can evolve into mental illness and patterns of behavior as adults. “Clench My Fists” is part of a larger body of work dealing with racial identity and the concept of “inherited grief, which focuses on not only decolonizing Imperialist Western understandings of the Middle East but to also show the beauty of the artist’s heritage, outside the context of her family.
Program: Culture and Infrastructure