Videoart at Midnight #88: Mario Rizzi

About

Impermanent, 2007, 15 min
Ali Akilah was a two-time Palestinian refugee, in 1948 and in 1967. He was born and lived in Lifta, the Palestinian village whose area today corresponds to West and North Jerusalem. He graduated in Medicine in Beirut and worked as a doctor in Haifa until 1948. At the moment of filming, he was 96 years old and lived in Amman.  He recalls personal memories of decisive moments in his life. His evocative words, both delicate and charismatic, are infused with a sense of uprootedness and permanent impermanence.

Akilah’s memories are an invaluable instrument to raise consciousness and improve the reading of the present by the firsthand recollections of an eye-witness in his own voice. They are genuine poetry and oral history at the same time.

impermanent premiered in competition in Berlin International Film Festival 2008 and was exhibited in various art institutions, including the Tate Modern in London.

Murat ve Ismail, 2005, 58 min
The film Murat ve Ismail is focused on a single family-run shoemaker’s shop in the Istanbul’s neighborhood of Beyoğlu and depicts two lives, the father (Ismail) and his son (Murat), caught up in the economic transformations ripping through Istanbul. As the nature of the relationship between them gradually emerges, we are introduced to other characters that visit the shop and try in different ways to take advantage of their difficult economic situation.
«The film needs to be seen as a narrative from beginning to end. It has some of the appearances of a recording of reality, but its drama and emotional perception are almost too intimate to be true, pushing us to question where the border between fact and fiction is drawn.» (Charles Esche)

Murat ve Ismail was first exhibited in Istanbul Biennial 2005 and in 2010 was acquired by the Museum of Modern Art in New York for its permanent collection.