At Sessions, December 15 2023
Ammochostou 73, Nicosia 1016, Cyprus
7pm-11pm
On the 15th of December we invite you to join us in celebrating the launch of our fresh new journal. Fisherwomxn is a literary journal by womxn against colonialism. In the light of current events, our first gathering will focus on the Palestinian liberation struggle and the urgency of decolonising our minds. The program includes a screening of Stelios Kallinikou’s latest work on how Britain made Cyprus complicit in the ongoing genocide and Jumana Manna’s film on how the everyday practise of Palestinians foraging their lands has been restricted by Israel as a way to suppress them. This event intends to provide the ground to weave our languages together with ideas and narratives that encourage decolonial discourses.
Program:
〜 7:00 pm Weaving our fishing nets, collective reading and presentation of the first issue
〜 Screening of Stelios Kallinikou’s Bird watching, 2023, 07:40 min
〜 Open discussion with Miriam Gatt, Ioulita Toumazi, Stelios Kallinikou, Rahme Veziroglu and Marina Christodoulidou around decolonization in Cyprus
〜 9:00 pm Film screening of Jumana Manna’s Foragers, 2022, 1h 5 min, accompanied by food sharing of Aljotta (maltese soup) by Joanne Gatt.
Bird watching, 2023, video, sound, 07:40 min
Stelios Kallinikou
The film aspire to offer a reflection on the relationship between people animals and the environment in the context of militaristic and property rights mindsets of ongoing processes of colonisation and extinction.
Foragers, 2022, 60:05 min
Jumana Manna
Foragers depicts the dramas around the practice of foraging for wild edible plants in Palestine/Israel with wry humour and a meditative pace. Shot in the Golan Heights, the Galilee and Jerusalem, it employs fiction, documentary and archival footage to portray the impact of Israeli nature protection laws on these customs. The restrictions prohibit the collection of the artichoke-like ’akkoub and za’atar (thyme), and have resulted in fines and trials for hundreds caught collecting these native plants. For Palestinians, these laws constitute an ecological veil for legislation that further alienates them from their land while Israeli state representatives insist on their scientific expertise and duty to protect. Following the plants from the wild to the kitchen, from the chases between the foragers and the nature patrol, to courtroom defences, Foragers captures the joy and knowledge embodied in these traditions alongside their resilience to the prohibitive law. By reframing the terms and constraints of preservation, the film raises questions around the politics of extinction, namely who determines what is made extinct and what gets to live on.
💧streams are a series of gatherings, aiming to study feminist and anticolonial thought through collective readings, performances, workshops, open discussions and other forms.