Collected Histories: Personal Archives and Documentation

Collected Histories, a project co-founded by Hind Mezaina and Jasmine Soliman, aims to foster discussion on personal documentation and archiving “with an ultimate goal of inspiring and supporting individuals to become ‘citizen archivists’ by cataloguing, and exploring ways to self-publish and preserve personal collections”. The project includes talks, workshops, and public film screenings – which this evening includes all three.

Films

Four short films focused on archives, memories, and identity followed by a short discussion between Mezaina, Soliman and the audience.

Don’t Get Too Comfortable dir Shaima Al Tamimi (2021, 9 min) Questioning the continuous pattern of movement amongst Yemenis in diaspora, the filmmaker fuses archival photographs and sourced footage, calling attention to the collective feeling of statelessness and sense of being felt by migrants.

Where Am I From? / Ana min wein? dir Nouf Aljowaysir (2022, 13 min) The filmmaker explores her identity by tracing her childhood and family memories by constructing her genealogical journey using two different voices, her own and an AI ‘narrator’, revealing stereotypes and biases derived from its algorithmic composition.

Still Processing dir Sophy Romvari (2020, 17 min) A box of stunning family photos unseen for decades awakens lost memories as they are viewed for the first time on camera.

The Flowers Stand Silently, Witnessing dir Theo Panagopoulos (2024, 17 min) When a filmmaker of Palestinian descent based in Scotland unearths a rarely-seen Scottish film archive of Palestinian wildflowers, he decides to reclaim the footage. The film questions the role of image-making as a tool of both testimony and violence when connected to entanglements between people and the land.

Workshop

The workshop will explore the importance of archival self-representation, the objects we keep and why.  Attendees should bring at least one item from their personal archive – family photos, letters, diaries, heirlooms. This event is open to all, and no prior knowledge about archival practice is required.