Book Presentation and Performative Reading
Unmade Film
Uriel Orlow
Sunday, 22 May 2016, 7pm

As an extension of our current exhibition Chronic this evening program presents Uriel Orlow’s publication Unmade Film in the form of a performative reading of sections from the publication. Beyond the different works that form part of Unmade Film the publication contains a collection of texts that reflect the scope of the work, including discussions around trauma and haunting, the work of psychologists under occupation as well as the historical context of the Deir Yassin massacre and experimental film. The publication Unmade Film was edited by Andrea Thal and Uriel Orlow and includes texts by Erik Bullot, Yoa’d Ghanadry, Avery Gordon, Esmail Nashif, Ilan Pappé, Hanan Toukan, as well as by the editors.

Unmade Film takes as its starting point the remnants of the Palestinian village Deir Yassin near Jerusalem. Depopulated in a massacre by Zionist paramilitaries in April 1948, the remains of the village were later used to house the mental hospital Kfar Sha'ul, a psychiatric clinic which initially specialised in the treatment of Holocaust survivors.

Unmade Film probes the spatial and narrative layering of trauma in a single place. It explores the haunting effects of an unresolved past, as well as the psychological suffering caused by continuous violence. Developed through long-term research and collaborative workshops with psychiatrists, musicians, historians, actors and pupils in East Jerusalem and Ramallah, Unmade Film attends to blind spots of remembrance whilst being aware of the limitations of representation. Instead of culminating in a complete whole, Unmade Film evolved as an expansive collection of audio-visual works structured around a necessary but impossible film.

Before the reading Uriel Orlow will introduce the Unmade Film project. 


Unmade Film was published by edition fink, Zurich www.editionfink.ch . The publication is available for sale during the event and later at our library.

The event is realised in collaboration with Pro Helvetia Cairo