Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- 2006 (Accumulation)
Level of description
Extent and medium
Video
Context area
Repository
Archival history
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
Content and structure area
Scope and content
Soup Over Bethlehem (2006) depicts an ordinary Palestinian family, Sansour's own, around a dinner table on a rooftop overlooking the West Bank city of Bethlehem. What starts as a culinary discussion about the national dish mloukhieh being served from a soup bowl soon evolves into a personal and engaging conversation about politics – thereby emphasizing the symbiosis of food and politics so indicative of the Palestinian experience. The sheer flow and integrity of the dialogue poses questions as to the staged nature of what easily passes for unedited. The handheld cameras and the intimate sounds of cutlery against china support the illusion of a one to one relation between video and reality. Yet, by being composed of multiple unrelated fragments of dialogue, Soup Over Bethlehem actually marks a break-away from the very narrative it feigns. Thus, the video addresses the fictional foundation of documentary and draws attention to the mediating faculty often overlooked in the assessment of visual reports passed off as unbiased depictions of reality – a mediating faculty to a large extent responsible for the reductive stereotyping often shaping our understanding of the other. Rather than offering a portrait of a national identity as an invitation to renegotiate stereotypes, Soup Over Bethlehem presents a stereotype already renegotiated. The Arabic spoken around the dinner table is interrupted by English, and family members hold a variety of international passports, jobs and academic degrees. The diasporic traits present in every Palestinian family history lends a globalized quality even to life under the restraints of occupation. In turn, the mloukhieh in the soup bowl represents the shared national heritage – a single constant amid nothing but fluctuation. And the meal itself becomes a gastronomic anchoring of a Palestinian identity in eternal flux.
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling
Accruals
System of arrangement
Conditions of access and use area
Conditions governing access
Press: Yes; Catalogue: Yes; Itinerancies: Yes; Online archive: Yes; Television: No
Conditions governing reproduction
Permisos: premsa, catàleg, itineràncies, arxiu online
Language of material
Script of material
Language and script notes
Physical characteristics and technical requirements
Finding aids
Allied materials area
Existence and location of originals
Existence and location of copies
Related units of description
Notes area
Note
ovni-archives: Thu, June 28, 2007 1:44 am enviado dvd mas cd con fotos y infos per tranarab
Alternative identifier(s)
Slug
Access points
Subject access points
Place access points
Name access points
- Larissa Sansour (Accumulator)
- Larissa Sansour (Subject)
Genre access points
Description control area
Description identifier
Institution identifier
Rules and/or conventions used
Status
Level of detail
Dates of creation revision deletion
Language(s)
Catalan
Script(s)
Latin
Sources
Archivist's note
copyright: Larissa Sansour