one sea, 10 seas

عشرة بحور وبحر واحد

Nour Ouayda | 2019 | 42 minutes
Arabic and English | MiniDV
Color | Stereo

Synopsis

There are all in all eight tapes dating from 2014 to 2018, each containing footage of the Mediterranean Sea, more precisely a small section of the coast around Beirut. Three women examine the recorded images and sounds, looking for traces of what they call “apparitions”.

“Throughout, the characters are in search of what the film calls “apparitions”—moments when the collision between sea and recording creates something that exceeds the bounds of either, and in turn, captures both perfectly. And likewise, this film, through layers of record and fantasy, offers a delicate insight—the way we flow through the landscape, and the way the landscape surges in us.” – Carmine Grimaldi, Jesting in Earnest

Audio, visual, linguistic… it’s rare for a film to proceed in this way, making such strict distinctions between cinema’s three dimensions, and to manage to arrange them into such rich, joyful and unpredictable material. Turning away from her country and history, a far cry from both film diary and structural film, Nour Ouayda finds in the depths of modern aesthetics the materials for a theoretical fantasy in which the memory of the Impressionists’ seascapes and the final glimmers of a sublime Turner seem to colour the dreams of impossible namings and classifications. – Cyril Nerat, FIDMarseille

Credits 

A film by Nour Ouayda | Writing and Editing: Carine Doumit & Nour Ouayda | Arabic Text Translation: Ziad Chakaroun | Sound Recording: Tatiana El Dahdah | Sound Design and Mixing: Shakeeb Abu Hamdan | Produced by Ashkal Alwan, in the framework of Video Works 2018 with the support of the Robert A. Matta Foundation | Distribution: Collectif Jeune Cinéma

 

Screenings

International competition, FIDMarseille, Marseille, July 2019
An Oceanic Feeling – Cinema and the sea, curated by Skuelyst for the Social Service Club, The Farm, Copenhagen, September 2019
International medium and short film competition, RIDM, Montréal, November 2019
d’ici, la mer nous semble lointaine, Collectif Jeune Cinéma regular screening, La Clef Revival, Paris, March 2020
Short documentary competition, Mimesis Documentary Festival, online edition, August 2020
International Competition, Moscow International Experimental Film Festival, Moscow, August 2020
Fugas International Comeptition, Documenta Madrid, Madrid, December 2020
e-flux and Images Festival 2021, Online, May-June 2021
The sea is not one, online program curated by Rayya Badran, aashra, online, March 2022
Double bill with Errans by Mira Adoumier, Kunstnernes Hus Kino, Oslo, October 2022
Au-delà du détail, Mardis de l’Observatoire du cinéma québécois, in collaboration with cinEXmedia, Université de Montréal, Canada, November 2023