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5 Broken Cameras: Landscape, Trauma, and Witnessing

Asadipour, Saeedeh

Abstract Details

2016, MA, University of Cincinnati, Design, Architecture, Art and Planning: Art History.
In the last quarter century, Palestinian cinema has appeared as a major artistic force on the global scene. Deeply rooted in the historic struggles for national self-identification and self-narration, this cinema is among the most important artistic expression of a suffering people. Despite the increasing significance of Palestinian cinema in the global scene, most of these films are from the perspective of refugees outside of the conflict zone and there is no significant film from the heart of the conflict. 5 Broken Cameras, while as a documentary film covers conflict occurrences in the village of Bil’in (the village on the border of Israel and Palestine) gives a first-handed perspective of a citizen’s family life involved in the conflict. The thesis has been shaped in three chapters. The first chapter examines representation of the landscape as a sublime object (land as the lost object and the Israeli city-landscape as astonishing and horrifying complexes that symbolize the civilization and leave the Palestinians out of its territory.) In the second chapter, the subjectivity of the Palestinian bodies in the cinema is studied and it is argued that the trauma is the main constitutive of the Palestinian visual and cinematic narration. The third chapter focuses on the film as an independent subject that carries significant testimonial weight. It argues that amateur film with blurred images and original raw sound because of a hyper-mobilized camera work creates a sense of muteness and paralysis around the trauma. The third chapter proposes that 5 Broken Cameras as an example of citizen camera witnessing is a form of alter-narration of the Palestinian national history and it strongly affects the top-down organization of media system. Finally, in all the three chapters, this thesis argues that “speechlessness,” passivity and dysfunctionality constitutes a very important part of the film’s representation of the situation, whether in the director’s attempt to represent the “lost” land, the psychical “wounds” and the “blurred” images and also by naming the film 5 Broken Cameras. This thesis argues that this “silence” brings another kind of subjectivity that has moral power in the eyes of the global audiences.
Morgan Thomas, Ph.D. (Committee Chair)
Nnamdi Elleh, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
Ethan Katz, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
63 p.

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Asadipour, S. (2016). 5 Broken Cameras: Landscape, Trauma, and Witnessing [Master's thesis, University of Cincinnati]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1459439752

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Asadipour, Saeedeh. 5 Broken Cameras: Landscape, Trauma, and Witnessing. 2016. University of Cincinnati, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1459439752.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Asadipour, Saeedeh. "5 Broken Cameras: Landscape, Trauma, and Witnessing." Master's thesis, University of Cincinnati, 2016. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1459439752

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)