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About Dorit Naaman

dorit@diadocumentary.ca

Dorit NamaanI am a film theorist and documentarist from Jerusalem, teaching at Queen’s University, Canada. My research focuses on Israeli cinema, primarily from post- colonialist and feminist perspectives, and I am currently working on a book on Israeli media representation of gender, militarism and nationalism. My documentary work is about the politics of representation and in 2003 I developed a format of short videos, DiaDocuMEntaRY. My videos have been screening in film festivals and curated screenings around the world. I am active in education about the Palestinian Israeli conflict and occasionally publish opinion pieces about current affairs.

Research Areas

The main research project I am working on right now is a multi-platform video installation (on an off line). Together with Dana Olwan and Livia Alexander, we are working in the neighborhood Qatamon. You can learn more about the project under the "news" section of this website. On the back burner there is a book length manuscript on the visual representation of gender and militarism in Israeli film and media. I am looking at photography in newspapers, documentary film, TV news, and fiction films. The primary focus is women fighters, but masculinity, in its relation to militarism and nationalism is studied as well.

Out of this project came an interest in non-violent feminist forms of resistance to the Israeli occupation (see my article “The Silenced Outcry”) and the relationship between feminism and nationalism in documentary films by women (see “Unruly Daughters”). The bulk of my work in the past decade has been in the areas of feminist criticism of nationalism and militarism, as those intersect in media representations of women, and by women.

In addition I continue my work on Israeli cinema in general. I keep working on the representation of Otherness in recent Israeli cinema (2001 and 2010). In 2006 I published an article on liminality entitled "Elusive Frontiers: Borders in Palestinian and Israeli Cinema." In addition I have continued working on issues of memory, competing historical narratives and documentary films. To that effect I published the paper “Old Wine in New Bottles: Tekumakh, an Israeli Resurrection of Social Change?” and presented the paper "Whose Story is it Anyways? The Ethics of Representation in Documentary Film."

Since 2003 I have been producing a series of very short videos that hover between diary and documentary. The series provides a fresh view on the Palestinian Israeli impasse, and it attempts to also engage with new and old forms of documentary filmmaking. In particular, I am interested in abolishing the authoritative all knowing, (and generally Caucasian male) omnipotent narrator. However, I am also refraining from making autobiography, instead using my embodied perspective to shed light on social/political issues.

Recommended Reading

Azoulay, Ariella "Civil Awakening" Critical Inquiry, Sept. 19, 2011

This is a very thorough analysis by Ariella Azoulay of the 2011 Social Justice movement in Israel:

"In Israeli public discourse, “political” came to describe anything regarding the Occupation or Palestinians, as though political existence could split along national and ethnic division lines. Those who claim that this awakening “is not political” because not enough is being said about “the Palestinian issue” actually accept the outline dictated by the regime that pulls citizens apart and prevents them from freely inventing forms for their mutual existence. That which has been taking place in the streets is an attempt to re-create a space in which citizens assemble without the ruling power. The space they have been creating for the first time since the devastation of the civil home that existed here until 1948—is a civil one in which the ruling power does not have an immediate, defined, role par excellence in organizing shared space, nor is it the addressee of the goings-on.

The civil awakening is not merely a statement or claim to sheltered housing or a home. It is a practical, concrete demand—that cannot wait to be fulfilled by someone else—to restore spatial and civil organization in such a way that we can begin again to feel at home in our own homes and share with others a public space that is common to all in the fullest sense of the word."

Felicia Gustin "Tim Wise on White Privilege and the Boston Marathon Bombing"

When I heard about the bombing at the Boston marathon, I did not say to myself, "Oh please don't let the bomber be a white person or our community will suffer a backlash just like after the Oklahoma City bombing." Say what? If there was ever a glaring example of white privilege, this is it.
[...]

White privilege is knowing that even if the Boston Marathon bomber turns out to be white, his or her identity will not result in persons like yourself being singled out for suspicion by law enforcement, or the TSA, or the FBI.

White privilege is knowing that even if the bomber turns out to be white, no one will call for your group to be profiled as terrorists as a result, subjected to special screening, or threatened with deportation.

Klein, Naomi "Climate change, capitalism and the transformation of cultural values"

Naomi Klein's analysis of environmental policy and challenges and its relationship to the recent Occupy movement is sharp and insightful.

"All of this means that the climate movement needs to have one hell of a comeback. For this to happen, the left is going to have to learn from the right. Denialists gained traction by making climate about economics: action will destroy capitalism, they have claimed, killing jobs and sending prices soaring. But at a time when a growing number of people agree with the protesters at Occupy Wall Street, many of whom argue that capitalism-as-usual is itself the cause of lost jobs and debt slavery, there is a unique opportunity to seize the economic terrain from the right. This would require making a persuasive case that the real solutions to the climate crisis are also our best hope of building a much more enlightened economic system -- one that closes deep inequalities, strengthens and transforms the public sphere, generates plentiful, dignified work and radically reins in corporate power. It would also require a shift away from the notion that climate action is just one issue on a laundry list of worthy causes vying for progressive attention. Just as climate denialism has become a core identity issue on the right, utterly entwined with defending current systems of power and wealth, the scientific reality of climate change must, for progressives, occupy a central place in a coherent narrative about the perils of unrestrained greed and the need for real alternatives."

Links of Interest

Best news source in Canada: Rabble.ca
Emek Shaveh: Alternative Archeology in Jerusalem: alt-arch.org
Independent Jewish Voices Canada: ijvcanada.org
Ir Amim: ir-amim.org.il
Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions: icahd.org
Jewish Voices for Peace: jewishvoiceforpeace.org
Machsom Watch: machsomwatch.org
Two Houses and a Longing: video
Zochrot: zochrot.org