Close Up

1 December 2009: Dalia Neis: Saints

saints-dalia-neis.jpg

Missing Meilich
Dalia Neis
2004 | 22 min | Colour & B/W | Digital

"A personal document of my Ancestral pilgrimage. I travelled to Poland in search of my missing uncle, Meilich Last. The film attempts to re-trace the remnants of the spiritual and ghostly presence of the vanished world of my cultural origins." – D.N.

Goray 1648
Dalia Neis
2007 | 8 min | Colour & B/W | Digital

"An exploration of the interface between Judaic folk beliefs, messianic superstition, and the origins of Zion. Goray 1648 presents itself as a forgotten diasporic archive that transmits the private apocalyptic visions and primal archetypal myths embodied in the folk tales of a 1930s Yiddish film, home movies of the filmmaker's family in Palestine, symbolic drawings, and found photographs. The film's title is inspired by the events of a novel written by Isaac Beshavis Singer in 1932 about Goray, a part mythical village at the end of the earth that descends into religious hysteria upon the arrival of a false messiah in 1648." – D.N.

Saints
Dalia Neis
2005 | 5 min | B/W | 16mm

"A reflection on cinema and its relationship to devotional belief. Saints presents itself as a fragment from an abandoned folk archive. A document of portraits of North African Jewish and Islamic saints – It is believed that through meeting the gaze of a saint, their wisdom and courage are transmitted to the onlooker." – D.N.

Lalla Soulika
Dalia Neis
2005 | 4 min | Colour | Digital

"Part prayer and part folk ritual, Lalla Soulika describes the filmmaker's ecstatic encounter with the tomb of a 17th century female saint, venerated by Jews and Muslims in Morocco." – D.N.

The screening will be followed by a Q&A with the artist