Closeness to the Land (2022)
• May 21st, 2022 • 0h 7min
Documentary
Overview
In 2020, just as the pandemic was beginning, Gazala purchased land in western Ohio, on which sits a disused school building. This site allowed her to explore her complex relationship with “the land.” As the daughter of displaced indigenous Palestinians, she attempts to form a proxy bond with the earth, on ground that was stolen from the displaced indigenous Shawnee people. Closeness to the Land is video footage of hand-painted text signs that translate the word الأرض (ard) into six English words, displayed performatively in multiple locations to capture the now-invisible nature of indigenous culture in Ohio. These signs were installed on the old schoolhouse in early 2021.
Make sure to check your pop-up blocker!!
Trailer
Similar Movies
Cut Piece
Released on: 1965-01-01
Documentary
Filmed at New York’s Carnegie Hall, Cut Piece documents one of Yoko Ono’s most powerful conceptual p...
Renoir and the Girl with a Blue Ribbon
Released on: 2019-01-01
Documentary, History
This documentary follows three parallel stories. First, that of the masterpiece, The Little Girl wit...
Against the Tide
Released on: 2023-01-20
Documentary
Two friends, both Indigenous fishermen, are driven to desperation by a dying sea. Their friendship b...
maɬni—towards the ocean, towards the shore
Released on: 2020-01-26
Documentary
An experimental look at the origin of the death myth of the Chinookan people in the Pacific Northwes...
Mundurukuyü – The Forest of the Fish Women
Released on: 2025-04-03
Documentary
Using the camera as a weapon to defend their ancestral land in Brazil, three women of the Daje Kapap...
Natsik Hunting
Released on: 1975-01-01
Documentary
Mosha Michael made an assured directorial debut with this seven-minute short, a relaxed, narration-f...
All Rendered Truth: Folk Art in the American South
Released on: 2009-01-01
Documentary
A film documenting the soulful art, environments, and voices of self-taught artists on the back road...
Ningwasum
Released on: 2022-02-11
Science Fiction, Documentary
Ningwasum follows two time travellers Miksam and Mingsoma, played by Subin Limbu and Shanta Nepali r...
The Living Museum
Released on: 1998-10-16
Documentary
At the Creedmoor Psychiatric Center in Queens, New York, Dr. Janos Martin helps treat patients with ...
The Painter and the Thief
Released on: 2020-09-05
Documentary
When two of artist Barbora Kysilkova’s most valuable paintings are stolen from a gallery at Frogner ...
Gauguin: A Dangerous Life
Released on: 2019-12-01
Documentary
Gauguin’s vivid artworks sell for millions. He was an inspired and committed multi-media artist who ...
Swinging Light
Released on: 2025-03-21
Documentary
An experience of a camera swinging in different gestures facing the optical distortion of the Sun. T...
My Foreign Land
Released on: 2025-04-05
Documentary
For the Suruí, an indigenous people in western Brazil, there was a lot at stake in the 2022 presiden...
Pictura
Released on: 1951-06-01
Documentary
A documentary film directed by seven famous directors, and narrated by several famous Hollywood acto...
Taking Alcatraz
Released on: 2015-11-01
Documentary
A documentary account by award-winning filmmaker John Ferry of the events that led up to the 1969 Na...