Canada Park
Google Maps, Wikipedia, and early 20th-century colonial landscape photography provide the material for this absorbing techno-meditation on the status of Palestine and the notion of the "Holy Land."
| Director | Razan AlSalah |
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Through this experimental audiovisual poem, AlSalah explores the gradual erasure of Palestine as mapped on Google Maps. Canada Park, a 7km² Israeli tourist attraction, is located on the ruins of three Palestinian villages. Yet, nothing indicates to visitors – both physical and virtual – that this park was built on the foundations of 1,464 homes, thereby displacing 10,000 Palestinians, 18 of whom died under the debris of their own houses¹.
The pixelated field trip, led by a red helmet topped with a GoPro, traverses paths dotted with picnic tables and ancient sanctuaries. Archaeological sites are discovered, including the clearly visible – yet anonymous – remains of Palestinian homes.
Guided by the wise poetry of AlSalah, we explore vast pine forests. The choice of this species is not arbitrary: due to the rapid growth of the trees, they conceal the debris, preventing refugees from returning to their lands². To echo this violent dispossession, the director superimposes archival photographs of a demonstration claiming the right to return onto the empty landscapes, forty years after exile.
Furthermore, the landscaping – a tangible proof of ecocolonialism – has destroyed the majority of the indigenous flora, and only a tenth of the vegetation has survived reforestation³. Through the use of datamoshing, AlSalah alters the conifers: the trees become abstract forms climbing towards the sky. Could this be a way of honoring the souls that inhabit the land
Finally, it is impossible to overlook the name of the national park, the film's eponymous title. A testament to the connection between Israel and Canada, it has been largely funded by the charity and tax-exempt organization JNF Canada⁴. Canadian taxpayers have thus sponsored – and continue to do so – actions as cruel as ethnic cleansing, to name just one. While the Canadian government is currently making reparations to indigenous peoples, it nevertheless maintains its support for neocolonialism and its excesses.
Anouk Vallières
Programming and Activities Coordinator
Plein(s) Écran(s)
- Année 2020
- Pays Palestine, Canada, United-Kingdom
- Durée 8
- Producteur Razan AlSalah
- Langue Arab
- Sous-titres English
- Résumé court An exile, unable to return to Palestine, becomes a digital spectre floating over the infrastructure of Israeli military occupation in Palestine.
- Theme 1
Through this experimental audiovisual poem, AlSalah explores the gradual erasure of Palestine as mapped on Google Maps. Canada Park, a 7km² Israeli tourist attraction, is located on the ruins of three Palestinian villages. Yet, nothing indicates to visitors – both physical and virtual – that this park was built on the foundations of 1,464 homes, thereby displacing 10,000 Palestinians, 18 of whom died under the debris of their own houses¹.
The pixelated field trip, led by a red helmet topped with a GoPro, traverses paths dotted with picnic tables and ancient sanctuaries. Archaeological sites are discovered, including the clearly visible – yet anonymous – remains of Palestinian homes.
Guided by the wise poetry of AlSalah, we explore vast pine forests. The choice of this species is not arbitrary: due to the rapid growth of the trees, they conceal the debris, preventing refugees from returning to their lands². To echo this violent dispossession, the director superimposes archival photographs of a demonstration claiming the right to return onto the empty landscapes, forty years after exile.
Furthermore, the landscaping – a tangible proof of ecocolonialism – has destroyed the majority of the indigenous flora, and only a tenth of the vegetation has survived reforestation³. Through the use of datamoshing, AlSalah alters the conifers: the trees become abstract forms climbing towards the sky. Could this be a way of honoring the souls that inhabit the land
Finally, it is impossible to overlook the name of the national park, the film's eponymous title. A testament to the connection between Israel and Canada, it has been largely funded by the charity and tax-exempt organization JNF Canada⁴. Canadian taxpayers have thus sponsored – and continue to do so – actions as cruel as ethnic cleansing, to name just one. While the Canadian government is currently making reparations to indigenous peoples, it nevertheless maintains its support for neocolonialism and its excesses.
Anouk Vallières
Programming and Activities Coordinator
Plein(s) Écran(s)
- Année 2020
- Pays Palestine, Canada, United-Kingdom
- Durée 8
- Producteur Razan AlSalah
- Langue Arab
- Sous-titres English
- Résumé court An exile, unable to return to Palestine, becomes a digital spectre floating over the infrastructure of Israeli military occupation in Palestine.
- Theme 1
