The Oath
by Laura Poitras (96 minutes, 2010)
Wednesday, April 27, Broadway Theatre, 7 p.m.
Songs of Experience Film Series 2011
Synopsis:
From the director of the Oscar-nominated My Country, My Country, The Oath is a gripping documentary that unspools like a great political thriller. It’s the crosscut tale of two men whose fateful meeting propelled them on divergent courses with Al-Qaeda, Osama bin Laden, 9/11, Guantanamo Bay Prison and the U.S. Supreme Court.
Abu Jandal is a taxi driver in Sana’a, Yemen; his brother-in-law Salim Hamdan is a Guantanamo prisoner and the first man to face the controversial military tribunals. Jandal and Hamdan’s intertwined personal trajectories—how they became bin Laden’s bodyguard and driver respectively—act as prisms that serve to explore and contextualize a world which has confounded Western media. As Hamdan’s trial progresses, his military lawyers challenge fundamental flaws in the court system. The charismatic Jandal dialogues with his young son, Muslim students and journalists, and chillingly unveils the complex evolution of his belief system post-9/11. Winner of Best Documentary Cinematography at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival, The Oath offers a rare window into a hidden realm—and the international impact of the U.S. War on Terror.
View More
Ask the Artists: Ruth Cuthand & Habitaptation
From April 18 – June 12, the artists and curators from the exhibitions, RUTH CUTHAND: BACK TALK (Works 1983–2009) and Habitaptation will respond to your questions. Enter your name and email address (it will not be shown to the public or shared) and post your queries! In addition to questions and comments fielded online, the Mendel Art Gallery will be collecting questions from various tour groups and directing them to the artists on this page. Feel free to join in on the conversation.
Living Sky Taiko Drummers
Come to the Gallery Sunday, March 27 at 2:30 p.m. to celebrate Japanese culture and reflect on the current challenges the country is facing. The Living Sky Taiko Drummers will perform in the Gallery, amidst Koshashin, the exhibition of 19th-century photographs from feudal Japan. The Gallery is open 9-9 daily, and admission is free.
Nostalgia For the Light
by Patricio Guzman (90 minutes, 2010)
Wednesday, March 16, Broadway Theatre, 7 p.m.
Songs of Experience Film Series 2011
Synopsis:
Master director Patricio Guzmán, travels 10,000 feet above sea level to the driest place on earth. Atop the mountains of the Atacama Desert, astronomers from all over the world gather to observe the stars. The sky is so translucent that it allows them to see right to the boundaries of the universe.
The Atacama Desert is also a place where the harsh heat of the sun keeps human remains intact: those of Pre-Columbian mummies; 19th century explorers and miners; and the remains of political prisoners, “disappeared” by the Chilean army after the military coup of September 11, 1973.
So while astronomers examine the most distant and oldest galaxies, at the foot of the mountains, women, surviving relatives of the disappeared whose bodies were dumped here, search, even after twenty-five years, for the remains of their loved ones, to reclaim their families’ histories.
Melding the celestial quest of the astronomers and the earthly one of the Chilean women, Nostalgia for the Light is a gorgeous, moving, and deeply personal odyssey.
Songs of Experience
Songs of Experience is a screening series of award winning international documentaries selected to complement the exhibitions of Jayce Salloum at the Kenderdine Art Gallery and Mendel Art Gallery. Salloum’s photo- and video-based installations explore identity, politics, and shifting global territories. Salloum has an exhibition at the Kenderdine Gallery until March 18. His survey exhibition, history of the present, opens at the Mendel Art Gallery September 30. Organized by the Mendel Art Gallery, this touring show has already appeared in Charlottetown, PEI, and in Kamloops, B.C.
Ask the Artists: Wonderment & Variations
From January 21 – April 3rd, the artists and curators from the exhibitions, Wonderment and Variations will respond to your questions. Register and post your queries!
