American and Indigenous Studies Program Presents

Foragers: A Film by Jumana Manna

LOCATION UPDATE: to be screened outdoors, behind Kline, on the green by Hegeman.

Introduction & Contextualization by  Leil Mortada (CHRA student), sponsored by Rethinking Place: Bard-on-Mahicantuck, as a part of HR 353: water-bodies : confluences, deltas, gulfs with Professor Juliana Steiner

Foragers depicts the dramas around the practice of foraging for wild edible plants in Palestine/Israel with wry humor and a meditative pace. Shot in the Golan Heights, the Galilee and Jerusalem, it employs fiction, documentary and archival footage to portray the impact of Israeli nature protection laws on these customs. The restrictions prohibit the collection of the artichoke-like ’akkoub and za’atar (thyme), and have resulted in fines and trials for hundreds caught collecting these native plants. For Palestinians, these laws constitute an ecological veil for legislation that further alienates them from their land while Israeli state representatives insist on their scientific expertise and duty to protect. Following the plants from the wild to the kitchen, from the chases between the foragers and the nature patrol, to courtroom defenses, Foragers captures the joy and knowledge embodied in these traditions alongside their resilience to the prohibitive law. By reframing the terms and constraints of preservation, the film raises questions around the politics of extinction, namely who determines what is made extinct and what gets to live on.
 

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For more information, call 845-758-6822, or e-mail mroise@bard.edu.

Time: 7:00 pm EDT/GMT-4

Location: Outside Hegeman: Stone Row Quad

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