“Via Dolorosa” Implores You to See and Feel What’s Happening
Following the Six-Day War of 1967, the Arab world unsurprisingly became disillusioned with politics. Hope was ebbing. But new technologies in film cameras instilled new hope.
In Via Dolorosa, author and professor Nadia Yaqub narrates over damaged archival footage shot by Palestinian artists no longer around to share their intentions, only glimpsing fractions of what they saw and felt.
With a camera, they knew they could give true perspective to events, to what was happening in Palestine. They aimed to use these images to show their dissatisfaction to the world — “if they could just see what is happening…”
And we do. We see children living in tents, barefoot in the mud, filmed in hopes of securing humanitarian aid.
Nearly 60 years later, we again see children living in tents. Instead of being dug up decades later, these images are transmitted immediately and constantly, demanding our attention, demanding action, demanding a change to the world order, an exponential echo of the footage on display in Via Dolorosa.
This should be enough, more than enough — but it hasn’t been.
Palestinians have realized that an image or video is not going to speak for itself. Read that again. Images and video documenting their suffering isn’t enough to spark change. They realized that the images must also break through preconceptions, the most painful of journeys that this film’s title evokes.
It has (finally) worked for so many of us this past year, as we are not only able to glimpse what they see, but feel what they feel. This film invites you to do the same.
Via Dolorosa is available for one more day for free on Le Cinéma Club. They show a free film every week, and have been spotlighting Palestinian voices.
