TY - JOUR

T1 - From uncanny to sensible pasts

T2 - Temporal reorderings in Syrian documentaries

AU - Crone, Christine Aster

AU - Mollerup, Nina Grønlykke

PY - 2024/5/1

Y1 - 2024/5/1

N2 - While the physical battle over Syria has receded, a critical battle that remains is the battle of the narrative. This battle is at once highly public and political, while it also intervenes in deeply personal and often traumatizing memories. One important arena where this battle is played out is documentary films, mainly made in exile. This article is based on viewings of numerous Syrian documentary films and conversations and interviews with directors, producers, cinematographers, and others engaged in the facilitation, production, and curation of these films, yet focuses specifically on three of these documentaries, The War Show, For Sama, and Our Memory Belongs to Us. Engaging with theories of temporalities of crisis, we argue that these Syrian documentaries perform a teleological reordering that serves to turn an uncanny past into a sensible past, allowing for new orientations towards the future.

AB - While the physical battle over Syria has receded, a critical battle that remains is the battle of the narrative. This battle is at once highly public and political, while it also intervenes in deeply personal and often traumatizing memories. One important arena where this battle is played out is documentary films, mainly made in exile. This article is based on viewings of numerous Syrian documentary films and conversations and interviews with directors, producers, cinematographers, and others engaged in the facilitation, production, and curation of these films, yet focuses specifically on three of these documentaries, The War Show, For Sama, and Our Memory Belongs to Us. Engaging with theories of temporalities of crisis, we argue that these Syrian documentaries perform a teleological reordering that serves to turn an uncanny past into a sensible past, allowing for new orientations towards the future.

M3 - Journal article

VL - online first

SP - 1

EP - 15

JO - History and Anthropology

JF - History and Anthropology

SN - 0275-7206

ER -