Familiarizing Liberation

Filmmaker Dalia AlKury invites participants to explore her artistic research method in what she defines as : Speculative non-fiction. This workshop will introduce the participants to her ongoing inquiry into the aesthetics and ethics of envisioning liberation. AlKury’s research reflects on the moral and artistic challenges of creating images of freedom and hope in the face of profound collective pain

What if Palestine were free? How might we depict Palestine as though it were already liberated?What would that look like, and what artistic and research-based pathways can guide artists working with visual media and cinema from mere hope toward radical imagination? How can we move from futurism and its aesthetic propositions toward envisioning our hopes and dreams embodied here and now?

Over the course of this three-session workshop, participants will engage in the creation of a visual scene, whether photographic, illustrated, or cinematic, that captures a moment of catharsis they long to witness in the future, with Jordan serving as the imagined site of this transformative moment.

The workshop unfolds through stages of imagination, writing, filming, and editing, culminating in the presentation of these visionary works. It welcomes practitioners across the visual arts who are eager to experiment within their mediums, collaborating alongside peers from diverse disciplines.

Dalia Kury is a filmmaker whose practice traverses hybrid forms of narrative. Her films delve into resilience and the political unconscious of the everyday hero in the Arab world. Grounded in character-driven storytelling, her cinematic work moves between re-enacting memories and past experiences, and embodying dreams and optimistic reflections on our collective future.

From documentary realism to speculative fiction, Kury’s filmmaking is rooted in the fundamental question: “What if?”, a question that opens the door to possible alternative narratives. She approaches film not as a means to document reality, but as a tool to reshape it through critically questioning our ability to liberate our minds and imagination through image making.

Kury holds an MA from Goldsmiths, University of London, and a PhD in Artistic Research from the Norwegian Film School.