Between Delicate and Violent

The video links the director's past to imagination and creation, exploring themes like domestic violence, intergenerational trauma, and resistance. The film considers hands as memory places that can both accumulate and transfer memories. Through hands and their creations, it imagines unearthing lost memories that have not been included in performative, socially acceptable family albums.

'By highlighting the performative nature of family photographs, I aimed to uncover the hidden imprints of the patriarchal family structure, which served to mask the traumas of domestic violence and mental illness within my own family. I used video-collage and a blend of diverse animation techniques to visually depict the fragmented nature of memory. As the process of remembering inherently involves rewriting, I found that frame-by-frame animation was fitting. Since the memory of touch is at the heart of the narrative, I opted for handmade paper animation, which also hints at the concept of hands as vessels carrying memories across generations. Just like family photos and heirlooms.' - Şirin Bahar DEMIREL