Diaspora Prayer of the Refugee’s Grandchild 
Anna Talhami 
Short Experimental Film: Art Film with Poetry Recording 
Total Running Time: 3 min, 7 seconds

ARTISTIC STATEMENT 

Diaspora Prayer of the Refugee’s Grandchild is a short art film, set to the artist’s poetry, that seeks to find the sacred in the  brokenness. The poem and subsequent film explores the overlaps of diaspora, spirituality, human rights, accountability, and identity. As a work about identity, the artist investigates her own gaze, creating and performing all components –– direction, creative direction, cinematography, writing, animation, performance, wardrobe, voiceover, editing, and music. The result reveals a distinct imagination and presentation of personal experience. This piece is part of the artist’s series that embodies prayer as an ongoing experience and ritualizes the personal  process of becoming a living altar, especially following a communal rupture. The floral fabric and patterns in the wardrobe and backgrounds all come from the style of scarves the artist’s refugee grandmother wore, popular in the town of Sighet, Romania, from which her grandmother came. The artist revisited the town in her exploration of outer and inner home, and reckoning with the past, present, future, and its interdependence with changing concepts of identity and lack thereof.  The artist’s previous installations and accompanying performances (The Embodied Prayer of New Blessings Poetry; Call Yourself a Blessing; We Put Our Bodies on the Altar) inform this one, building a cohesive  experience in an ongoing conversation. The series sanctifies a path to making wholeness in the brokenness. This includes facing loss, accountability, assimilation, and de-assimilation. 

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