Origin: USA | Documentary | Director: S. Smith Patrick | 29 minutes

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The Children of Ibdaa:
to create something out of Nothing

Director: S. Smith Patrick Type:Documentary Year:2002 USA Time: 29 minutes

The Children Of Idbaa: To Create Something Out of Nothing is about the
lives of several adolescents in a Palestinian children's dance troupe from
Dheisheh refugee camp in the West Bank. They use their performance to
express the history, struggle, and aspirations of the Palestinian people,
specifically the fight to return to their homeland. Through interviews and
documentation of the children, the video offers insight into their
families' displacement from their villages in historical Palestine, the
physically and emotionally stressful aspects of life in a refugee camp, and
the unique experience of participating in the politically motivated dance
troupe. The story culminates in a visit by the children for the first time
to demolished villages from which their grandparents were expelled in 1948.

The majority of the footage was shot in digital video. Super 8 film, slides
and photo stills in both black and white and color texturally enhance the
digital video imagery. Archival prints donated by the United Nations Photo
Archive in Gaza are also used. This intertextural aesthetic is important in
defining varying spaces and time.

The film offers a distinct perspective for those who are well versed on the
greater political subject and is an educational piece for those who know
little on the topic of the Palestinian refugees. No other film exists about
these unique adolescents and their creative, conscientious, and peaceful
contribution to the international dialogue that shapes their lives.

The name of the dance troupe, 'Ibdaa,' translates from Arabic as 'to create
something out of nothing.' It is a sentiment the troupe founder feels
captures the vibrancy and strength of the dance troupe against the
oppressive backdrop of its members' origins and life in Dheisheh refugee
camp.

Through their performance, the members of Ibdaa bring the perspective of
Palestinians to the attention of the Western communities that they visit.
Ibdaa's use of traditional debke dance perpetrates the Palestinian culture
while they creatively and non-violently address a brutal political reality.

This film is available with a Digital Site License (DSL), which allows
colleges, universities, or libraries to encode, locally host, and stream
the film to their community on a closed, password-protected system.