TIFF Bell Lightbox, Cinema 2

I Witness Silwan
Screening with: Passing Dreams

Duration: 4 min Director: Ahed Izhiman Genre: Documentary Year: 2024
Country: Palestine Languages: English

Description:
I Witness Silwan: Art, Resistance, and Placemaking in Occupied Jerusalem offers a poetic and defiant portrait of life in Silwan, where 65,000 Palestinians face ongoing threats of forced expulsion. Told through the eyes of youth, the film documents a powerful public art project that transforms walls into sites of resistance and remembrance. Towering murals of eyes—those of revolutionaries, writers, martyrs, and community members—gaze out across Jerusalem, asserting presence in a city intent on erasure. Figures like Che Guevara, Rachel Corrie, Malcolm X, Shireen Abu Akleh, Iyad al-Halak, and local residents become symbols of steadfastness. Alongside them bloom murals of red poppies, Palestine’s national flower, as well as suns, trees, and birds—visual affirmations of life, memory, and belonging. As court appeals are lost and demolitions continue, the film captures the deepening impact of these artworks on Silwan’s youth and community. Through intimate glimpses of local and international artists working with residents, I Witness Silwan becomes a testament to creative resistance and the enduring power of art to claim space and shape collective memory in the face of dispossession.

More Info: iwitnesssilwan.org