BLESSED BLESSED OBLIVION weaves together a portrait of male thug culture in East Jerusalem, manifested in gyms, body shops and hair dressing parlors. Inspired by Kenneth Anger’s SCORPIO RISING (1963), the video uses visual collage and the musical soundtrack as ironic commentary. Anger’s subjects — leather-clad bikers, serve as a counterpoint to the culture Manna attempts to portray, that of popular male “thug” culture in East Jerusalem.
Simultaneously psychologizing and allowing herself to be seduced by the characters, Manna finds herself in a double bind similar to the conflicted desire that animates her protagonist as he drifts from abject rants to declamations of heroic poetry or unashamed self-praise.
Stay tuned for upcoming screenings!
Jumana Manna is a visual artist working primarily with film and sculpture. Her work explores how power is articulated through relationships, often focusing on the body, land and materiality in relation to colonial inheritances and histories of place. Jumana was raised in Jerusalem and lives in Berlin.
(Photo: Michel Koczy.)
