States of UnBelonging

States of UnBelonging

color, sound, 63 min
States of UnBelonging  (63 min.  color  sound 2006) a film by Lynne Sachs
Rental format: DVD NTSC
Available for sale: Digital file, DVD NTSC

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About

States of UnBelonging 
(63 min.  color  sound 2006)
a film by Lynne Sachs

Portrait of Israeli woman filmmaker explores violence in the Middle East
The core of this haunting meditation on war, land, the Bible, and filmmaking is a portrait of Revital Ohayon, an Israeli filmmaker and mother killed on a kibbutz near the West Bank. Director Lynne Sachs' journey to discover Revital life and death results in a cine-essay on violence, identity, crisis in the Middle East and motherhood. Avoiding easy political polarizations, the film is structured around an exchange of letters between Sachs and her Israeli friend Nir Zats. Together, they reveal Revital's story through her films, news reports, and interviews, culminating in heartbreaking footage of children discussing the violence they've witnessed and an unforgettable visit with Ohayon's grieving family. Without taking sides or casting blame, "States of UnBelonging" becomes a cine-essay on fear and filmmaking, tragedy and transformation, violence and the land of Israel/Palestine.

 

PRESS QUOTES:
“What separates each of us from the other? Director Lynne Sachs explores this complex question and others in her haunting new film States of Unbelonging—a beautiful poetic journey that searches for how one person understands another across cultural, historical and political divides.    The two people in question are Sachs herself and Revital Ohayon, an Israeli filmmaker killed by terrorists. Like Sachs, Ohayon was a mother, a filmmaker, a teacher and a Jew. Though she never met Ohayon, Sachs examines the onslaught of modern media that united both artists, mediated through the letters, messages and phone calls exchanged with Israeli friend, Nir Zats. Deeply interested in “history’s histories and ruptures,” Sachs embarks on a private journey to ponder issues of identity, violence in the Middle East, and the hope for union, culminating in an unforgettable visit with Ohayon’s grieving family.    Intensely personal yet thoroughly accessible, States of Unbelonging is a profound meditation about living in an unstable world, with the personal densely blurred with the historical. Drawing on a wide variety of forms, from TV coverage to phone messages and film, Sachs has created a challenging, invigorating film-essay that could rank with the multi-layered ruminations of Chris Marker.”  Fernando F. Croce,  Cinequest:  San Jose Film Festival

“3 Stars! Presents a mature, artistic meditation on Middle East violence.”  Video Librarian 

“Parallels the layers of history of the Middle East – demonstrating the possibilities as well as limitations of bridging the gap between Palestinians and Israelis engaging the politics of conflict.” Dr. Jeffrey Shandler, Dep’t of Jewish Studies, Rutgers University

“At a time when conflicts scar the globe, this visually arresting film attests to the complex process of ‘accompanying’ a stranger in her death. Drawing on the Bible, Allen Ginsberg's poetry, and interviews, the film is a search for a person beyond reach, a meditation on things one cannot know, a moving kaddish for uncertain, dangerous times.”   Kathy Geritz, Film Curator, Pacific Film Archive,  University of California, Berkeley Art Museum

“Surprisingly beautiful, like the embattled countryside it depicts. War, creativity, beauty — it’s a depressingly frequent concatenation, but Sachs makes it sing without glorifying death.”– George Robinson,  The Jewish Week.

“Of all the literary formats, the essay, perhaps, seems the least suited to cinematic adaptation; with its intensely personal nature and often rambling paragraphs, it appears to elude the sort of tight structural discipline demanded of a coherent piece of film.  All of which makes Lynne Sachs’ achievement all the more impressive:  Here is a cine-essay, maintaining all the benefits of the original format while adhering to the demands of the visual.  At the heart of the film is Sachs’ two-year exchange of letters and pictures with her Israeli friend Nir Zats, an exchange that begins when Revital Ohayon, an Israeli filmmaker and mother, is killed in a terrorist attack on her kibbutz near the West Bank.  Soon, Sachs herself embarks on a journey to visit Ohayon’s grieving family, and her film becomes a meta-essay of sorts, meditating on fear and filmmaking, tragedy and transformation, violence and the land of Israel.  This elegant and beautiful piece of filmmaking is greatly enriched by its soundtrack, featuring works by some of the Jewish avant-garde scene’s best and brightest, including Jewlia Eisenberg, Raz Mesinai and Basya Schecter.”  The Buzz, The Jewish Week. 

“Using a woman's death as a gateway into the politics of the West Bank, ‘States of Unbelonging’ recounts a correspondence between its New York–based director, Lynne Sachs, and a friend in Israel revolving around the 2002 murder of Israeli filmmaker Revital Ohayon and her two children in a terrorist attack. ‘States of Unbelonging’ decries Israel's West Bank wall for cutting Palestine off from itself.  Both humanist reverie and implicit cautionary tale, the film is ambivalent in more ways than one, ironically evoking the Old Testament, and evidently taking its cues from Ohayon's own work, described by her husband as less a search for answers than an attempt to ‘put a question mark in the right places." –Joshua Land, Village Voice

“Sachs can turn simple ingredients into poetic imagery. (Her)new featurette features more than one instance of this talent, such as a sequence in which hands arrange a vase of flowers in close-up – a series of not-quite-still-lives that grows lovelier by the second.  Mixing found footage and her own crisp digital imagery with great success, Sachs’ sensitivity towards Ohayon – with whom she identifies – results in the kind of layered story you won’t find in any newspaper.” – Johnny Houston, San Francisco Bay Guardian

"This film showed me that, not so long ago, the border was more open and Palestinians and Israelis actually lived close to one another. It also gives voice to one Israeli who wanted peace and coexistence with her Palestinian neighbors." Prof. Kelly Anderson, Integrated Media Arts at CUNY Hunter College

Listed as ONE OF THE 10 BEST DOCUMENTARIES OF THE YEAR at SENSES OF CINEMA by film critic Ionnes Mookas.          http://www.sensesofcinema.com

SELECTED SCREENINGS:  Premiere Margaret Mead Film Festival 2005; New York Underground Film Festival 2006;  San Francisco Cinematheque; Pacific Film Archive; Cinequest-San Jose Film Festival; Iowa International Documentary Film Festival; Northampton Film Festival; Big Muddy Film Festival; Makor/Steinhardt Center of the 92nd Street Y, New York; San Francisco States University; California College of Art; University of California Berkeley; Georgetown University; XIII Annual Visible Evidence Documentary Conference, Sao Paolo Brazil; Athens Film Festival 2nd Prize Documentary; Jerusalem Film Fest 2006; Harvard University; Cornell University; Chicago Filmmakers; Memphis Jewish Community Center, Anthology Film Archives, New York;  Buenos Aires Film Festival 2007

Films

  • Other films by this artist in our catalogue

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    Drawn and Quartered
    Experimental

    Drawn and Quartered
    Lynne Sachs

    16mm, color, silent, 4 min
    Rental formats: Digital file, DVD NTSC
    • Body
    • Films About Film
    • Personal / Diary / Journal
  • Read More
    Still Life With Woman and Four Objects
    Experimental

    Still Life With Woman and Four Objects
    Lynne Sachs

    16mm, black and white, sound, 4 min
    Rental formats: 16mm, Digital file, DVD NTSC
    • Arts / Artists
    • Personal / Diary / Journal
    • Structural
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    Following the Object to Its Logical Beginning
    Experimental

    Following the Object to Its Logical Beginning
    Lynne Sachs

    16mm, color, sound, 9 min
    Rental formats: 16mm, Digital file, DVD NTSC
    • Arts / Artists
  • Read More
    Sermons & Sacred Pictures: the life and work of Reverend L.O. Taylor
    Documentary
    Experimental

    Sermons & Sacred Pictures: the life and work of Reverend L.O. Taylor
    Lynne Sachs

    16mm, color and b/w, sound, 29 min
    Rental formats: Digital file, DVD NTSC
    • History
    • Political / Social Activism
    • Biography / Autobiography
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    The House of Science: A Museum of False Facts
    Experimental

    The House of Science: A Museum of False Facts
    Lynne Sachs

    16mm, color, sound, 30 min
    Rental formats: 16mm, Digital file, DVD NTSC
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    Which Way Is East
    Documentary
    Experimental

    Which Way Is East
    Lynne Sachs

    DVD, color, sound, 33 min
    Rental formats: 16mm, Digital file, DVD NTSC
    • Political / Social Activism
    • Personal / Diary / Journal
    • Ethnographic
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    A Biography of Lilith
    Documentary
    Experimental
    Narrative

    A Biography of Lilith
    Lynne Sachs

    16mm, color and b/w, sound, 35 min
    Rental formats: 16mm, Digital file, DVD NTSC
    • Body
    • Philosophical
    • Biography / Autobiography
    • Personal / Diary / Journal
    • Spiritual / Mystical
    • Family
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    Window Work
    Experimental

    Window Work
    Lynne Sachs

    video, color, sound, 9 min
    Rental formats: 16mm, Digital file, DVD NTSC
    • Body
    • Films About Film
    • Structural
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    Investigation of a Flame
    Documentary
    Experimental

    Investigation of a Flame
    Lynne Sachs

    color, sound, 45 min
    Rental formats: 16mm, Digital file, DVD NTSC
    • History
    • Philosophical
    • Political / Social Activism
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    Photograph of Wind
    Experimental

    Photograph of Wind
    Lynne Sachs

    16mm, color and b/w, sound, 4 min
    Rental formats: 16mm, Digital file, DVD NTSC
    • Body
    • Hand-Processed
    • Children / Youth
    • Family
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    First Steps in a Terra Incognita
    Experimental

    First Steps in a Terra Incognita
    Lynne Sachs

    video, color, sound, 4 min
    Rental formats: Digital file, DVD NTSC
    • Personal / Diary / Journal
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    Tornado
    Experimental

    Tornado
    Lynne Sachs

    video, color, sound, 4 min
    Rental format: Digital file
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    A Collection of Films on DVD Exploring Women, Culture, Science & Myth by Lynne Sachs Vol. 1
    Experimental

    A Collection of Films on DVD Exploring Women, Culture, Science & Myth by Lynne Sachs Vol. 1
    Lynne Sachs

    DVD, color and b/w, sound, 65 min
    Rental format: DVD NTSC
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    Noa, Noa
    Documentary
    Experimental

    Noa, Noa
    Lynne Sachs

    16mm , color and b/w, sound, 8 min
    Rental formats: Digital file, DVD NTSC
    • Personal / Diary / Journal
    • Children / Youth
    • Family
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    Atalanta: 32 Years Later
    Animation
    Experimental

    Atalanta: 32 Years Later
    Lynne Sachs

    16mm, color, sound, 5 min
    Rental formats: Digital file, DVD NTSC
    • Found Footage
    • Spiritual / Mystical
    • LGBT / Queer
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    Lynne Sachs: 10 Short Films Vol.3
    Documentary
    Experimental

    Lynne Sachs: 10 Short Films Vol.3
    Lynne Sachs

    color, sound, 62 min
    Rental format: DVD NTSC
    • Body
    • Arts / Artists
    • Personal / Diary / Journal
    • Found Footage
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    The Small Ones
    Documentary
    Experimental

    The Small Ones
    Lynne Sachs

    Digital, color, sound, 3 min
    Rental formats: Digital file, DVD NTSC
    • History
    • Political / Social Activism
    • Found Footage
    • Abstract
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    Georgic for a Forgotten Planet
    Experimental

    Georgic for a Forgotten Planet
    Lynne Sachs

    color, sound, 8 min
    Rental format: DVD NTSC
    • Landscape / Architecture
    • Environment / Nature
    • Personal / Diary / Journal
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    Cuadro por Cuadro/ Frame by Frame
    Documentary
    Experimental

    Cuadro por Cuadro/ Frame by Frame
    Lynne Sachs

    color, sound, 8 min
    Rental formats: Digital file, DVD NTSC
    • Films About Film
    • Found Footage
    • Hand-Processed
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    The Last Happy Day
    Documentary
    Experimental

    The Last Happy Day
    Lynne Sachs

    color, sound, 38 min
    Rental formats: Digital file, DVD NTSC
    • History
    • Biography / Autobiography
    • Personal / Diary / Journal
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    The Task of the Translator
    Documentary
    Experimental

    The Task of the Translator
    Lynne Sachs

    color, sound, 10 min
    Rental formats: Digital file, DVD NTSC
    • History
    • Philosophical
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    Wind in Our Hair (Con viento en el pelo)
    Experimental
    Narrative

    Wind in Our Hair (Con viento en el pelo)
    Lynne Sachs

    color, sound, 42 min
    Rental formats: Digital file, DVD NTSC
    • Children / Youth
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    Sound of a Shadow
    Documentary
    Experimental

    Sound of a Shadow
    Lynne Sachs

    color, sound, 10 min
    Rental formats: Digital file, DVD NTSC
    • Landscape / Architecture
    • Environment / Nature
    • Ethnographic
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    Same Stream Twice
    Documentary
    Experimental

    Same Stream Twice
    Lynne Sachs

    16mm, color and b/w, silent, 4 min
    Rental formats: Digital file, DVD NTSC
    • Body
    • Philosophical
    • Children / Youth
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    Your Day is My Night
    Documentary
    Experimental

    Your Day is My Night
    Lynne Sachs

    color, sound, 65 min
    Rental formats: Digital file, DVD NTSC
    • History
    • Landscape / Architecture
    • Music
    • Literarature / Theater
    • Ethnographic
    • Hand-Processed
    • Dance
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    Drift and Bough
    Experimental

    Drift and Bough
    Lynne Sachs

    black and white, sound, 6 min
    Rental formats: Digital file, DVD NTSC, super8
    • Landscape / Architecture
    • Environment / Nature
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    Starfish Aorta Colossus
    Experimental

    Starfish Aorta Colossus
    Lynne Sachs

    color, sound, 5 min
    Rental formats: Digital file, DVD NTSC
    • Landscape / Architecture
    • Films About Film
    • Personal / Diary / Journal
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    Viva and Felix Growing Up
    Documentary

    Viva and Felix Growing Up
    Lynne Sachs

    black and white, sound, 10 min
    Rental formats: Digital file, DVD NTSC
    • Personal / Diary / Journal
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    Day Residue
    Documentary
    Experimental

    Day Residue
    Lynne Sachs

    Super 8mm , color, silent, 3 min
    Rental format: Digital file
    • Biography / Autobiography
    • Personal / Diary / Journal
    • Abstract
    • Family
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    A Year in Notes and Numbers
    Documentary
    Experimental

    A Year in Notes and Numbers
    Lynne Sachs

    digital file, color, silent, 4 min
    Rental format: Digital file
    • Biography / Autobiography
    • Personal / Diary / Journal
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    Tip of My Tongue
    Documentary
    Experimental

    Tip of My Tongue
    Lynne Sachs

    HD Video, color, sound, 80 min
    Rental formats: Digital file, DVD NTSC
    • History
    • Philosophical
    • Arts / Artists
    • Biography / Autobiography
    • Personal / Diary / Journal
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    And Then We Marched
    Documentary
    Experimental

    And Then We Marched
    Lynne Sachs

    16mm and Super 8mm , color, silent, 3 min
    Rental formats: Digital file, DVD NTSC
    • History
    • Political / Social Activism
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    The Washing Society
    Documentary
    Experimental

    The Washing Society
    Lynne Sachs

    HD Video, color, sound, 44 min
    Rental formats: Digital file, DVD NTSC
    • History
    • Political / Social Activism
    • Economics
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    Carolee, Barbara and Gunvor
    Documentary
    Experimental

    Carolee, Barbara and Gunvor
    Lynne Sachs

    digital file , color, sound, 9 min
    Rental formats: Digital file, DVD NTSC
    • Body
    • Arts / Artists
    • Cameraless / Handmade
    • Biography / Autobiography
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    A Month of Single Frames
    Documentary
    Experimental

    A Month of Single Frames
    Lynne Sachs

    digital file, color, sound, 14 min
    Rental format: Digital file
    • Environment / Nature
    • Films About Film
    • Arts / Artists
    • Biography / Autobiography
    • Personal / Diary / Journal
    • LGBT / Queer
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    Orange Glow
    Experimental

    Orange Glow
    Lynne Sachs

    digital file, color, sound, 1.26 min
    Rental format: Digital file
    • Arts / Artists
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    Visit to Bernadette Mayer’s Childhood Home
    Experimental

    Visit to Bernadette Mayer’s Childhood Home
    Lynne Sachs

    digital file, black and white, sound, 3 min
    Rental format: Digital file
    • Arts / Artists
    • Biography / Autobiography
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    Girl is Presence
    Experimental

    Girl is Presence
    Lynne Sachs

    digital file, color, sound, 4 min
    Rental format: Digital file
    • Arts / Artists
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    E•pis•to•lar•y: letter to Jean Vigo
    Experimental

    E•pis•to•lar•y: letter to Jean Vigo
    Lynne Sachs

    digital file, black and white, sound, 5 min
    Rental format: Digital file
    • History
    • Political / Social Activism
    • Films About Film
    • Arts / Artists
    • Personal / Diary / Journal
    • Found Footage
    • Minimal / Conceptual
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    Maya at 24
    Experimental

    Maya at 24
    Lynne Sachs

    digital file, color, sound, 4 min
    Rental format: Digital file
    • Body
    • Arts / Artists
    • Personal / Diary / Journal
    • Children / Youth
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     Figure and I

    Figure and I
    Lynne Sachs

    Digital, color, silent, 4 min
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    Swerve
    Experimental

    Swerve
    Lynne Sachs

    digital and S8mm, color, sound, 8 min
    Rental format: Digital file
    • Philosophical
    • Political / Social Activism
    • Arts / Artists
    • Personal / Diary / Journal
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    She Carries the Holiday in Her Eyes

    She Carries the Holiday in Her Eyes
    Lynne Sachs

    Digital, color, silent, 4 min
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    The Jitters

    The Jitters
    Lynne Sachs

    16mm, black and white, sound, 3 min
    Rental formats: 16mm, Digital file
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    Contractions

    Contractions
    Lynne Sachs

    Digital, color, sound, 12 min