In this special engagement, Spectacle invites writer, translator and filmmaker Assia Turquier-Zauberman to present a work-in-progress screening of her new essay documentary POEM FROM TRAPPED THINGS – about the filmmaker’s artists friends’ responses to the Israeli genocide that has unfolded in Gaza these last 20 months – as well as a rare presentation of her mother Yolande Zauberman’s 2006 documentary UN JUIF À LA MER (A JEW AT SEA), in which Lebanese Jewish raconteur Selim Nassib narrates his ZELIG-like travels in the Middle East in the 1980s and 1990s.
A JEW AT SEA
(UN JUIF À LA MER)
dir. Yolande Zauberman, 2005
57 mins. France.
In French with English subtitles.
SATURDAY, JUNE 14 – 5PM followed by Q+A with Assia Turquier-Zauberman
ONE NIGHT ONLY!
TICKETS
Yolande Zauberman presents an intimate voyage into the history of the Middle East guided by a Lebanese man. From adolescence in a politically active Beirut to departure on Arafat’s ship, Nassib’s story is a testament to what modern times are made of.
“We slept on a terrace in Jaffa, it was summer. I was filming him, he didn’t believe in it at all, we argued, he spoke in order to calm me. I had asked him to tell me specifically about all of his meetings with the Palestinians. It’s from within this chaos that his tale unfolds: the adventures of a man with a complicated identity who goes anywhere, since everyone takes him to be one of their own. We delve into his depths, going beyond that which exceeds us, this story, which causes us to scratch our head for such a long time, becomes clear, we follow him, we take the plunge with him.” – Yolande Zauberman
POEM FROM TRAPPED THINGS
dir. Assia Turquier-Zauberman, 2025
100 mins. United States/France.
In English, and French with English subtitles.
SUNDAY, JUNE 29 – 5PM followed by Q+A with Assia Turquier-Zauberman
ONE NIGHT ONLY!
TICKETS
POEM FROM TRAPPED THINGS follows a group of poets and artists in Brooklyn trying to make sense of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, reflecting on love (or artmaking) in the face of unfathomable brutality. The filmmaker describes their efforts as both necessary and inadequate.