Nadia Shihab
9 min., 2021, Iraq & United States, color, digital video Languages: Iraqi Turkish (Turkman), English
Subtitles intentionally withheld
Oscillating between recorded voice messages and stacked photographs, Echolocation is a layered experiment exploring existence in the aftermath of change.
The rain in Oakland, my grandmother’s home in Baghdad, my aunts’ voices in WhatsApp, my daughter learning to count to 10, my brother playing the darbuka, the cicadas in Texas, the walls of my studio, the search for new forms.
Nadia Shihab is a filmmaker and artist whose work explores the relational, the sonic, and the diasporic. Her feature film Jaddoland was awarded five festival jury awards, including an Independent Spirit Award in 2020. Her work has shown in festivals internationally, including Cinema du Réel, Walker Art Center, Berkeley Art Museum, DOXA, BlackStar, Images Festival, Kassel Dokfest, New Orleans Film Festival and Cairo International Film Festival. She was raised in west Texas by immigrant parents from Iraq and Yemen and is an Assistant Professor in Film in the School for Contemporary Arts at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada.