Deseos / رغبات

Deseos / رغبات (Desires) exposes the ways in which medicine, law, religion, and cultural tradition shaped dominant discourses of the gendered and sexual body through the narration of two parallel stories. The first is that of Martina, who lived in Colombia during the late colonial period of the early 19th century. The second is the life of Nour, who lived in Beirut during the late Ottoman Empire. Part documentary and part fiction, the film presents an imaginary correspondence between these women. Separated by geography, culture, and religion they both faced the consequences of engaging in same sex relations and defying gender norms.

The colonial Court prosecuted Martina in 1803 for being a “hermaphrodite” after being accused by her female lover of having an “unnatural” body. Martina was tried in a court of law and ultimately set free after medical doctors appointed by the court were unable to find evidence of her lover’s accusation. This story is documented in the 1803 legal case found in the Archivo General de la Nación in Bogotá, Colombia. Meanwhile in Beirut, Nour married her female lover's brother after her mother found them making love. Despite the fact that Nour's story does not occur in a courtroom nor is it found in a legal case, notions of Islamic and late Ottoman laws, cultures, and histories condition her narrative.

Click here to watch a conversation with Carlos Motta and Maya Mikdashi about their collaboration on "Deseos / رغبات," following its premiere screening at "The Manufacturing of Rights" conference at Ashkal Alwan, Beirut, on May 14, 2015.

Festivals and screenings

  • The 11th XPOSED International Queer Film Festival, Berlin
  • PPOW Gallery, New York, 2016
  • Mercer Union, Toronto, 2016
  • Rotterdam Film Festival, 2016
  • A Decolonial Atlas: Videos from the Americas 2010-2015,
  • Something Else – Off Cairo Biennale, 2015
  • They Will Remember Us in the Future, Academy Gallery, NAA, Sofia, 2015
  • Molodist, 45th Kiev International Film Festival, 2015
  • 23 Festival Mix Brasil de Cultura da Diversidade, Sao Paulo, 2015
  • Queer Lisboa 19. Festival Internacional de Queer Cinema, Lisbon, 2015
  • Mor Charpentier Galerie, Paris, 2015
  • Göteborg International Biennial of Contemporary Art, 2015
  • Ashkal Alwan, Beirut, 2015

Deseos / رغبات
Video, 2015

Première @ Ashkal Alwan in May 2015

A video by

  • Carlos Motta

Conceived and written by

  • Maya Mikdashi
  • Carlos Motta

Script Consultant

  • Pablo Bedoya

Voices

  • Maya Mikdashi (Nour)
  • Laura Riveros Sefair (Martina)

With

  • Maya Mikdashi (Nour)
  • Jennifer Lorena Jiménez (Martina)

Camera

  • Mateo Guzmán (Colombia)
  • Mark Khalife (Lebanon)

Video Editing

  • Carlos Motta

Video Editing Consultant

  • Irit Batsry

Sound Design

  • Zachary Dunham
  • Geoffrey Wilson

Line Producers

  • Julián Grijalba (Colombia)
  • Jowe Harfouche (Lebanon)

Post-Production and Color Correction

  • Margarida Lucas

Camera Assistants

  • Juan Carlos Bernal (Colombia)
  • Hatem Chayna (Lebanon)

Sound Recording

  • Carolina del Mar Fernández (Colombia)
  • Chadi Abi Chacra (Lebanon)
  • Ian Turner (Voices)

Production Assistants

  • Alexander Rozo (Colombia)
  • Houssam Abdallah (Lebanon)
  • Hadi Bou Ayash (Lebanon)

Translations

  • Osama Esber
  • Hazem Jamjoum
  • Maya Mikdashi
  • Carlos Motta
  • Cora Sueldo

Image: still from Deseos / رغبات

This work was initiated during the inquiry Manufacturing of Rights

Commissioned and produced by

  • Council

Co-produced by

  • Hordaland Kunstenster (Norway)
  • Malba, Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires (Argentina)
  • Röda Sten Konsthall (Sweden)
  • Galeria Filomena Soares (Portugal)
  • Gallery Mor.Charpentier (France/Colombia)

Supported by

  • Ashkal Alwan (Lebanon)
  • DICRéAM (France)
  • Göteborg International Biennal for Contemporary Art (Sweden)

Equipment

  • Media Square