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Struggle in Jerash
About this film
a project by Eileen Simpson and Ben White As the first Jordanian audio-visual works begin to fall into the public domain, a constellation of interests are translating, drafting and revising copyrights laws, trade agreements and licences to control the flow of culture and build new markets. Against the backdrop of these emerging intellectual property markets, in 2008 artists Eileen Simpson and Ben White embarked on a period of research in Amman, Jordan – speaking to lawyers, copyright activists, software developers, artists, musicians, journalists, curators, filmmakers and critics – in an attempt to seek out the common cultural resources of Jordan’s public domain. The result is Struggle in Jerash – a project convened around a lost 1957 Jordanian feature film of the same name, which fell out of copyright the year of the artists’ residency, and is used as a catalyst to explore value and meaning in archival material. Artists Eileen Simpson and Ben White re-animate Struggle in Jerash by appropriating the tactic of the commercial DVD director’s commentary, subverting its standard authorial voice and placing the audience at the centre of a copyright-expired film. In 2008, whilst on reside…
Directors & creators
Eileen Simpson and Ben White
Subjects
Jerash; Amman; Jordan; Jerusalem; Dead Sea; copyleft; public domain; 1957; 1950s; gangster, commentary, voiceover, public domain
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