Browsing by Author "Shamis, Khalid"

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    Family, archive, and the posttraumatic imaginary: an analysis of the role of archival material in the personal documentaries stories we tell, the Imam and I, and grandpa Ernest speaks
    (2022) Bazil,Madeleine; Cain, Julia; Shamis, Khalid
    My short documentary, Grandpa Ernest Speaks (2021), is the creative research portion of my master's degree submission. The film is heavily influenced by post-structuralist theory regarding the archive as an experiential entity as well as posttraumatic cinema discourse (in particular, Joshua Hirsch's phases of posttraumatic cinema). This critical reflection therefore investigates the intersection of these two theoretical paradigms: looking at how archival materials may specifically be used in personal documentary films dealing with family/ancestral trauma and posttraumatic memory, and positing that these films' engagement with the archive fits into the larger framework of posttraumatic cinema. I reflect on Grandpa Ernest Speaks in conversation with two other personal posttraumatic documentaries, The Imam and I (dir. Khalid Shamis, South Africa, 2011) and Stories We Tell ( dir. Sarah Polley, Canada, 2012). I conduct a semiotic and content analysis of portions of all three films in order to both situate them within the posttraumatic imaginary-specifically, within Hirsch's second phase-and examine the role of the archive and artefacts in each. In doing so, I confront the question of record vs. representation in documentary, and argue that-in the archival-based posttraumatic documentary-the distinction between the two lies in the way that the artefact is interpreted or contextualised via meta-textual captioning. This study demonstrates that posttraumatic memory may be nonlinear and non-chronological. The analysis of my film and the two additional case study films examines how this complication of past and present, archival and contemporary, is articulated onscreen: conveying the transmutation of memory as well as the ongoing and self-reflexive act of contributing to the familial archive.
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    Paramedics, poetry, and film: health policy and systems research at the intersection of theory, art, and practice
    (2019-08-07) Brady, Leanne; De Vries, Shaheem; Gallow, Rushaana; George, Asha; Gilson, Lucy; Louw, Moira; Martin, Abdul W; Shamis, Khalid; Stuart, Toni
    Abstract Violence is a public health issue. It is the consequence of a complex set of interacting political, social, and economic factors firmly rooted in past and current injustice. South Africa remains one of the most unequal countries in the world, and in some areas, the rates of violence are comparable to a country that is at war. Increasingly, paramedics working in high-risk areas of Cape Town are being caught in the crossfire, and in 2018, there was an attack on a paramedic crew nearly every week. These attacks are a symptom of much deeper, complex societal issues. Clearly, we require new approaches to better understand the complexity as we collectively find a way forward. It is in this context that we are collaborating with paramedics, poets, and filmmakers to tell human stories from the frontline thereby bringing the lived experiences of healthcare workers into policy making processes. In this commentary, we share a series of poems and a poetry-film that form part of a larger body of work focused on the safety of paramedics, to catalyze discussion about the possibilities that arts-based methods offer us as we seek to better understand and engage with complex social issues that have a direct impact on the health system.