
Floating on a Dead Sea (Documentary)
Screening April 25th 2024 @ Project Arts Centre in association with Dublin Dance Festival. (Fundraiser for Gaza).
April 2024
2021 | Ireland / Palestine | 30’42”
Director / Choreographer: Catherine Young
Filmmaker: Luca Truffarelli
Original Music: Mohammed Omar
Sound design: Fiona Sheil
Sound mastering: Alan Kelly
In 2017, Catherine Young brought her company to Palestine to present her work Welcoming the Stranger in collaboration with Sareyyet Ramallah Dance Company as part of the Ramallah Contemporary Dance Festival. That pivotal trip changed everything for her – in particular, her relationship with her art. She returned in 2019 with filmmaker Luca Truffarelli intending on capturing footage to be used in a stage production. Fearing the show might never get made due to the lockdown in 2020, Catherine wanted to find a way to share this life-changing experience, and the overwhelming sense of warmth, generosity and kindness of the people despite the brutal conditions within which they live. Putting the body and movement at the heart of things, Catherine and Luca crafted this documentary from the footage.
Floating on a Dead Sea places us in the footsteps of ordinary Palestinians, giving us the chance to witness their sense of enduring injustice, listen more deeply to those whose voices are not being heard, and feel their urgency and need for action.
“On returning to Ireland, there is a helplessness of leaving behind unfinished stories, friends and a piece of your heart. On asking our fellow dancers in Palestine ‘what can we do?’, the response was ‘tell people.’ This film aims to do just that.” Catherine Young
Funded by: The Arts Council & Kerry County Council & supported by Dublin Dance Festival
All proceeds will go to the Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund and Campsbreakers Gaza.