Voyage of the Handala

Last year, as the Knight Fellow in the School of Visual Communication at Ohio University, I studied documentary filmmaking, completed my first film and earned a Master of Arts, under the tutelage of professor Tom Hayes. Over our summer break, we sailed together aboard the Handala documenting the crew’s journey with Tom doing the the sound recording and I the cinematography. When Tom went back to teaching in the fall, I started researching, writing and editing. I also started collaborating with Naseem Ziara, a Palestinian cinematographer, and Mohamed Yaghi, a Palestinian sound recorder, both of whom were living and working in Gaza. Later I reached out to Samira Badran, a Palestinian artist, and Roman Schoenbichler, an Austrian composer, to get their help. The Arab / Israeli conflict is one of the most pressing challenges of our time so I used the Handala’s voyage as way to explore some of the underlying issues. I also attempted to amplify the voices of our besieged collaborators in Gaza while telling the stories of the Handala’s crew members who knowingly risked their lives to try and reach them. Two of my inspirations for the film were Homer’s classic poem, The Odyssey, and The Spanish Earth, the pioneering, anti-war documentary film by Jorvis Ivens and Ernest Hemingway. Like Odysseus, the crew of the Handala sailed the Mediterranean Sea and called on several Spanish ports. Because of the horror of what is happening in Gaza, I tried to make the best film I could, as quickly as possible, to try and nudge the world in the right direction. Please consider screening Voyage of the Handala at your festival to help raise awareness of the plight of the Palestinians. And Tom and I will make every effort to attend any festival that screens the film. Thank you! (The film is available with English, Spanish, French, Polish and Arabic graphics and subtitles.) - Jim Koenigsaecker