Experiencing Interruptions?

demarcations; you have black eyes (cheshme siya dari)

Drawing from a song by Afghan singer Ahmad Zahir, "you have black eyes" is a stream-of-consciousness montage depicting collective bodies in a constant state of disruption, movement, processing, and grieving. It celebrates the body as a historical, domestic site of resistance through dance and movement including found footage of ants carrying flowers, rubab player Ustad Beltoon interrupted, and Hazara throat singing across an imaginary landscape.

  • Zelikha Shoja
    Director
  • Zelikha Shoja
    Writer
  • Zelikha Shoja
    Producer
  • Project Type:
    Documentary, Experimental, Student
  • Runtime:
    9 minutes 13 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    November 30, 2023
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    United States
  • Language:
    English, Persian
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    Yes - Syracuse University
  • Technowruz
    Brooklyn, NY
    United States
    March 21, 2023
    World Premiere
  • Millennium Film Workshop
    Brooklyn, NY
    United States
  • Strangloscope Experimental Video International Festival
    Centro Itajaí
    Brazil
    South American Premiere
  • Manlius Cinema
    Manlius, NY
    United States
  • MENA Film Festival
    Vancouver
    Canada
    Canadian Premiere
  • Youth Pastor is a Narc 2.0
    Syracuse , NY
    United States
  • Lightbeams Under a Bridge, Vol. 8
    London
    United Kingdom
    European Premiere
  • Everson Museum of Art
    Syracuse, NY
    United States
  • Almaty Underground Screening Series
    Almaty
    Kazakhstan
    March 31, 2024
    Asian Premiere
  • Mimesis Documentary Festival
    Boulder, Colorado
    United States
    August 15, 2024
  • Cactus Club Independent Film Festival
    Milwaukee
    United States
    August 9, 2024
  • silent green Kulturquartier
    Berlin
    Germany
    August 27, 2024
    German Premiere
  • MUTA VIII

    September 16, 2024
  • twelve gates arts and Philadelphia Asian Art Film Festival's Video Art Exhibition
    Philadelphia
    United States
    November 2, 2024
Director Biography - Zelikha Shoja

Zelikha Zohra Shoja is a U.S.-based Afghan artist, researcher, and gham-khoor* living/working on unceded Onondaga land (Syracuse, New York). Her artistic practice is engaged in geopoetics, personal and collective histories of rupture, and the transmission of memory. Through gestural studies, deep listening, and ephemeral fabric books, she explores how collective experiences can be transferred, mirrored, and felt by others. She holds a BIS in Diaspora Studies from George Mason University and an MFA in Art Video from Syracuse University.

Her films and art have participated in international and national microcinemas, film festivals, and arts institutions including Goethe-Institut (Almaty and Tashkent), Kunsthalle Exnergasse (Vienna upcoming), Millennium Film Workshop (New York), National Art Gallery — The Palace (Sofia), New Wight Gallery (Los Angeles), silent green Kulturquartier (Berlin), VIFF Centre (Toronto), among others.

Most recently, Zelikha is a recipient of the 2024-25 Fulbright U.S. Student Award pursuing creative research in Central Asia and Türkiye.

*Persian phrase for "grief eater"

Add Director Biography