Festival Trailers
Our 2026 festival trailers were made by multidisciplinary artist Mary Sarsam, reflecting and connecting some of the themes across our sixteenth edition.
Titled Atana’s Archive, the suite of trailers draws upon the 8mm archive of Mary’s Iraqi grandmother, Atana Sarsam. During the 1950s and 1960s in Iraq, Atana and members of her family recorded their everyday lives, weekend trips and the surrounding landscapes as a way of documenting and sharing their lives with loved ones.
Mary is currently working through and with the archive, unravelling her family’s stories and learning about their ways of life and the places they lived in through these artefacts, while reflecting on diverse perspectives of the past.
Batikh/Shemsi in Mosul
This recording shows watermelon sellers beside the Old Bridge in Mosul in the 1950s. They are most likely selling the well-known Ali Baba variety of watermelon.
Picking Peaches in the North
During the hot summer months, the family would cool down by spending time near waterfalls in the north of Iraq. This footage is from the 1950s and the exact location is unknown.
Lalish Festivities
The family visits Yazidi festivities in Lalish, northern Iraq/Iraqi Kurdistan, in the 1960s. People dance and play music next to the temples.
Baba Gurgur
In the early 1960s, the family took a trip to the eternal flames of Baba Gurgur near Kirkuk. They play around the fire and take walks on the surrounding hills, with the refinery’s flames providing the backdrop.
Batikh/Shemsi in Baghdad
From the mid-1960s, this footage shows the family’s lush garden in Baghdad and depicts the Ali Baba watermelon variety being grown there.
Mary Sarsam
Mary Sarsam is a multidisciplinary artist with a background in sociology, fine arts and design. Her research highlights the influences of corporate powers and geopolitical processes, and germinates through poetry, essays, music, performance and films based on personal and public archives. Mary’s work is dedicated to global seed-saving and decolonial farming initiatives, grounding her work in grassroots activism.
Mary has contributed an essay on diaspora and heritage to A Plate Is A Homeland, an Iraqi-Scottish cookbook of new writing and recipes by Alchemy artist in residence Luna Issa, which we will launch at the festival.