Practical Portals
Practical Portals is an experimental, moving-image series created, written and directed by marwamoves. This audio-visual project documents marwa’s journey of embodied healing. Guided by the natural elements, each of the five vignettes welcomes viewers into an interior portal to reimagine belonging, memory and ancestry. This work asks: What do I need to remember?
Told through somatic performance, oral prose, and solfeggio frequencies, Practical Portals is my first attempt at story-telling through the senses.
Practical Portals will debut at the Arab Film & Media Institute’s exhibit Banat El Hara this May 2024 at Selva in NYC.
Written and directed by Marwa Eltahir, Shot and edited by Ahmed Abdelnabi, Produced by Alsarah Elgadi
fire portal
“fire portal” (part 2 of5) explores themes of survivorship and redemption through the solar plexus chakra, accompanied by 528 Hz solfeggio beat that corresponds with this chakra. “fire portal” is told through the story of Marwa’s burn survival and recovery in the body. A scar is an embodied memory that tells the story of the body. What does it mean to be marked by fire? As Marwa heals her relationship with fire we see the way this element is both a life force as well as a destructive force. As Marwa works with the powers of fire, smoke, incense, we watch the way her own power grows.