Wednesday, February 28, 2024, 7 pm ET
In-person and online
Free or suggested donation
Tickets required; get tickets below

Malek Rasamny and Matt Peterson’s feature length non-fiction film Spaces of Exception (90 minutes, 2018) features interviews with members of the American Indian Movement, the Mohawk Warrior Society, and Diné families resisting displacement on Black Mesa, as well as members of Fatah, Palestinian environmental and media activists, autonomous youth committees, and the families of political prisoners and martyrs. The film investigates and juxtaposes the struggles, communities, and spaces of the American Indian reservation and the Palestinian refugee camp. It was shot from 2014 to 2017 in Arizona, New Mexico, New York, and South Dakota, as well as in Lebanon and the West Bank. Spaces of Exception is an attempt to understand the significance of the land—its memory and divisions—and the conditions for life, community, and sovereignty.

Spaces of Exception comes out of the long-term multimedia project The Native and the Refugee, which has been presented in Canada, Denmark, Ecuador, England, France, Guatemala, Italy, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Portugal, Syria, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates, within the refugee camps and reservations were the film was shot, and at venues including cinemas, museums, and universities.

Co-director Matt Peterson will join us for a conversation and Q&A with Jason Corwin (Seneca Nation, Deer Clan, Clinical Assistant Professor of Indigenous Studies) upon the conclusion of the film. This event is presented in collaboration with PLASMA at the Department of Media Study, curated by Elia Vargas. Special thank you to Burning Books and Jason Livingston. Copies of the book, The Mohawk Warrior Society: A Handbook on Sovereignty and Survival by Louis Karoniaktajeh Hall, and edited by Kahentinetha Rotiskarewake, Philippe Blouin, Matt Peterson, and Malek Rasamny, will be available for purchase courtesy of Burning Books.

For in-person attendees: See how to get to Squeaky Wheel here. Please note that you cannot enter Tri-Main Center after 7:30 pm.

For online attendees: Upon check-out, you will receive an email titled “Your Squeaky Wheel Film & Media Art Center order has been received!”. A private link will be included in that email; the event will be available at the link at the start date and time. You will have access to the event for 24 hours; Squeaky Wheel members receive 72 hour access. Not a member yet? Sign up here.

Teaser from The Native and the Refugee on Vimeo.

Recent interviews with the filmmakers and reviews of the film

“‘The Native and the Refugee’ Shares Narratives of Resistance” (Andreas Petrossiants, Frieze)

“In conversation with Kareem Estefan” (e-flux)

Spaces of Exception by A.M. Gittlitz (Screen Slate)

Spaces of Exception by Caitlin Quinlan (Reverse Shot)

Biographies of the filmmakers and participants

Matt Peterson is an organizer at Woodbine, an experimental space in New York City. He previously directed the documentary feature Scenes from a Revolt Sustained (2014), and co-edited the books In the Name of the People (2018) and The Reservoir (2022).

Malek Rasamny is a documentary filmmaker, researcher and writer. His work has been featured in publications including The New Inquiry, Lundi Matin and Newlines Magazine. He is currently working on a doctoral research project at Paris Nanterre University concerning the social phenomenon of reincarnation within the Druze community of Lebanon.

Jason Corwin is a citizen of the Seneca Nation, Deer Clan and a lifelong media maker. He was the founding director of the Seneca Media & Communications Center and has produced several short and feature length documentaries. Jason has extensive experience as a community-based educator utilizing digital media and land-based learning to engage with Indigenous ways of knowing, sustainability, and social justice topics. He is currently a Clinical Assistant Professor at University at Buffalo’s Department of Indigenous Studies.

Banner image: A still from the film Spaces of Exception, showing Standing Rock covered in snow under a gray sky. There is a road with a car in the middle of the frame, and a few people in big coats. Over 50 flags of Indigenous nations and other countries are on either side of the road.