NOISE · Weird stuff
A hundred-year-old propaganda film, re-cut against itself
Scottish missionaries shot 16mm colour footage of Palestine a century ago. Theo Panagopoulos took that already-edited colonial material and turned its own grammar back on it.
The Flowers Stand Silently, Witnessing is built entirely from roughly hundred-year-old 16mm colour footage of Palestine shot by Scottish missionaries. The crucial thing, and the thing Panagopoulos is clearest about, is that this is not raw archive: it was already a finished argument.
The films themselves are edited works with a very clear voice and a clear perspective on how both the flowers and the people are seen. I felt that if I made my own short out of those archival films, I had to find my own voice within it.
Sound by Hannan Jones, composer Alexandra Katerinopoulou, supported by Screen Scotland and the Scottish Documentary Institute. North American premiere at Sundance in January 2025, and a BAFTA nomination for Best British Short.
Go and look
Directors Notes interviewWe found this via directorsnotes.com. Opinions here are ours; the facts come from there.
Got something wrong? Tell us and we will fix it.
