Here and There

Overview

Although she now lives in the UK, some of Jamal Al-Lail's most precious childhood memories come from growing up in the sacred city of Makkah where her father was a mutawwif, or guide for pilgrims. In reflecting on the timeless nature of her own purpose in life, which she locates in the interplay between travel and transformation, she found herself reminiscing about those cherished days. The resulting film Here and There paints a nostalgic picture of pilgrimage, eschewing narrative for an accumulation of so many little quieter moments of faith. It was shot on a handheld camcorder to recreate the wobbles, washed out palette, and grainy visual artefacts of older technologies, and mirror the memories imprinted on her own mind.