An Interview with Rawan Damen of Palestine Remix

Remix is practiced by activists from around the world for commenting, critiquing, or highlighting aspects of existing media content (images, sound, video, etc.), and repurposing it into new content. Video remixing, as a form of appropriation and activism, signals a shift from passive reception to creative production of new, sometimes subversive, meaning: in the words of Lawrence Lessig¹, a Read/Write culture. It is also used extensively for documenting human rights’ violations, however, often to the point of stirring debate about the “ethical and pedagogical dimensions” of the practice, such as the question of agency for victims and survivors when footage is used and remixed.²

Visitors to Palestine Remix, a visual online interactive project by Al Jazeera, are invited to “create [their] own Palestine story,” by remixing footage from a stock of Palestine documentaries.³ The website encourages users to utilize their remixing tool for the purpose of historical storytelling about Palestine. Users interested in learning about Palestine end up creating (or watching) remixes for educational or creative purposes. The project has won several awards since it started, the most recent of which is a 2015 Webby Honorary Award from the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences in New York. In this interview, we converse with Rawan Damen,⁴ documentary film maker, media consultant, and project manager of Al Jazeera’s Palestine Remix project, to discuss the use of remix in political and historical storytelling, as well the ethical and technical challenges involved.

Yomna Elsayed. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and how you came to be involved in Palestine Remix?

Rawan Damen. My name is Rawan Damen; I am a documentary filmmaker and commissioner. I have been making films, mainly on Palestine and Arab World issues, for the last sixteen years. I made twenty-five documentaries, some of which are Al Nakba (2008), a four-hour documentary film on the story of Palestine from 1799 to today and The Price of Oslo (2013), a two-hour film on the story of secret negotiations between Israel and the PLO (Palestinian Liberation Organization)[NM1] in Norway and the Norwegian role. I am also the series editor of Palestine in Focus documentary series on Al Jazeera, where I commissioned tens of documentaries on Palestine by different filmmakers, mainly from Palestine and Arab countries but also a few international ones.

Since I started commissioning in 2008, I began thinking about the future of documentary. Documentary (the TV-hour style) that we show on our screens is reaching a niche limited audience, and with the boom in interactivity, web doc, and so on, I started thinking of new ways to deliver the material we have on Palestine. It took me over five years to find the core idea of Palestine Remix (the technology based on synchronizing text with video); this is an open-source technology, so I thought of applying it to the content we have. I led a team of seven (developers, designers, and content makers) to transform the films that I have worked on from pre-production to post-production into Palestine Remix. You can think of it as my babe. For me, I learned a lot from Palestine Remix: as a TV documentary filmmaker, it was my first project in the digital world.

YE. How would you describe Palestine Remix in your own words? What is the purpose behind the project?

RD. Palestine Remix (www.palestineremix.com) is a “fun” way to “learn” visually about Palestine. It gives you the chance to watch tens of documentaries (now 120 hours in four languages) and to mix and match them to create your own story on Palestine using your own narrative and understanding. The main aim was to open the documentaries to people (all people), so they can be directors of short movies using text in minutes. Yet the purpose was to get the story of Palestine, with a narrative rarely told, to people around the world.

Later after the launch, we found it proved to be a very useful tool for educational purposes as well (both universities and schools). The project was launched by Al Jazeera Network on 29 November 2014—UN International Solidarity Day with the Palestinian people. Since then, over a year now, we won four prizes, the Webby Honorary Award by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences in New York, the Technical Innovation and Outstanding Digital Team of the Year by Media Online Awards (London, June 2015), and the Media Creativity from the Arab Thought Foundation based in Beirut, Lebanon (Dec 2015). I am glad to say that Palestine Remix is the largest visual interactive project to date on Palestine.

YE. Why do you hold a remix award? What do you do with the remix videos produced (or that win)?

RD. The award (in both Arabic and English), held in September 2015, was meant to encourage more people to try the remix tool. It is the only tool of its kind so far, where you give each user 28 full documentaries in his/her language (28 hours) and allow him/her to mix and match. All the remixes (remixed videos produced)[NM2] are shown on our homepage (under the showcase section)[NM3] , and users can vote, recommend, and comment on the videos. Users can also watch each other’s remixes and engage more in a discussion on the topic itself. When users make a remix, they feel it belongs to them. When they share it on social media amongst their friends, it no longer belongs to the filmmaker who, theoretically, made it, which gives interactivity the highest value. Yet, when users need to build or make a remix, they will need to watch the documentary, and this is where our content will reach new audiences. I was very happy that the best remix in English for the year 2015 was that of a fifteen-year-old Palestinian Canadian boy.

Video 1. Remix by fifteen-year-old Palestinian Canadian Skyler Khoury that won the 2015 Palestine Remix award, http://bit.ly/1KKdROP

YE. What kinds of ethical responsibilities are placed on the remixers? What limits are there on what or how materials can be remixed?

RD. In my point of view, there are no ethical issues at all. Users can now download any material they want, from all sources, edit them using an editing tool (at home), mix and match, even add narration and music, and maybe they will alter the original meaning. This is the user’s ethical responsibility. Palestine Remix tool on the other hand, based on the technology, does not allow you to add any new material, video or audio, music or narration. Hence, only text can be added to help explain things, while the mix and match are done using content available through the website with our logo, so no copyright or ethical consequences. From the editorial or technical point of view, there are no limitations on the “what or how” of remixing; you can remix whatever you want in the structure you want, as I and the team believe interactivity and remixes should be full, 100% full.

YE. What issues may arise if remixes reinterpret the voices of people in ways not intended?

RD. This is a valid question and was part of our initial brainstorming when we thought about Palestine Remix. The possibility of misinterpretation can apply to any kind of editing. When you record or interview someone for a sound bite (short) or a full interview, you can edit it to choose extracts that distort what he/she intended to say. One can also edit the extract in a way—out of its context—so it appears in a totally different context. You can even do that with simple editing software, home ones; youth are doing this, building funny videos and making video clips.

The same can be said for Remix, where you can mix and match things in ways that are not logical, are out of their original context, or misrepresent what people said. Therefore, we, editorially, decided that you cannot “block” users from mixing and matching, knowing that some of them will try to misuse the tool. Alternatively, you need to open creativity to people, and for those who misuse the tool, people will comment on their remixes and point out that this is not what the speaker(s) meant and possibly engage in a discussion.

Yet, from experience, users, in general, try to be very sensitive, and most of them make sure to do mix-and-match from stories they love and enjoy and feel are important; therefore, they will make sure they are interpreted in the best way.

Video 2. Remix by a Palestinian undergraduate in Gaza (during the Remixing Youth Camp), http://bit.ly/1NTdVlp

YE. Can you describe a specific challenge you faced and how you dealt with it?

RD. Challenges were many. From a technical point of view, this was an innovative project. In English, we had a road map, but in all the other three languages—Arabic (the original language of all the documentaries), Bosnian, and Turkish—the audio recognition (from a development point of view) was not advanced. It therefore required immense effort to make it happen. Even in English and in all the other languages, the idea of full search, which means searching any word and finding it wherever it is mentioned in both text and video, was a real challenge. Yet we had the best developers working with us on this.

From a documentary maker point of view, those documentaries were done in a classical storytelling fashion, linear if we may call it so, and we are opening them to all sorts of interactivity. This required rewriting the story behind each film, to explain it and add extra material to help users put those documentaries in context and perspective. There was also the challenge of getting the filmmakers, who made those documentaries, to embrace the idea of allowing all users to mix and match their films. Each filmmaker, including me, regard their documentary as their babe, and it is not easy to get your babe cut in a thousand ways that you may not approve of editorially or artistically. This project was full of challenges, and I am glad we got it done.

YE. What effects have these practices had on people who participate? Did you receive feedback?

RD. We have had a lot of feedback. Over three million people visited the website. Sixty percent of the English-version users came from the United States, and more than 10K (10,000 remixes)[NM4] were made and showcased on our website. Users keep sending us feedback, both positive and critical. From a technical point of view, the tool is not perfect as much as it is innovative, but we are improving on it. We have had great feedback from teachers and professors who started using it for educational purposes. They found that students were much more interested in learning about a politically difficult topic, such as Palestine and the Israeli conflict, through remixing rather than through a paper, a book chapter, or an essay. When they watch a documentary, see the places, hear the people, and then remix, they feel they “own” the material, and they learn better, as it combines visual and audio plus making. It suits all learning styles. We have had feedback from users who never watched the documentaries before and found them very useful, informative, and entertaining.

Video 3. Dr. Alaa Tartir relates his experience using Palestine Remix as an education tool for university students. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVuQnrxeiIY

We have the best filmmakers interviewing Palestinians, Israelis, British, Americans, Italians, Greeks, and people from all over the world. They tell the story of Palestine, which most broadcasters from around the world never tell, with high research and aesthetic standards. A lot of feedback admires the rare archive used and the wealth of information. This is great to hear, especially from young people who were never engaged in the story of Palestine.

YE. How does Palestine Remix support skills young people need today?

RD. From our experience, this proved to be a great success. Young people today are fascinated with the idea of storytelling. They like to watch things on their laptops, stop whenever they want, repeat, rewind and forward, then mix and match. They are fond of visual-audio effects. They need to develop their skills in script, so the remix tool allows them to watch and read at the same time, then base their editing on text. This tool also helps them to structure the story, so they become the storytellers. Some people now use Palestine Remix in language learning as they have the same film in four different languages with the full transcript. Many Turkish users, for example, are using it to learn Arabic.

YE. What advice would you give someone interested in starting a similar project?

RD. The first advice is to make sure the technology works on both mobile and tablet. In our case the remix tool does not work on touch screens (tablets and smart phones). You can watch the documentaries, the interactive maps, the extra material, read the stories and even watch the remixes on tablets and smart phones, but you will not have the full remixing experience unless you are on your laptop or desktop. We found out that forty percent of the users who visit Palestine Remix used smart phones. The second advice is to test the project a lot and give the Beta Version enough time before release. We did not have enough time, so we launched in Beta Version. The third advice is to be innovative and try new things. When I started the project, a lot of people told me that this is impossible and that it is not logical to take on such a project with such a scale, but we were persistent and kept working day and night with a very small team till we achieved it.