Untitled: altar to a memory of a ritual (2022)

Synopsis

Videos are altars to memories I write about in my book, Push the Water.

[Excerpt for Video 1]

‘You remember where we put them,’ my mother instructs. My memory is more reliable than hers. Once all the pieces have been placed, she takes a feather, a wooden spoon and a candle, and we begin the “search” for the chametz. I light the candle my mother holds. We use it to assist us in our quest, even though it is not yet dark. The feather she holds is for brushing the little bits onto the spoon. But since she has decided to wrap the bread in paper towels, the feather is too weak and the wooden spoon too small, so we pick up our findings by hand. My mother waves the feather and spoon in the air as if she is a wizard or a fairy godmother and recites the blessing like a spell:

Kol chamira vachamia d’ika virshuti d’la chamiteih ud’la vaariteih livtil v’lehevei k’afra d’ara.

All leaven or anything leavened which is in my possession, which I have neither seen nor removed and about which I am unaware, shall be considered nullified and ownerless as the dust of the earth.]

Credits

Director/Editor:
Irit Reinheimer

Camera:
Lindsey Martin

Exhibited at:

Everything Must Go, a.p.berlin (2022)