When is Co-creation Possible?

In the early stages of production of the participatory interactive documentary Jerusalem, We Are Here (2016), I described the process I had envisioned to a curator friend. She listened intently and then said, “I think you can pull it off, because you don't have an artist's ego.” I wasn't sure whether this was a compliment, but I recalled this statement recently, when I was asked about my position as an Israeli making a project with and about Palestinians, and a metaphor emerged. “I am the central nervous system of this project,” I replied. “But its heart is entirely Palestinian.” As an Israeli showcasing an actively obfuscated Palestinian past, and as a documentary filmmaker working with non-professionals, I knew from the get-go that I have a lot of structural power: professionally I knew what makes for a good story, and how to go about it. As an Israeli, I also had unparalleled access to archives and libraries and current Israeli residents and realtors, and was thus well situated to obtain information Palestinians are mostly unable to access. I also knew that the stories revealed in the process of our interactions were impacted by my subject position as an Israeli and a Canadian citizen. And I knew that I had (and still have) many blind spots. The question of how to work ethically within this structural imbalance of power occupied me from the beginning. The first …