Where I Am From – Cydra
I am from eye “kohl” and jasmine soil.
From echoes of a life that stirs and coils.
From paths that drum with the pace of life. From an eyeline waiting, eyes answer the signs.
From blank timelines becoming a work of art.
I am from the held breath between lives.
From the ones not in the frame who keep me alive.
From their whispered prayers, a shield that shadows me.
I am from Damascus, open my veins, the radio sings, the coffee rises.
From water speech in the “bahra”, where memory lies.
From the quiet farewell to the life I hold inside.
Word Definitions
Kohl: Eye kohl for cosmetic use.
Bahra: Damascene fountain.
Concept Summary
A Journey Within
In one minute and ten locked-off shots, I set compressed work/study/life against a mental return to Damascus, reached not through distance but through ritual, sound, and memory.
The Rush
The film opens on the brown of my eye so the colour is pronouncing kohl, coffee and my jasmine heritage. I touch up my lipstick in the mirror before a hectic day, as the jangling of car keys cuts in as a L-cut to cut to the next shot getting into the car acting like chasing deadlines,. I cut from the car scene to the next moment the next sequence shows me on set, acting as if shooting a scene, saying “Ready” before the take. The following shot moves to me at the computer, editing that same clip, saying “Set, go,” so the rhythm of the shots comes together. This strand satisfies George Ella Lyon’s “Where I’m From” (objects and senses as self) and BCM115 ideas of mise-en-scène and editing rhythm.
Breath
After editing, I get back in the car, driving as if heading toward another life. Then the screen cuts to black acting like a pause between worlds. Borrowed from BCM115 experiences of ellipsis and off-screen space, this held silence is breath between lives family which are not shot on screen, said without faces or music. Then half way through the black screen, the sounds of birds emerge, as a J-cut to take us into the next world
Damascus Within
The last movement is a returning movement I make within, not by traveling. A click on the radio and the sound of Nizar Qabbani’s poem on Damascus; shots of coffee being poured into the “finjān” coffee and still listening to the poem of Nizar on the radio,
I used these 3 sounds: The radio, the bahra, and the birds because that’s what remains stuck in my mind, I drink my coffee peacefully, then set down the empty finjān and turn off the radio, a goodbye to the beautiful life I carry within.
Brief evaluation :
George Ella Lyon’s “Where I’m From” showed me how identity can be carried by objects and senses, which led me to foreground colour, texture, and sound rather than explanation. From BCM115 I employed mise-en-scène as meaning to place the mirror, finjān, and bahra as signifiers; editing rhythm and montage to create compression through the use of J-cuts and L-cuts and diegetic like: keys clashing, birds singing, car’s engine, taps, and radio. Nizar Qabbani’s Damascene imagery grounded the radio line in a language of belonging.
The early shots convey physical fatigue, while the later ones reflect a calm, reflective mindset.
I wanted to show compressed obligation meeting ritual continuity. The film suggests that “where I’m from” lives in practices and objects — the radio, the finjān, the water — more than in geography.
Next time, I’ll make sure the breath I took at the beginning is more visible, the cuts are cleaner, and the lighting is improved in some shots.
References :
Lyon, G.E. (n.d.) Where I’m From. Available at: https://www.georgeellalyon.com/where.html (Accessed: 28 October 2025).
University of Wollongong in Dubai (n.d.) BCM115 Lecture: Mise-en-scène & Meaning. Faculty of Humanities & Social Sciences.
University of Wollongong in Dubai (n.d.) BCM115 Lecture: Editing Rhythm & Montage . Faculty of Humanities & Social Sciences.
University of Wollongong in Dubai (n.d.) BCM115 Lecture: Eyeline & the 180° Rule . Faculty of Humanities & Social Sciences.
University of Wollongong in Dubai (n.d.) BCM115 Lecture: Diegetic Sound & Place. Faculty of Humanities & Social Sciences.
University of Wollongong in Dubai (n.d.) BCM115 Lecture: Ellipsis & Off-Screen Space. Faculty of Humanities & Social Sciences.
Qabbani, N. (n.d.) هذي دمشقُ Hādhihi Dimashq / “This is Damascus”. Available at: https://www.aldiwan.net/poem6529.html.(Accessed: 28 October 2025).
Where I Am From – Cydra