Reflective Encounters

“In In the Space you Left, Christine Saab combines the possibilities offered by desktop documentary (a genre theorised by video essayist Kevin B. Lee) and the more traditional ways of shooting and sourcing footage. Throughout the film, we jump in and out of the filmmaker’s desktop as we attempt to trace, one of Saab’s friends who went missing years ago and whom she cannot seem to forget. Old photos and Facebook messages make up the entirety of the digital crumbles he left behind, which Saab utilises to make sense of her loss.

As we follow Saab probing the internet in search of clues, she stumbles upon a website in which netizens look for the loved ones they’ve lost. As a consequence, we’re invited to ask ourselves questions about the ethics of such research. Should we be looking for people who decided to disappear? Why can’t we let go of someone who might want to be forgotten? Do we have any right to interfere with their new lives? What started as an intimate quest soon transforms into a collaborative effort to redefine our relationship to those people we briefly crossed our path with.”

— Ren Scateni