Lalish - Yazidi Cultural Archive

Lalish is a Mountain Valley and Temple in Shekhan, Duhok Governorate in Iraq. It is the holiest temple of the Yazidis and the location of the tomb of the Sheikh Adi ibn Musafir, a central figure of the Yazidi faith.

The film was produced as part of the Yazidi Cultural Archive project to support female Yazidi survivors of the 2014 ISIS occupation and genocide in Northern Iraq. Through participation in (i) artist-led workshops and (ii) digital archives of Yazidi cultural heritage at risk, participants researched and recorded their own cultural traditions and sites as an expression of their courage, agency and resilience in the face of unspeakable horror. This is their story.

The program was produced on the ground by a local NGO, Yazda, and supported by the Iraq Cultural Health Fund, established by ‪@CommunityJameel‬ and ‪@culturunners1326‬  as part of the ‘Healing Arts’ initiative under the auspices of the World Health Organization Arts & Health Program. The fund was designed as a rapid response to COVID-19 with a focus on mental health resilience and recovery in marginalized and at-risk communities in Iraq.

The Future is Unwritten (TFIU) is an initiative by ‪@culturunners1326‬ to facilitate urgent cooperation between the international Arts and Culture sector and the United Nations in order to accelerate theimplementation of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

The Yazidi Cultural Archives project is also supported by Nobody's Listening and Arts + Health @ NYU.