February 18—March 15, 2026
Heather Edwards Theatre | 12-4 PM daily

The Secret Garden (2023) opens with a simple yet uncanny premise. One morning, strange and unfamiliar plants erupt across an unnamed city, turning streets and squares into an entangled labyrinth. Through the voices of Camelia and Nahla – two unseen protagonists who uncover a notebook chronicling this invasion – Nour Ouayda constructs a narrative that wavers between the documentary and the speculative.

Shot on 16mm film, The Secret Garden is punctuated with close-ups of foliage and flowers that function as more than mere botanical studies; they are meditations on the elements of life we often neglect, and over which we have no control. Each shot lingers long enough to reveal grainy textures and muted movements, mirroring the nature of growth, whether it is welcome or parasitic. Across its eight chapters, the film layers these visual fragments with a lyrical voiceover that sometimes feels like pillowtalk, weaving together fragments of a tale that feels cautionary, grounded, and dreamlike all at once.

Beneath its quiet surface, The Secret Garden reflects on the transformations that colour and contour the world we inhabit. The eruption of new life becomes both a symptom of society’s existing ailments and a sign of things to come: a reminder of the chaos and destruction it may cause, but also of the possibility of regeneration. By destabilizing all of these different layers, Ouayda invites viewers to reimagine the city as a living, breathing organism and to consider the potential upside of this plant invasion. Her secret garden is not so much an escape from reality as much as an invitation to reimagine what this reality can – or perhaps should – be, amid the cracks and fractures of the present that we occupy.

The Secret Garden (2023) is being screened as part of This small parcel of earth, a two-part program curated by Muriel N. Kahwagi.

Access to this screening is included with admission. This program is presented in conjunction with Entwined, curated by Mona Filip.

The first work in this series is Christina Battle’s seeds are meant to disperse (2022), on view from December 6-31, 2025, Wednesday to Sunday, 12-4 PM.