The SongWriter podcast, a series dedicated to the alchemy of turning narrative stories into evocative songs, continues its seventh season with a profound exploration of family legacy and the difficult path toward healing. Featuring a roster that has included luminaries such as Questlove, David Gilmour, and Joyce Carol Oates, the podcast now turns its focus to filmmaker Ali Selim and songwriter Carla Kihlstedt in a collaborative effort to navigate the complexities of trauma and accountability.
Ali Selim, the director of the acclaimed film Sweet Land, brings a deeply personal story to the episode, centered on his fraught relationship with his late father. Describing him as an erudite yet occasionally violent man, Selim reflects on the unprocessed issues left in the wake of his father’s passing a decade ago. Now a father himself, Selim has found empathy for his father’s struggles, yet he remains steadfast in his stance on forgiveness. “My dad passed away ten years ago, and I still have a connection to him,” Selim observes. “But there’s no accountability there… and that’s what leads to forgiveness.”
At a live performance hosted by FilmNorth, Selim shared excerpts from a memoir-in-progress, detailing his father’s habitual dishonesty regarding history, anatomy, and the law—a pattern that Selim says undermined his own grasp of reality. When Selim eventually confronted him about the violence and the lies, his father’s response was a chillingly dismissive deflection: “Maybe. Could be. But why would you want to remember it that way?”
The episode gains further depth through the insights of Dr. Emily Gaarder, an expert in restorative justice. Gaarder notes that forgiveness is such a fraught concept that it is often referred to as “the F-word” within her field. She highlights the value of Selim’s narrative as a study in how to heal when the person who caused harm refuses to take responsibility. Gaarder suggests that forgiveness can be an internal process—a way of setting down a burden—rather than a social exchange, though she acknowledges its transformational power when offered in a restorative context.
Songwriter Carla Kihlstedt, who previously worked with Selim on the Sweet Land soundtrack, spent weeks immersing herself in his memoir. During this period, she found unexpected parallels between Selim’s personal history and the global struggle of the Freedom Flotilla on its way to Gaza. Kihlstedt noted how both stories involve individuals navigating narratives much larger than themselves and using personal expression as a means of transformation.
The resulting art song, “I Am a Fish,” was performed live for Selim at FilmNorth. In a moment of raw vulnerability, Selim chose to experience the song for the first time in the room rather than listening to a recording beforehand. For Kihlstedt, the intensity of the performance reaffirmed her artistic purpose. “I felt like: this is why I am on the planet,” she said. “Occasionally you get an opportunity to do something in a way that only you could do it.”
Season seven of SongWriter is made possible by a grant from Templeton World Charity Foundation.
