The Madison-Rafah Sister City Project has a library of films about Palestine available for free public showings or household viewing. We can also help introduce the films and facilitate discussion.
American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee’s Palestine in Film, May 15, 2012
To commemorate the anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba, the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) announced the online publication of a guide to Palestinian film and filmmaking. It features information on and access to hundreds of films and film institutions, giving an unprecedented overview of almost every aspect of Palestinian filmmaking.
The filmography provides detailed information on individual narrative and documentary films by and about Palestinians. Films included are both full length and shorter. Their subject matter deals with Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, in Israel, and in exile around the world. They address the history and politics of the conflict with Israel, the experience of exile, daily life under occupation, the resistance to occupation and dispossession, reconciliation with Israelis, women’s issues, religion, and culture. Many films focus on political issues; some are entertainment films; in a few the aesthetic dimension is primary. There is information on grassroots films made by human rights organizations and by ordinary Palestinians documenting their own lives and communities.
The document has links to films, trailers, websites, articles, publications, film festivals, and film distributors. The guide also provides access to information on Palestinian film production and distribution, the early development of a filmmaking infrastructure, including film schools, theaters, film festivals, and grassroots projects to promote film culture and to encourage and train women, children, young people, and community activists in filmmaking skills. In addition, there is a bibliography, including academic analysis and journalistic sources of information, on Palestinian film, its history, and its political context.
The reader is pointed towards institutions and organizations where the films are available. Wherever possible, the guide provides links to websites where many of the films can be viewed online.
The 79-page guide is available in the educational resources section of the ADC website. As a gateway to the entire world of Palestinian film, it is meant to be used by casual viewers, serious students, educators, academics, film professionals, and advocates for a just and lasting peace.
Today, May 15, is the 64th anniversary of the Nakba, Israel’s ethnic cleansing of approximately 750,000 Palestinians from their homes and lands in 1948. These Palestinians and their descendants remain refugees to this day because Israel refuses to implement their internationally recognized human right of return.
ADC is committed to a just and lasting peace in the Middle East and will continue to advocate the rights of the Palestinian people to freedom, equality and self-determination in an independent and fully sovereign Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital.