Art, Music & Culture

Palestinian Filmmaker this year's winner of the Nestor Almendros Prize for courage and commitment in human rights filmmaking

Human Rights Watch
12 June 2003

Palestinian filmmaker Hany Abu-Assad is winner of this year’s Nestor Almendros Prize for courage and commitment in human rights filmmaking. He will be presented the prize at the 14th Annual Human Rights Watch International Film Festival, which takes place in New York from 13 to 26 June.

Doctor Earle's diagnosis

Robert Everett-Green
4 June 2003

“American singer Steve Earle, no stranger to rehab himself, has a few prescriptions for an ailing America,” Robert Everett-Green writes in the Toronto Globe and Mail. “I’m not anti-Semitic, but I am anti-Zionist,” says Earle. “Why do we expect the Palestinians who have lived there for a couple of thousand years to accept that they should be second-class citizens in their own homeland?”

Richard Gere visits Ramallah under curfew

4 June 2003

Richard Gere, the famous American actor and star of many Hollywood movies, visited the West Bank town of Ramallah today. After a short wait at Qalandiya checkpoint, Gere drove into Ramallah which has been under military curfew for the past 24 hours, and had a briefing with several prominent figures in Palestinian civil society.

IBDAA, youth Palestinian dance troup will perform this summer in eight major U.S. cities

Shirabe Yamada
21 May 2003

Ibdaa Dance Troupe, youth performers from Dheisheh refugee camp in Palestine, will be touring the United States this summer. The last time Ibdaa toured the U.S. was in 1999. The tour is sponsered by the Middle East Children’s Alliance.

Palestinian filmmaker denied entry to Israel on "security" grounds

16 May 2003

On Wednesday 14 May, British-Palestinian filmmaker Omar Al-Qattan and his two-member crew from Belgium, Olivier Pulinckx and Cosmas Antoniadis, were denied entry into Israel on grounds of “security.” No further explanation was granted. There have been many similar cases of arbitrary action by Israeli police in recent months, and particularly in recent weeks, targeting individuals and organisations working with Palestinian civil society.

INAD's "Until When?" at London International Festival of Theatre

Arjan El Fassed
13 May 2003

Palestinian theatre group “INAD” from Beit Jala performs on May 23 and 24, their play “Until When?” at the London International Festival of Theatre.

Documentary review: "Jeremy Hardy vs. the Israeli Army"

Maureen Clare Murphy
27 May 2003

Although the film Jeremy Hardy vs. the Israeli Army was “on one hand [intended for] a British audience,” as explained by director Leila Sansour, it also aimed to communicate to the rest of the world that Palestine isn’t just a land of “sad faces and dead bodies.” Sansour wanted to show a universal audience “that it’s a hospitable place” like the Palestine that lives in her memory. Maureen Clare Murphy writes about Sansour’s documentary about the ISM.

Film review: Rana's Wedding

Maureen Clare Murphy
29 April 2003

It is not often that movie audiences, American ones especially, see a female heroine that doesn’t need a man to save her or doesn’t wear stiletto heels and a short skirt while overcoming hurdles. And that’s why I like Rana of Rana’s Wedding so much. Not only was she smart enough to wear sensible shoes and comfortable clothes while running through town searching for her boyfriend, but she solved her problems all on her own. EI writer Maureen Clare Murphy reviews “Rana’s Wedding” at the Chicago Palestine Film Festival.

Film reviews: Nizar Hassan's "Istiqlal" and "Invasion"

Maureen Clare Murphy
29 April 2003

There are a lot of difficult questions that Americans, Israelis, and Palestinians alike must ask themselves in order to better understand this conflict that they are all a party to. Director Nizar Hassan is not afraid to critique attitudes, primarily among Palestinians, that he finds problematic. By using his own quest for answers as an example, he reflects to his audience that they too can get a dialogue rolling. EI contributor Maureen Clare Murphy reviews two films at the Chicago Palestine Film Festival.

Documenting the Occupation: Director Yahya Barakat discusses working under Israeli military rule

Maureen Clare Murphy
22 April 2003

To conceive a film or video and execute it successfully is a challenge for any experienced director. But add a military occupation into the mix — with its checkpoints, invasions, and violence — and the difficulty is increased exponentially. Yahya Barakat, who has seven documentaries under his belt and spoke with The Electronic Intifada during the Chicago Palestine Film Festival, has met the challenge of working under an occupation and and tackles its stories in his work. EI contributer Maureen Clare Murphy reports.

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