Since 1948, Palestinians have not only occupied the painful position of many oppressed peoples who are systematically displaced, disenfranchised, denationalized, brutalized and murdered; they have also been put in the awkward, even tragicomic, position of having to convince the rest of the world of their very existence. This problem of visibility lies at the heart of Dreams of a Nation: On Palestinian Cinema, an illuminating, if incomplete, anthology of essays on the efforts of Palestinians to represent themselves on film to the world and to each other. Read more about Requesting Permission to Narrate: "Dreams of a Nation" Reviewed
In the late 1960s, a group of young Arab women and men devoted to the struggle for Palestinian freedom chose to contribute to the resistance through filmmaking — recording their lives, hopes, and their fight for justice. Working in both fiction and documentary, they strived to tell the stories of Palestine and to create a new kind of cinema. Most were refugees, exiled from their homes in Palestine. And additionally there were fellow Arabs who stood in solidarity with them, devoting their work to a just cause. Their films screened across the Arab world and internationally but never in Palestine. Read more about Coming Home: Palestinian Cinema
With the announcement earlier this month that the British group Massive Attack was holding a series of concerts in London to support Palestinian refugee communities was another piece of good news: that Checkpoint 303 was going to be performing a DJ set to open the three benefit shows. The international group of DJs or SCs (“Sound Catchers” and “Sound Cutters”) and musicians that make up Checkpoint 303 has quietly been bringing the noise on the internet by unleashing wickedly original sound tapestries and instrumentals (free of charge) on their website, www.checkpoint303.com for over two years now. Read more about DJ Revolutions: Spinning Beats for Freedom
Both Salwa Salem’s and Ghada Karmi’s childhoods were violently disrupted by what Palestinians call al-Nakba, or the Catastrophe — the involuntary mass exodus of nearly three quarters of the Palestinian population when the State of Israel was established in 1948. Marking the destruction of their country, this event would define their lives as ones of exile. In their respective memoirs, The Wind in My Hair and In Search of Fatima: A Palestinian Story, Salem and Karmi recall idyllic childhoods in Palestine before 1948 in a society rich with culture and defined by the extended family. Their individual experiences, chronicled in their engrossing works, give a window into that of a generation of Palestinians born into dispossession. Read more about Book review: Two Palestinian women recall their lives in exile
The New York Arab and South Asian Film Festival will pay tribute to a group of filmmakers who have made significant contributions to various categories of Palestinian Revolution Cinema between the years of 1968 and 1982. Given the current political environment in Palestine, Iraq, and Lebanon in 2007, it is especially important to screen these films which have slipped through the cracks of history. They are a visual testament to past events and offer us a glimpse of history from the perspective of the people who actually lived it, a perspective not sanctioned by the official US/European meta-narrative of the region. Read more about Palestinian Revolution Cinema Comes to NYC
The 2007 New York Arab & South Asian Film Festival (NYASAFF) presents the best in recent features, docs, and shorts that increase awareness of the creative vitality and sociopolitical realities of North Africa, the Middle East, South Asia, and their diasporas. Given the historical and cultural affinities between these geographic regions, as well as the contemporary political landscape, several cultural and media organizations, including Alwan for the Arts, 3rd i NY, South Asian Women’s Creative Collective, and Downtown Community Television have launched a collaborative series encompassing film, video, music, visual art, and literature, that will culminate in the annual, NYASA Film Festival running from February 23 - March 4, 2007. Read more about 2007 New York Arab & South Asian Film Festival, 23 February - 4 March
If Israeli officials felt that the protest against work near Al-Aqsa mosque was a local problem that would soon go away, they were not watching Lebanese television. Some might think that the Arab world’s most popular TV program, Star Academy, is all about singing youth and half-dressed presenters. But on Friday, February 9, the students at Star Academy joined together in singing the song of Lebanese superstar Fairuz about Jerusalem. Dressed in chic black outfits, the entire class of Star Academy 4 joined hands in front of sets depicting Jerusalem’s Old City walls as they sang “Zahrat al Madain” (The flower of cities). Without making a single reference to the latest controversy over the Mughrabi Gate walkway, the directors of this musical program made a huge political sensation. Read more about More than a walkway
Picture Balata, a photography workshop based in the West Bank Balata refugee camp, is currently in the process or organizing a touring exhibition of the work of its young photographers in April 2007. During the exhibition, four of the photographers will travel to the US to speak about their work and about their experience growing up in a West Bank refugee camp. The exhibition will be important for a number of reasons. Not only will it give people in the US a chance to see these kids’ amazing work and hear from them in person, but it’s also important for the photographers to see that there are people in the US who do want to hear what these young people who have always lived under occupation have to say about their experiences. Read more about Picture Balata coming to the U.S. in April 2007
“Back in Tennessee, my son who had lived for three years in Ramallah, was sometimes asked to sing songs in Hebrew to celebrate Yom Kippur; he was given assignments dealing with the Holocaust; and he was told by one teacher that his impressions about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are simply in his head. It was, therefore, not surprising at all for him to come home one day with a copy of Lynne Reid Banks’ novel Broken Bridge.” Alarmed by the racist portrayal of Arabs in the book assigned to his 12-year-old son, EI contributor Fouad Moughrabi analyzes some portrayals of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in popular children’s literature. Read more about Three representations of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in children's literature (Part 2)
“Back in Tennessee, my son who had lived for three years in Ramallah, was sometimes asked to sing songs in Hebrew to celebrate Yom Kippur; he was given assignments dealing with the Holocaust; and he was told by one teacher that his impressions about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are simply in his head. It was, therefore, not surprising at all for him to come home one day with a copy of Lynne Reid Banks’ novel Broken Bridge.” Alarmed by the racist portrayal of Arabs in the book assigned to his 12-year-old son, EI contributor Fouad Moughrabi analyzes some portrayals of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in popular children’s literature. Read more about Three representations of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in children's literature (Part 1)
