Curating Palestinian Cinema

Tracing the disappearance of Palestinian narratives through out the 20th century film production, reveals a systematic blindness to the existence of the Palestinian communities and its culture, paving the way to the colonisation of their lands, legitimised the destruction of their livelihood, and when they started to revolt and struggle, they faced a designed silencing through preventing their voices of reaching to mainstream audiences. This workshop investigates the history of image production around Palestine, to understand and position Palestinian cinema in the context of struggle against disappearance, at the same time, championing Palestinian filmmakers who have been experimenting resistance through forms, structures and aesthetics, breaking the barrier, brick by brick, through their films for the past 76 years, as a way of struggle, a cinematic one.

Mohanad Yaqubi is a filmmaker, producer, and one of the founders of the Ramallah-based production house, Idioms Film. Yaqubi is also one of the founders of the research and curatorial collective Subversive Films that focuses on militant film practices, and recently is a resident researcher at KASK, School of the Arts- Gent, Belgium. Yaqubi’s filmography as a producer includes the documentary feature Infiltrators (dir. Khaled Jarrar, 2013), Suspended Time (Several directors, 2013), the narrative short Pink Bullet (dir. Ramzi Hazboun, 2014), he co-produced several films including the narrative feature Habibi (dir. Susan Youssef, 2010), the short narrative Though I Know the River is Dry (dir. Omar R. Hamilton, 2012), and the feature documentaries Ambulance (dir. Mohammed Jabaly, 2016) and Ouroboros (dir. Basma Sharif, 2017), Ibrahim: A Fate to Define (dir: Lina Alabed, 2019) and As I Want (dir. Samaher Al Qadi, 2021). Yaqubi’s first feature film Off Frame AKA Revolution Until Victory, 2016, made its premiers at TIFF, Berlinale, Cinéma du Réel, Dubai IFF, and Yamagata among 50 other premiers and screenings around the world. His second feature film R21 AKA Restoring Solidarity, 2022, has made its premier at documenta15, IDFA, Marrakesh, True/False and Cinéma du Réel, and is still touring around the world.

This workshop is open to graduate and postgraduate students and the general public. Please write an email to phildoc@fcsh.unl.pt if you would like to attend. Registration is mandatory, as places are limited.

This event is organized by the working group “Thinking Documentary Film” in collaboration with Doc’s Kingdom, and supported by the Foundation for Science and Technology (Fundação para a Ciência e para a Tecnologia) of the Portuguese Ministry of Education and Science under the projects UIDB/00183/2020 and UIDP/00183/2020.