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Against a sandy, natural background, a person with a mustard-yellow knit hat holds a small black-and-white photograph in their hands

still A Night We Held Between (Noor Abed, PS 2024)

Films, Talks & Events

Songs and Scenes from Palestine

10 — 24 May 2024

still from As If No Misfortune Had Occurred in the Night (Larissa Sansour & Søren Lind, GB 2022)

still As If No Misfortune Had Occurred in the Night (Larissa Sansour & Søren Lind, GB 2022)

They watch and listen attentively to the personal stories of resilient Palestinians seeking contact with the place where their families lived, cried, sang, dreamed and loved for generations.

In Songs and Scenes from Palestine, we get to view the history and cultural identity of the Palestinian people through their own lens. In this programme, Palestinian artists and filmmakers allow us to share in their culture and their stories.

still from Penelope (Noor Abed, PS 2014)

still Penelope (Noor Abed, PS 2014)

still from Foragers (Jumana Manna, PS 2022)

still Foragers (Jumana Manna, PS 2022)

The selection is made up of recent, powerful documentaries and artist films that shine a new light on archival footage, and in which the relationship between landscape, culture and identity plays a major role.

Mohanad Yaqubi, programmer at the Palestine Film Institute, demonstrates using archival footage that it was predominately makers from other cultures who determined what was filmed and what left out of shot. This meant that Palestinians themselves were not really seen. And invisible people can easily be dehumanised and disappear, particularly in times of war such as now.

still from Bye Bye Tibériade (Lina Soualem, PS/BE/QA/FR 2023)

still Bye Bye Tibériade (Lina Soualem, PS/BE/QA/FR 2023)

You can watch the lecture Mohanad Yaqubi gave in Eye, entitled I Laugh Because I Know They Can't Kill Me, in which he breaks down the stereotyping of the Palestinian people, here:

still from A Fidai Film (Kamal Aljafari, PS/DE/QA/BR/FR 2024)

still A Fidai Film (Kamal Aljafari, PS/DE/QA/BR/FR 2024)

These films by Lina Soualem, Kamal Aljafari, Larissa Sansour, Jumana Manna and Noor Abed make us aware of the images imprinted in our minds. Whereas in the past Palestinians have all too often appeared as interchangeable, silent extras, in their films these filmmakers regain the right to speak about their divided past and the picture of them that has been painted.

still from Why (Monica Maurer, 1982)

still Why (Monica Maurer, 1982)

still from We are the Palestinian People (Newsreel, 1972)

still We are the Palestinian People (Newsreel, 1972)

poster Songs and Scenes from Palestine

poster Songs and Scenes from Palestine

Films, Talks & Events

still from Wedding in Galilee (Michel Khleifi, FR/BE 1987)

still Wedding in Galilee (Michel Khleifi, FR/BE 1987)

Eye Film Player

Watch Michel Khleifi's Wedding in Galilee (1987) and Tale of the Three Jewels (1995), and A World Not Ours (2012) and A Man Returned (2016) at home via our streaming service.

Visit the Eye Film Player
still from In the Future, They Ate from the Finest Porcelain (Larissa Sansour & Søren Lind, PS/GB/DK/QA 2015)

still In the Future, They Ate from the Finest Porcelain (Larissa Sansour & Søren Lind, PS/GB/DK/QA 2015)

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