Palestinian Film Festival Australia

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Yes, it's that time of year again - our friends at Cultural Media have announced the 2014 Palestinian Film Festival program in Australia:

"Cultural Media is pleased to present the 2014 Palestinian Film Festival. As with previous Palestinian film festivals, this year’s festival guarantees to surprise and delight as well as inform and challenge. 

"Showcasing the very best of Palestinian cinema from around the globe, the festival presents an exciting opportunity to see and feel the energy, diversity and creativity of Palestine through film. Visit Palestine in Reel Time and join the growing Australian community discovering and enjoying Palestinian cinema."

The Festival is visiting Sydney, Melbourne - and for the first time, Canberra this year :). Here's the program:

Sydney - Palace Norton Street

• Thursday, 6th of November, 2014 8:00pm: Condom Lead, Giraffada 

• Friday, 7th of November, 2014 7:00pm: Though I Know The River Is Dry, Where Should The Birds Fly? Saturday, 8th of November, 2014 4:00pm: Beyond Blue and Gray, Mars at Sunrise 6:30pm: Palestine Stereo, Apartment 10/14

• Sunday, 9th of November, 2014 4:00pm: The Red Stone, The Village Under The Forest 6:30pm: Xenos, Omar

Canberra - Palace Electric Cinema

• Friday, 7th of November, 2014 7:00pm: Condom Lead, Giraffada

• Saturday, 8th of November, 2014 4:00pm: Beyond Blue and Gray, Mars at Sunrise 7:00pm: Though I Know The River Is Dry, Where Should The Birds Fly?

• Sunday, 9th of November, 2014 4:00pm: The Red Stone, The Village Under The Forest 6:30pm: Palestine Stereo, Apartment 10/14

Melbourne - The Kino Cinemas

• Friday, 14th of November, 2014 7:00pm: Condom Lead, Giraffada

• Saturday, 15th of November, 2014 4:00pm: Beyond Blue and Gray, Mars at Sunrise 6:30pm: Though I Know The River Is Dry, Where Should The Birds Fly? 

• Sunday, 16th of November, 2014 4:00pm: The Red Stone, The Village Under The Forest 6:30pm: Palestine Stereo, Apartment 10/14

For more on each film, head here to to by tickets, here. We're especially delighted that Omar Robert Hamilton's "Though the river runs dry" will have it's Australian premiere at this festival  - just goes to show Cultural Media has excellent taste in selecting it!

Thank you again to Cultural Media - we know how much time, effort, money and love goes into organizing this event, and we want them to know we appreciate it more than we can say :)

More Info:

• Palestinian Film Festival
• Palestinian Film Festival - program
• Palestinian Film Festival - films
• Palestinian Film Festival - tickets
• Palestinian Film Festival on Facebook

Bet Lahem Annual Festival 19 - 22 June

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The second Bet Lahem Festival is on next month. It's organized by the Holy Land Trust, and it's going to be terrific this year. Have a look at the links below:

• Bet Lahem Festival
• Bet Lahem Festival on Facebook
• Bet Lahem Festival program
• Program on Facebook
• Holy Land Trust

Why we'd like to invite Leunig to morning tea at the Archive :)

Palestinian Film Festival Australia 8 Nov- 2 Dec 2012

It's our favorite film festival time again. A huge thank you to Cultural Media and Palace Cinemas for making it happen :)

"Cultural Media is proud to present the 4th Palestinian Film Festival. This year’s theme is simple yet heartfelt: Visit Palestine. 

"Many of us have a connection to Palestine. For some, it may be historical, ancestral or spiritual.For others, it may be political, humanitarian or educational. Whatever your interest may be, join us on a cinematic journey of unforgettable imagery and creative, thought-provoking storytelling."

There are some wonderful films in the festival, including:

• Love during wartime
• No news
• Tears of Gaza
• Fix ME
• Yala to the moon
• The Shooter
• Number one on the list
• Haneen
• Hasan everywhere
• Eye drops
• My neighbourhood

And one we are particularly looking forward to:

• Last days in Jerusalem

You'll find details of the films and screening times below:

• Sydney 8 to 11 November
• Melbourne 16 - 18 November
• Perth 23 - 25 November
• Brisbane 30 November - 2 December

You can also keep in touch with what's happening via the Festival's Facebook page.

See you there :)

"Beyond the Last Sky" soon to open at the Australian Centre for Photography

Image © Larissa Sansour
still from A Space Exodus 2009.
Courtesy the artist and
Australian Centre for PhotographyBeyond The Last Sky page

A new Palestinian photography and video exhibition is about to open at the Australian Centre for Photography. It has an impressive list of organizers, having been:

"created in a partnership between the Australian Centre for Photography and the National Institute for Experimental Arts (NIEA), College of Fine Arts (COFA), the University of New South Wales (UNSW) and is supported by Cultural Media"

It also has a fascinating curatorial premise:

"Contemporary photography and video has given a new accessible voice to diverse Palestinian stories and in the process challenges media portrayals and undermines long held stereotypes and popular understandings. 

"There is a growing recognition of contemporary Palestinian art practice globally, but this is the first exhibition in Australia solely dedicated to contemporary Palestinian photography and video. Beyond the Last Sky showcases the diversity of contemporary Palestinian art, which has increasingly moved away from documentary work to more experimental and innovative forms. The exhibition takes its name from the verse ‘where will the birds fly after the last sky’ in Mahmoud Darwish’s poem The Earth is Closing on Us and Edward Said’s book After the Last Sky, 1986. 

"The exhibition has been curated as if it is the evolution of Said’s book, looking beyond documentary modes as an exploration and verification of Palestinian experience. Beyond the Last Sky explores the ways in which the use of critical humour in contemporary art offers a new articulation of Palestinian culture, politics and identity. Encouraging audiences to question and engage, Beyond the Last Sky investigates the subversive potential of humour to challenge representational assumptions and clichés. 

"The exhibition offers opportunities for audiences to gain new insight into the depth and breadth of Palestinian experience, inviting them to look at Palestine from an unconventional, playful and engaging perspective."

The exhibition runs from 1 September to18 November 2012 and entry is free. We'll report back after we've seen it :)

More info:

• Australian Centre for Photography - Beyond the last sky

Participating artists:

• Taysir Batniji  

• Khaled Hourani  

• Yazan Khalili  

• Khalil Rabah  

• Raeda Saadeh   

• Jaqueline Reem Salloum  

• Larissa Sansour  

• Amer Shomali  

• Tarzan and Arab  

• Sharif Waked

Palestinian Film Festival, Australia 2009

If you can, do go along to the Palestinian Film Festival now screening in three Australian states. There are some extraordinary movies showing until mid November 2009, and we'd love you to see as many as possible! Archive staff in particular recommend "Heart of Jenin".

Here's the press release for the Festival:

After a hugely successful inaugural season, the Palestinian Film Festival returns for its second year, this time expanding into venues in Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide. Featuring internationally acclaimed, award-winning films, the festival continues with its mission to reflect the lives, stories and culture of Palestinians beyond the politics that are often focused on by the media.

Opening the festival this year is the 2009 Cannes selected film The Time That Remains, written and directed by celebrated filmmaker Elia Suleiman. Also featured is the stunning Pomegranates and Myrrh, directed by Najwa Najjar, which screened at Sundance earlier this year to critical and popular acclaim, and a special screening of the first Palestinian animation film Fatenah (director: Ahmad Habash). Popular films from the documentary program include the hit Slingshot Hip Hop (director: Jackie Reem Salloum) and the hopeful and tender The Heart of Jenin (directors: Lior Geller, Markus Vetter) which has caused passionate debate around the world.

The 2009 program consists of an exciting and diverse range of features, documentaries, animations and short films, all of which are certain to entertain and enrich audiences from all cultural backgrounds

You'll find more info plus screening times in each city on the Festival's website :).

(logo: courtesy Palestinian Film Festival)

From the Director's desk...

Christine McMillan

We've all been very quiet at the Archive, apologies to our regular readers...

Several staff have been on leave with health problems (including me), I can't even blame it on the Australian winter because we are scattered worldwide, lol. Let's hope we all get better soon!

In between bouts of sick leave I did at least manage to visit Christine McMillan's exhibition "Gathering" at Bathurst Regional Art Gallery and catch up with Christine, who has been a supporter of the Archive for many years. The exhibition was stunning. As always Chris' choice of media - in this case, everything from echidna spines to gauze bandages to grass seeds (see photo above) - is extraordinary. Here's a small section from the essay written by Amanda Lawson in the exhibition brochure:

"one of the most impressive aspects of Christine's practice is the way she moves seamlessly across media. It seems her pursuit of visual languages to capture concepts or shape a fascination with the physical properties of the material world cannot be fixed or limited by any one medium. Her practice is truly hybrid, resisting neat categorization, and all the more interesting to observe and appreciate because of that fluidity...

"The works are driven by a sense of energy and enquiry as well as an acute attention to detail. Based in, but never limited by, the local and regional environment this intricate body of work resonates at global level"

The Archive is lucky enough to share one of those works as Christine very generously donated an exquisite work on paper, utilizing watercolour and echidna spines. Photos coming soon...

On the last day of the Bathurst exhibition Christine presented a performance with Lisa Roberts and Karen Riley. Chris writes on her blog:

"The movement was connected by white cotton gauze, if one person made a movement the other had to compensate. The ‘as the dry’ projection played over the gauze. Tracy Sorensen, whose background is in journalism, community arts and video script writing, videoed the Gathering performance. Sue Clarke-Lindfield operated the still camera for the animations. It was another gathering"

You can view the You Tube video below.

I'll bring you up to date with other Archive happenings in a later post. For now: a final word to our readers: if you would like us to promote any Palestinian projects or events, please just drop us a line, we'd love to help!

(Photo: from Christine's blog
Video: You Tube)

PalCast: Podcasting the Occupation of Palestine

We promised on this blog to recommend good ways to keep up to date with Palestinian issues, both political and cultural.

Their website says:

"PalCast.org was born when the founders discovered a distinct lack of quality internet audio programming focused on Palestine-related issues in the iTunes podcast directory. After searching the internet, it became obvious that Palestine-focused audio was hard to find.

"PalCast.org aims to become the center of quality internet audio programming on the internet focused on Palestinian culture, art, politics and the Israeli occupation"

We love that one of their focus categories is Palestinian music, and we really do suggest you have a listen to their podcast of CKUT radio's interview with members of Sabreen (The Sabreen Association for Artistic Development in Palestine) (the word sabreen means "patience") on culture and resistance. The program was produced by Community News Net for CKUT radio on November 18, 2006, during Sabreen's 2006 tour of Canada.

"if you are a Palestinian, you have to do miracles"