What website? The Palestine Costume Archive vanishes online yet again....

As long term Palestine Costume Archive friends know, we periodically have website troubles. Sometimes these are easy to fix (when hackers make a mess) but this time we lost our domain name.

We have tried unsuccessfully to contact the people who now own "www.palestinecostumearchive.org". For a couple of months. We have now given up and are in the process of registering another name. We'll be back as soon as possible.

Anyone out there with enquiries about Palestinian costume / culture, please feel free to email us, or contact us via either of the Archive's blogs. We'll provide copies of website info, pix, all the usual things. And again: apologies for the inconvenience.

Balata Film Collective's "Palestinian embroidery under occupation"

 This video was uploaded on YouTube by the Balata Camp Film Collective:

"Film is an important means of both resistance and communication. The Balata Film Collective was initated to enable young Palestinians from Balata to break their isolation, challenge their oppression and and represent their lives to the world. 

"The Balata film production collective films, edits and produces movies in Arabic and English. Until now, the collective has focused on producing shorts which are uploaded to the internet. 

"Please visit http://www.balatacamp.net for further information about balata camp and balata film collective. Please do also visit for further video material on balata camp please visit http://a-films.blogspot.com, the webpage of the anarchist video collective a-films."

We think it's terrific, and look forward to more films :)

"My Name is Rachel Corrie" playing in Sydney

"Theatre can’t change the world. But what it can do, when it’s as good as this, is to send us out enriched by other people’s passionate concern." The Guardian

"It’s a fine production and all involved should be proud of what they’ve achieved: terrific independent theatre." Stage Noise

"Belinda Bromilow gives a stunning performance." The Australian

Quite a few of you dropped us a line after we posted about the play "My Name is Rachel Corrie" last year.

For those readers lucky enough to live in Sydney you can now see the play at the Belvoir Theatre, where it runs until 1 June. Director Shannon Murphy was a 24-year-old student enrolled in NIDA's directing course when she found the play amongst the school's collection of new plays last year:

"I must say I was very shocked to find out how controversial it had been and that it had closed in the US - that was a big surprise to me because I did not get that feeling having read it"

"I don't know how on earth this incredible woman's story could make you not want to have it told - it's actually quite disgraceful. If the arts start having censorship, where do we go?"

It has had terrific reviews. If you'd like to see the play with Archive staff please come along!

"There is always a miracle in Cairo"

Wonderful, wonderful article by Robert Fisk in The Independent about the Saddam Hussein forged biography published under his name. Well worth a read - the title of this post is swiped from it :)

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/commentators/fisk/robert-fisk-the-curious-case-of-the-forged-biography-776775.html