IMAGES HIJACKING SCREENS FOR LIBERATION
Snapshots Reflecting Palestine (1973-2023)
Since 1969, striking iconographic imagery of the liberation of Palestine has emerged from the Palestinian resistance. From the hijacking of airplanes to the live-streaming of the Al-Aqsa flood, these images become instruments that seize newspaper headlines, media screens, and trends on social media platforms to work for the Palestinian cause. They fuel the hearts of international solidarity for liberation.
During the Cold War (1968-1982) when international solidarity between the developing world and the Palestinian cause grew, Palestinian filmmakers in collaboration with different arms of the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization) were producing militant films destined for resistance fighters in military camps, families in refugee camps, international solidarity campaigns, progressive political organizations, activists and finally, Arab and third-world solidarity film festivals and forums. Today and since October 2023, we can witness a similar trend with regards to content creators and filmmakers from Gaza whose imagery continues to interrupt Instagram’s rigidly controlled algorithms. Their content reveals the horrors of the Palestinian struggle for survival and an unfolding Genocide, which in turn, has led to the building of spontaneous and self-organized solidarity campaigns all over the world.
IMAGES HIJACKING SCREENS FOR LIBERATION, is a film program consisting of three restored works from the film archives of the International Solidarity era and three contemporary works from post-Oslo era to the present. The program includes Mustafa Abu Ali, Basma al-Sharif, Arab Loutfi, Sami Al Salamoni, Mary Jirmanus Saba, and Tareq Rantisi. It explores the contexts NGOization, donor political economy, the ideologies of human rights and contemporary art and the return of the humanitarian gaze within a dominant global economy.
IMAGES HIJACKING SCREENS FOR LIBERATION is curated by Ali Hussein AlAdawy and is presented by ArteEast. This program is part of the legacy program Unpacking the ArteArchive, which preserves and presents 20 years of film and video programming by ArteEast. The full program will be screened online on artearchive.org from October 11 - 25.
Jamila’s Mirror deals with the memories of Palestinian female guerilla fighters, currently in their forties, who were involved in military operations during their teen years.
About the Filmmaker:
Arab Loutfi is a filmmaker, writer, and journalist. After working for many years on feature films with Mohammad Khan and Atef Altayeb, she moved into the field of documentary filmmaking. Her first documentary, The Upper Gate, was an intensely personal account about Sidon, her hometown, in which she wove a history of the city through the stories of its people. Her second film, Jamila’s Mirror, dealt with the memories of Palestinian female guerrilla fighters, currently in their forties, who were involved in military operations during their teen years. Loufti's subsequent works in filmmaking were Seven Nights and a Dawn, Rango, and The Egyptian Wedding. She later created the films Short Visit; Stories from Gaza; Bird of Prudence; Playing with Democracy; Dark Room, Radiant Life; Tell Your Tale, Little Bird; and Over Their Dead Bodies. In all her works, she attempts to show that by simply taking just two steps out of the world inhabited by the middle class and intellectuals, she can finds a life in which people have their own music, cultural tastes, and passions. She has also sat as a jury member in many film festivals including the Dubai Film Festival, Al Jazeera Film Festival, Docudays Film Festival, Ismailia Film Festival, Documentarist Film Festival, Alexandria Short Film Festival, and others. She is an active member of the Arab Documentary Filmmakers Union, as well as the Egyptian Film Critics Union.
- Year1993
- Runtime25 minutes
- LanguageArabic
- CountryPalestine
- GenreDocumentary
- Subtitle LanguageEnglish
IMAGES HIJACKING SCREENS FOR LIBERATION
Snapshots Reflecting Palestine (1973-2023)
Since 1969, striking iconographic imagery of the liberation of Palestine has emerged from the Palestinian resistance. From the hijacking of airplanes to the live-streaming of the Al-Aqsa flood, these images become instruments that seize newspaper headlines, media screens, and trends on social media platforms to work for the Palestinian cause. They fuel the hearts of international solidarity for liberation.
During the Cold War (1968-1982) when international solidarity between the developing world and the Palestinian cause grew, Palestinian filmmakers in collaboration with different arms of the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization) were producing militant films destined for resistance fighters in military camps, families in refugee camps, international solidarity campaigns, progressive political organizations, activists and finally, Arab and third-world solidarity film festivals and forums. Today and since October 2023, we can witness a similar trend with regards to content creators and filmmakers from Gaza whose imagery continues to interrupt Instagram’s rigidly controlled algorithms. Their content reveals the horrors of the Palestinian struggle for survival and an unfolding Genocide, which in turn, has led to the building of spontaneous and self-organized solidarity campaigns all over the world.
IMAGES HIJACKING SCREENS FOR LIBERATION, is a film program consisting of three restored works from the film archives of the International Solidarity era and three contemporary works from post-Oslo era to the present. The program includes Mustafa Abu Ali, Basma al-Sharif, Arab Loutfi, Sami Al Salamoni, Mary Jirmanus Saba, and Tareq Rantisi. It explores the contexts NGOization, donor political economy, the ideologies of human rights and contemporary art and the return of the humanitarian gaze within a dominant global economy.
IMAGES HIJACKING SCREENS FOR LIBERATION is curated by Ali Hussein AlAdawy and is presented by ArteEast. This program is part of the legacy program Unpacking the ArteArchive, which preserves and presents 20 years of film and video programming by ArteEast. The full program will be screened online on artearchive.org from October 11 - 25.
Jamila’s Mirror deals with the memories of Palestinian female guerilla fighters, currently in their forties, who were involved in military operations during their teen years.
About the Filmmaker:
Arab Loutfi is a filmmaker, writer, and journalist. After working for many years on feature films with Mohammad Khan and Atef Altayeb, she moved into the field of documentary filmmaking. Her first documentary, The Upper Gate, was an intensely personal account about Sidon, her hometown, in which she wove a history of the city through the stories of its people. Her second film, Jamila’s Mirror, dealt with the memories of Palestinian female guerrilla fighters, currently in their forties, who were involved in military operations during their teen years. Loufti's subsequent works in filmmaking were Seven Nights and a Dawn, Rango, and The Egyptian Wedding. She later created the films Short Visit; Stories from Gaza; Bird of Prudence; Playing with Democracy; Dark Room, Radiant Life; Tell Your Tale, Little Bird; and Over Their Dead Bodies. In all her works, she attempts to show that by simply taking just two steps out of the world inhabited by the middle class and intellectuals, she can finds a life in which people have their own music, cultural tastes, and passions. She has also sat as a jury member in many film festivals including the Dubai Film Festival, Al Jazeera Film Festival, Docudays Film Festival, Ismailia Film Festival, Documentarist Film Festival, Alexandria Short Film Festival, and others. She is an active member of the Arab Documentary Filmmakers Union, as well as the Egyptian Film Critics Union.
- Year1993
- Runtime25 minutes
- LanguageArabic
- CountryPalestine
- GenreDocumentary
- Subtitle LanguageEnglish