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The Afterlife of Palestinian Images

Film screening and book launch - with director Q&A

Dir: Azza El Hassan and other filmmakers; no cert

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Sat 9 November // 19:30 / Cinema

Tickets: £7/5/3/free

Join us for a special event celebrating the release of Palestinian filmmaker and researcher Azza El Hassan's new book, The Afterlife of Palestinian Images: Visual Remains and the Archive of Disappearance. Her work - both as an artist and as a scholar - centres on the question of how colonial violence and plundering affects how a culture relates to its own images. As part of her research, she has digitised and restored a number of films by Hani Jawharieh and other Palestinian filmmakers which had previously been thought destroyed.

Kings & Extras (Azza El Hassan, 2004, 62 min) - A road trip from Palestine to Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon, as Azza El Hassan searches for the films of the PLO Media Unit - which disappeared in 1982 following the Israeli invasion of Beirut. With wry humour, El Hassan provides a commentary on the absurdity and tragedy of hunting for these lost images - and how the search itself generates a new story about Palestinian identity and resistance.

The Road to Palestine (Layali Bader, 1983, 5 min) - An animated film about the life of a Palestinian girl in a refugee camp.

Palestine in the Eye (PLO Film Unit / Mustafa Abu Ali, 1976, 28 min) - A documentary about the revolutionary filmmaker Hani Jawharieh and the Palestine Film Unit. 

A Remake of a Revolutionary Film (Azza El Hassan, 2019, 5 min) -  A reflection on Hani Jawharieh's legacy using archival photos and footage from Palestine in the Eye. 

The screening will be followed by a Zoom Q&A with Azza about the films and her book, which explores the re-use and re-appropriation of photos and films that have survived looting and destruction, and how artistic engagement can reconfigure them into new narratives and establish a renewed sense of cultural identity. Flyers with a 20% discount code will be available at the event for those who would like to order a copy of the book.

All proceeds from this film will be donated to the Ghassan Abu Sittah Children's Fund.