PALESTINIAN SHORTS
A co-presentation between Workers for Palestine, United Screens for Palestine, and CinemOCCII.
From personal portrayal to experimental cinema, this program of shorts by Palestinian artists offers a glimpse into cultural and political realities within the Palestinian liberation struggle. The program features films by Basma Alsharif, Mahdi Fleifel, Rehab Nazzal, Muhammad Nour ElKhairy, and Mo’min Swaitat.
All films in English, or in Arabic/ASL with English subtitles.
P is for Palestine
Muhammad Nour ElKhairy, Jordan, 2018, 3′
Language is political in this subtle short film that shows an unnamed man in Amman, Jordan repeating decontextualized political English words all include the letter P – a letter that doesn’t exist in the Arabic language and pronouncing it is coded socially and economically.
A Palestinian filmmaker, video artist, film programmer and film editor from Jordan, currently based in Tio’tia:ke (Montréal). ElKhairy holds a MFA in Studio Arts: Film Production at Concordia University. He has won the Peter Lenkov Award for Script Writing, 2018. His work has been shown in several international film festivals and art galleries including Berwick Film & Media Arts Festival, Kaunas International Film Festival, Toronto Palestine Film Festival and the Leonard & Bina Ellen Gallery.
I Signed the Petition
Mahdi Fleifel, United Kingdom, Germany, Switzerland, 2018, 10′
A conversation between two friends about the effectiveness and implications of publicly supporting the cultural boycott of Israel.
Mahdi Fleifel is a Danish-Palestinian film director. Often examining themes of social injustice, Fleifel’s films largely convey the struggles of Palestinians under occupation.
Stones in Hand
Mo’min Swaitat, Unites Kingdom, 2020, 6′
Stones In Hand is an experimental docu-fiction based on the director’s experiences and memories of growing up in Jenin City in the West Bank.
Mo’min Swaitat is a London-based Palestinian Bedouin actor, filmmaker, music producer, DJ and archivist from Jenin. He trained at the Freedom Theatre, Jenin and arthaus (formerly LISPA), London and Berlin, before moving to London.
Vibrations From Gaza
Rehab Nazzal, Palestine and Canada, 2023,16′
Vibrations from Gaza offers a glimpse into the experiences of Deaf children in the colonized and confined coastal territory of Gaza, Palestine. Born and raised under Israeli siege and frequent onslaughts, Amani, Musa, Israa, and other Deaf Children, provide vivid accounts of their encounter of bombardment and the constant presence of drones in their sky.
Rehab Nazzal is a Palestinian-born multidisciplinary artist based in Toronto, Canada. She uses sound, video and the photographic image in her work to present contemporary war technology and its destructive effect on civilians, residential dwellings, infrastructures, and the environment.
Home Movies Gaza
Basma Alsharif, France and Palestinian Territory, 2013, 24′
Home Movies Gaza introduces us to the Gaza Strip as a mircrocosm for the failure of civilization. In an attempt to describe the everyday of a place that struggles for the most basic of human rights, this video claims a perspective from within the domestic spaces of a territory that is complicated.
Basma Alsharif is an artist using both moving and still images, sound and language to explore an anonymous individual in relation to political history and collective memory. She was educated in Art and Design at the University of Illinois at Chicago and has been working in Cairo, Beirut and Amman since then. Her art work has been shown at different festivals and in solo and group exhibitions.
More infos: https://occii.org/events/cinemoccii-palestinian-shorts/