FCP’s industry days are part of Palestine’s cultural resistance

Video and editing by Jehan Alfarra, interview by Amelia Smith. 

Following a request made by Palestinian directors, the organisers of Festival Ciné-Palestine (FCP) incorporated two full industry days into their programme; they were designed to be a space where French, Palestinian and international professionals could exchange ideas and debate their films.

As Palestinians from the diaspora cannot all travel to Palestine the FCP is held in the French capital Paris. It aims to increase the visibility of French cinema and is part of Palestinian cultural resistance.

Read: Palestinian film festival in Paris confronts the Nakba head on

This year’s festival coincides with the 70th anniversary of the Nakba (Catastrophe) when hundreds of villages were destroyed, thousands killed and over 750,000 people displaced during the creation of the state of Israel in 1948. Palestinian directors have used film to tell of the collective trauma of exile and dispossession.

Films are historical documents, says Ossama Bawardi who produced Annemarie Jacir’s award-winning “Wajib”:

“Palestinians are left with memories. We lost our land, we still have the memory of the land and the will to go back. Film is part of this memory, it builds this memory and preserves it then festivals like this keep it present.”

Film is an important tool to relay the Palestinian experience to the world, said Bastien Gauclère, former audiovisual officer of the French General Consulate in Jerusalem:

“When you see what’s going on in Gaza the power to show those stories is one of the most useful weapons [Palestinians] have today to defend themselves.”

Mai Masri screening, Cinema Les 3 Luxembourg at the Palestinian Film Festival in Paris, France [Jehan Alfarra/Middle East Monitor]

Mai Masri screening, Cinema Les 3 Luxembourg at the Palestinian Film Festival in Paris, France [Jehan Alfarra/Middle East Monitor]

Panel: building the Palestinian film industry and community. Hanna Atallah, Artistic Director, FilmLab: Palestine and Noémi Kahn, Assistant Director of Network of Alternative Screens (NAAS) at the Palestinian Film Festival in Paris, France [Jehan Alfarra/Middle East Monitor]

Ossama Bawardi, producer, Philistine Films and Patrick Sobelman, producer, Agat Films & Cie / Ex Nihilo at the Palestinian Film Festival in Paris, France [Jehan Alfarra/Middle East Monitor]

Panel: Financing independent Arab cinema. From left to right; Bastien Gauclère, former audiovisual officer of the French General Consulate in Jerusalem, Rima Mismar Executive Director of European and International Affairs of the Arab Fund for Arts and Culture (AFAC) and Michel Plazanet, Deputy Director of CNC at the Palestinian Film Festival in Paris, France [Jehan Alfarra/Middle East Monitor]

Bastien Gauclère, former audiovisual officer of the French General Consulate in Jerusalem at the Palestinian Film Festival in Paris, France [Jehan Alfarra/Middle East Monitor]

From left Hanna Atallah, Samia Labidi coordinator, Festival Ciné-Palestine, Patrizia Roletti, co-founder, Festival Ciné-Palestine at the Palestinian Film Festival in Paris, France [Jehan Alfarra/Middle East Monitor]

Panel: Financing independent Arab cinema. From left to right; Bastien Gauclère, former audiovisual officer of the French General Consulate in Jerusalem, Rima Mismar Executive Director of European and International Affairs of the Arab Fund for Arts and Culture (AFAC) and Michel Plazanet, Deputy Director of CNC at the Palestinian Film Festival in Paris, France [Jehan Alfarra/Middle East Monitor]

Michel Plazanet, Deputy Director of CNC at the Palestinian Film Festival in Paris, France [Jehan Alfarra/Middle East Monitor]