Reflections from Palestine during Covid-19
Guest programme presented by Filmlab Palestine
Reflections From Palestine is a collection of voices from Palestinian filmmakers on exceptional experiences. It is a testimony of a particular time and simultaneously speaks to a feeling that is understood worldwide. The films display personal film languages and reach out to collective stories expressing Palestine’s diversity and a broad span of emotions: from boredom to enjoyment, anger, fear, confusion, and complexities of quarantine days.
What started as an intimate journey of observation and reflection is not only a metaphor and snapshot of a time shaped by COVID-19 but turned out to be an artistic visual representation and interpretation of a further escalation of the political situation in Palestine.
This guest programme is presented by Filmlab Palestine. Founded in 2014, Filmlab Palestine’s aim is to expand and cultivate the existing cinema culture within Palestine, while providing the much-needed technical and artistic support for emerging Palestinian filmmaking voices.
Programme
Blurry by Laila Abbas
In times of lockdown, try not to sit on your glasses. Life is already blurry enough. And in Palestine, there’s always something else going on.
While We Waited For You by Muayad Alayan
A short diary captured by Muayad Alayan during the Covid-19 lockdown when the director and his journalist wife await the birth of their child.
Quarantine- A Capsule by Rozeen Bisharat and Juna Suleiman
During quarantine, and with no apparent future in sight, the very features that define us as social beings are being reconditioned. Different experiences of individuals from all around the world become combined, blurring the lines between the real and the virtual, between identity and place.
On The Island by Mohamed Jabaly
As a Palestinian living in diaspora in one of the Lofoten islands in northern Norway, we lived as Palestinians under greater adversities, and under periods of curfew and blockade that were harsher than those the world is now living. The pandemic has become a real accumulation of events that we have witnessed over the past years and the real pandemic that we are living under occupation.
Quarantine, Curfew, and Videotapes by Sameer Qumsiyeh
Sometimes life feels like it’s repeating itself, and what we think belongs only to the past we realize is still living in us in the present. Actually, it’s what shapes who we are today.
The End Is Here by Ihab Jadallah
Lockdown, social distancing, strictly controlled neighborhoods, behind the scenes of this epidemic, a plan conceived long ago is being put in practice.
Retreat by Bilal Alkhatib
Shots that take us from the ordinary friendly reality to a world of isolation, perplexity, and fear. Mysterious, unfamiliar, and unknown worlds.
Lifting The Mask by Najwa Najjar
As COVID-19 blinds the world and people hide behind their masks, Lifting the Mask uncovers the reality on the ground, as Israel prepares to annex more Palestinian land, this time using the pandemic as a cover.
One Step Backwards.. Two Steps Forward by Dima Abu Ghoush
Suddenly you discover how wonderful your restricted freedom is, how scary it is that an unknown danger surrounds you, and how fragile and beautiful this life is.
The Echo Chamber by Mohamed Harb
A surveillance camera in the corner of the room. On one side the camera observes the days of the artists, and on the other side, it observes the news of the world through the TV screen that’s broadcasting the latest news about the Coronavirus crisis. Documented by the artist who assembled and edited the footage in a contemporary artwork to illustrate the love to survive.
MAY by Maha Haj
Locked down with “Eva” in Nakba’s Anniversary.
Between You and Me by Majdi Omari
Between Me and You follows the day of a filmmaker/lecturer. Under the circumstances created by the state of the quarantine and with the help of others, he gathers the strength and perseverance to rediscover the link he has almost lost with the outer world.