Welcome to the Bristol Palestine Digital Film Festival 2020 – it’s online and free. For 10 days, we are showing 24 short films to celebrate our 10-year anniversary. That’s 10 years of compelling, inspiring, funny cinema, reflecting the lives of Palestinians. Many of the films in our 2020 programme were released this year and range from drama, documentary and experimental. Scroll down to start watching.
Location: Online
An uncompromising documentary following a Palestian football team of amputees, whose courage and energy shines through despite their disability, the war, and their disastrous living conditions. Most of the men had to be amputated when they took part in the March Back Home demonstration at the border of the Gaza Strip, where explosive bullets were used by the Israeli army.
Location: Online
A documentary following the stories of four young Palestinians who have been detained and imprisoned under the Israeli military and political systems. Their perspectives, along with the voices of their families, form a lens into the entangled structures of oppression that expands well beyond the prison walls.
Location: Online
From a young age, Nour Al Ghussein stood out. She was selected for global leadership programs in South Africa and Harvard but couldn’t attend either due to the siege on her native Gaza. Next, she was selected for a student leadership program in the US. The film shadows Nour at 21, as she struggles to overcome the restrictions on Gazans who wish to leave the Strip, even if they have the most compelling case to do so.
Location: Online
A young woman in her mid-thirties lives an ordinary life between her work and home. We discover however, that she is living in a fantasy world, which she created to help tolerate her destiny.
Location: Online
A conversation over video call between Farah, who recently moved to Prague, and her grandmother, living in Lebanon; they talk about their fate as Palestinian refugees who were granted the Lebanese citizenship in 1994. The two women, from different generations, touch on topics that are filled with emotions, memories and hope.
Location: Online
This documentary tells the story of three teenage girls that live in Jerusalem, the West Bank and Haifa, who despite being no more than 100 km apart are separated by walls and checkpoints. Through observations of their daily lives, we learn that although their backgrounds are very different, they are united by a common desire for peace and an end to the occupation.
Location: Online
Filmmaker Areeb Zuaiter embarks on a personal journey to explore how her kids will relate to their roots in Palestine – a place in which they may never live. She meets a painter, a comedian, a poet, a hip-hop artist and a soul singer who have figured out ways to express and celebrate their Palestinian identity, which is under constant threat in their homeland.
Location: Online
A part of the Bedouin minority lives between Jerusalem and Jericho in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, suffering particularly from the loss of their identity, forced to remain locked down in that territory and to become sedentary. For this reason, poverty, degradation and domestic violence were born. This film reports their strength and will to resist and change for the better.
Location: Online
An archival essay about images, nationhood and oppression and how history is manufactured to continually return to a mythical past. Using footage from films (educational, propaganda, home movies) about Palestine/Israel, it reflects upon the narratives of nationhood and its dependence upon images. From biblical to recent history, Israel’s identity is constructed around a never-ending loop where the ideology is centred around the return of a mythical past.
Location: Online
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.
Location: Online
On June 9, 1967, the Egyptian president at the time, Gamal Abdel Nasser informed citizens of their country's defeat in the war. During the speech, he also announced his resignation. This film stylistically weaves found footage from Egyptian film and television at the time, to reconstruct Nasser's speech.
Location: Online
In a chaotic refugee camp, two Palestinians failing in their attempt to record a demo for a music competition, find a creative way forward.
