We look forward to seeing you at the fourth screening organised by the Palestine Cineforum at UAntwerpen as part of the initiative United Screens for Palestine.
We will screen Palestine Blues (2006) by Nida Sinnkrot on April 29th. United Screens for Palestine will introduce the film and we will be joined by artist and educator Nida Sinnokrot for a conversation afterwards.
The event will take place in the IOB Promotiezaal (S Building) Lange Sinteannestraat, 7, 2000 Antwerp.
Date: Monday 29 April 2024
Time: Doors open at 5.30pm, screening begins at 6pm
Venue: UA S Building, Lange Sint Annastraat 7, 2000, Antwerpen.
Places are limited and registration is mandatory. Please fill the registration form below to secure your spot.
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What is left for Palestinian farmers who learn that in 24hrs the Israeli Army will confiscate their lands for the construction of the wall? What do people do when their very survival is threatened by one of the world's most powerful armies? Palestine Blues tells the story of a village's confusion, desperation, and resistance, their daily victories and wrenching defeats. Unexpectedly filled with moments of poetry and humour this film's intimate access, unforgettable characters and story structure blur the line between documentary and narrative. Filmed at times with a hidden camera and at times under extreme duress, PalestinianAmerican filmmaker Nida Sinnokrot gives us a lasting chronicle of a people and their ancient lifegiving orchards, ever threatened by destruction.
Nida Sinnokrot is an artist and educator whose work explores how various forms of power and bias are embedded in dominant narrative structures and attendant articulations of time and space. Working across film, video, photography, sculpture, installation, and agriculture, Nida seeks to expose and cannibalize -through tactile, tactical and material acts of technical and conceptual detournement- various technologies of control that give rise to shifting social, political and environmental instabilities. Nida is a co-founder of Sakiya – Art | Science | Agriculture, an international residency program and research platform in the West Bank village of Ein Qinya, and Associate Professor in the Art, Culture, and Technology program (ACT) at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
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United Screens for Palestine
Despite the bombs, the silence, the complicity, the dehumanisation, and despite attempts to obliterate their existence, their past and present, Palestinians refuse to disappear, they are here to stay. Being is not premised on a recognition exacted from those implicated in your colonisation and erasure. Rather it is a life practice, a politics of patience and refusal, a will to remain and return to the land, and a desire to thrive decade after decade, intifada after intifada.
Refusing to Disappear is a series of decentralised film screenings and discussions held in different cities and venues across Belgium to engage with the rich legacy of Palestinian storytelling through films. Furthermore, it is a program that asks us to bear witness, remember, and rage against the Israeli war on Gaza and Palestine and to move collectively towards liberation, for a life in freedom and dignity for all, from the river to the sea.
Refusing to Disappear does not come in a vacuum, it is a response to various global film screening initiatives. These gatherings serve as platforms for substantive discussions, educational pursuits, and an earnest exploration of the historical narrative of Palestine.
