IN CINEMA
Knights of Cinema: The Story of the Palestine Film Unit
Co-presented with The Center for Palestine Studies, Columbia University
Tickets: Free with RSVP
Thursday, November 30 at 6PM
Join us to celebrate the launch of the English translation of Knights of Cinema: The Story of the Palestine Film Unit by Khadijeh Habashneh. The evening will include a reading from the book, exclusive recorded interviews with the author, and various archival images and videos that testify to the foundation of Palestine’s revolutionary cinema.
Knights of Cinema is an account of the creation of the Palestine Film Unit (PFU) and its founding members, from the photography department in the early years of the Palestinian revolution (1967-1968), to its evolution in the mid-1970's into the Palestinian Cinema Institution. Khadijeh Habashneh weaves her own memories into excerpts from letters and other communications of survivors, friends and PFU family members, with writings by scholars who analyzed the work and the contributions of this remarkable film movement (from the late 1960's to early 1980's). As such the volume offers a unique perspective on this aspect of Palestine film history — which ended with the loss of its archive in the mid 1980's — providing details that have not been previously published in English.
Khadijeh Habashneh (also known as Khadijeh Abu Ali) is a researcher, film maker, and activist for women’s rights and human rights. She worked as a volunteer with the PFU, and became an integral member in 1974, when the unit evolved into the Palestinian Cinema Institution (PCI). From 1976-1982, she worked as the head of the Archive and Cinematheque of the PCI, and wrote and directed two documentaries, including Children Without Childhood, also known as Children Nevertheless. Habashneh has also worked extensively on women’s issues. She was a founding member and served as executive member in the General Union of Palestinian Women (GUPW) from 1980-2009, was a founding member and vice president of the Center for Women’s Studies in Jordan 1989-1997 and taught and published several books and articles in this field.
Palestine Cuts 2023-4 Curators:
Nadine Fattaleh is a Palestinian writer and researcher from Amman. She is currently a PhD student in Media, Culture and Communications at New York University.
Nasreen Abd Elal is a multidisciplinary graphic designer, illustrator, and researcher whose work centers on the intersection of graphic design and justice-oriented movement work. She works as an information designer at Visualizing Palestine. She graduated with a degree in Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies from Columbia University in 2021.
The Center for Palestine Studies promotes the academic study of Palestine by supporting research, teaching, and intellectual collaboration among scholars within Columbia University and beyond. CPS provides an institutional home for faculty, post-doctoral researchers, and students at Columbia in fields that include history, literary studies, the social sciences, religion, philosophy, law, archaeology, architecture, and the arts. CPS also builds connections with other institutions and scholars to strengthen the academic study of Palestine and Palestinians throughout the United States and the world. Launched in 2010, the Center for Palestine Studies at Columbia University is the first such center in an academic institution in the United States.
Palestine Cuts is a space for emerging and established filmmakers and video-artists to present and discuss their work in an engaging and encouraging environment. It promotes stimulating audiovisual projects (documentary and fiction film, video, installations, etc.) that challenge existing conventions and offer critical and alternative views about Palestine and Palestinians. Palestine Cuts also is interested in the broader regional and global socio-political, economic, and cultural context of which Palestine is an intrinsic part. In this sense, CPS hopes to bring Palestine-related work into conversation with other Arab and international filmmakers and audiovisual artists. Through screenings, discussions, master classes as well as open and closed workshops for work in progress and finished projects, Palestine Cuts hopes to attract a wide array of artists, producers, curators, critics, scholars, activists and others interested in committed audiovisual work that opens up new spaces for imagination.
