Researcher Carol Almeida states, in Curating Cinema: From Thought to Action, that “since the Palestinian struggle is ‘painfully observable and clearly visible, but always seems unable to be seen,’ this struggle becomes a fundamental barometer for thinking about curation as a system of ‘making visible’ that to which the world has decided to close its eyes.”
The 27th FestCurtasBH, through its special FilmLab Palestine program, reaffirms its commitment to re-sensitizing a collective gaze towards the greatest ongoing genocide of our time, denouncing violence and excavating the poetry and life that insists on flourishing from the rubble.
The film Maha Haj (2024) will be screened on November 2nd at 5:30 PM at the Cine Humberto Mauro. Free admission.
Read the manifesto of the Palestine Cinema Days project below.
“If I must die,
you must live
to tell my story
If I must die
let it bring hope
let it be a tale”
Refaat Alareer
We are organizing Palestine Cinema Days in the wake of a fragile ceasefire, understanding that a ceasefire does not signify an end to aggression or liberation.
Palestine has been under occupation for seventy-seven years, and Gaza remains under fire, deprived of basic necessities.
Death hovers over the skies of Palestine, Lebanon, Yemen, and Sudan. Many regimes have conspired to commit these crimes against humanity, while the world has remained silent.
However, you have chosen to stand with humanity, justice, and life.
We open these screenings carrying within us the longing for those who are gone, the anger at what continues to unfold, and the faith that what is spoken from the heart of the people can become a living act in the face of death.
Palestine Cinema Days will illuminate screens across the globe, seeking a world where colonization, imperialist terror, and injustice no longer have a place.
We envision a world led by humanity, for humanity, a world that will protect the most vulnerable with all its might, a healthy world, a just world.
We are still here, and here we will remain, determined to build a better future and a better world.