XINEMA presents: Farther Than the Eye Can See, a screening of five short experimental films by local and international Palestinian filmmakers. These works observe Palestinian place, relation, and history as they are and have been represented through images and artifacts; and reflects on each filmmakers’ experience in and apart from their homeland, and speaks to personal and familial perspectives on displacement and occupation.
The program will begin with an original spoken word poem presented by Hira Rashid, and conclude with a Q&A with filmmaker Natali Karajeh.
Balconies الشرف
Kamal Aljafari (Germany, 2007), 8 min
An experimental meditation focusing on the deteriorated and unfinished balconies of the hometown of Kamal Aljafari, Ramla, and inspired by Romance sonámbulo by Federico García Lorca: “But now I am no longer me, and my house is no longer my House…”
Wild Plants of Palestine
Alaa Abu Asad (Netherlands/Palestine, 2018), 10 min
Journeys of observational tours solicited by the Palestinian Museum and conducted by two professors from Birzeit University to collect photos and information about Palestinian flora.
WARNING: Depictions of military invasion.
Your father was born 100 years old, and so was the Nakba ابوكي خلق عمره ١٠٠ سنة، زي النكبة
Razan AlSalah (Canada, 2018), 7 min
A Palestinian grandmother returns to her hometown Haifa through Google Streetview, today, the only way she can see Palestine.
Farther Than the Eye Can See
Basma al-Sharif (Germany, 2012), 13 min
An essayistic exploration of statelessness is conveyed through this visually gripping and astutely constructed tale of a mass exodus of Palestinians from Jerusalem, recounted over a dense, stroboscopic cityscape.
WARNING: Prolonged strobing, gunshot sounds, and an audio recollection of military occupation forced displacement.
My Grandmothers Keys – ستي مفتاح
Natali Karajeh (Canada, 2021), 13 min
An experimental documentary about the Palestinian woman who took refuge in Jordan, what they have built, and what they left behind.
WARNING: Audio recollections of military occupation and forced displacement.
Q&A with filmmaker Natali Karajeh
XINEMA [zin-em-a] is an artist-run experimental film series founded and based on on the traditional, ancestral and unceded territory of the Musqueam and the Tsleil-Wautuh Nations (Vancouver, BC). They began operation in VIFF Centre’s 41 seat Studio Theatre, with a focus on BC-based and connected media artists, stringing emerging and established artists together into monthly thematic programs.
With a home-ground of VIFF Centre, they now operate between spaces and regions, facilitating screenings, workshops and related events, with a focus on local wherever that may be.
Their main priorities are to remain low-barrier, accepting free ongoing and unlimited submissions of any year or premiere status; prioritize underrepresented artists and media forms; and connect filmmakers and film-lovers of various backgrounds, disciplines and career levels.
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