Short Films for Palestine is a solidarity fundraising event for Palestine, organized by an independent collective and hosted by Improper Walls with the support of Rest as Resistance initiative. Through watching films together, we hope to offer an additional space for collective self-education.
In this screening, we will follow filmmakers as they use archival footage to reclaim the Palestinian narrative from the Zionist settler-colonial project in the early 20th century and highlight some of the many forms of Palestinian resistance. After the screening, there will be an online conversation with one of the filmmakers, Theo Panagopoulos.
Drinks and food, kindly provided by Rest as Resistance and organizers, will be available for a donation, with all proceeds going toward the fundraiser from The Sameer Project, a donation-based initiative, led by Palestinians in the diaspora, working to supply aid to displaced families in Gaza.
Due to limited space, please register your attendance at shortfilmsforpalestine@proton.me.
About the movies
The Silent Protest, 2019
by Mahasen Nasser-Eldin
20’
On 26 October 1929, Palestinian women launched their women’s movement. Approximately 300 women converged on Jerusalem from all over Palestine. They held a silent demonstration through a car convoy to protest at the British High Commissioner’s bias against Arabs in the Buraq uprising. This is their story on that day.
Jerusalem-born filmmaker and researcher Mahasen Nasser-Eldin tells stories of resistance and resilience, crafting carefully researched and scripted narratives that restore new life to forgotten figures and celebrate those on the margins of society. Mahasen’s research interest focuses on the use of film in the writing of historical narratives, using audio and visual archives. Her films have screened locally and internationally. She is a PhD candidate in archival film practice at De Montfort University in the UK.
The Flowers Stand Silently, Witnessing , 2023
by Theo Panagopoulos
17’
When a Palestinian filmmaker based in Scotland unearths a rarely-seen Scottish film archive of Palestinian wild flowers, he decides to reclaim the footage.
Theo Panagopoulos is a Greek-Lebanese-Palestinian filmmaker, film programmer, educator and PhD researcher based in Scotland. His creative and academic work explore themes of collective memory, displacement, fragmented identities and resistance often through anti-colonial, participatory and archival methodologies.