STATMENT

It was a challenge to reach the 10th edition of Palestine Cinema Days, which would have been a significant milestone for the festival and the Palestinian film industry. Last October, we planned a celebratory edition, but we decided to stop our activities after the genocide in Gaza began.
The genocide has not stopped, and our sense of powerlessness has only grown. Nevertheless, our narrative has gained global popular solidarity, and we still own it.

In a TEDx talk in Shujaiya in October 2015, Dr. Refaat Alareer stated: “As Palestinians under occupation, storytelling transcends the didactic value to an urgent need to owning our narrative, something that gives back power to the people rather than the elite. Stories that people can tell about a land are proofs of their right to that land”.

Stories from Palestine, Lebanon, Yemen, and Sudan will be told in Jerusalem, Ramallah, Bethlehem, Hebron, Jaffa, Haifa, Nazareth, Shefa-Amr, and Gaza in the 10th edition of Palestine Cinema Days.