The University of Edinburgh
19 George Square, Edinburgh, City of Edinburgh EH8
UK
Dr Anna Bernard, King’s College London
Monday 2nd March 17:30; room G2, 19 George Square
This paper discusses documentary films about Palestine and the Palestinians from the 1970s and ’80s, including Some of the Palestinians (dir. Mamoun Hassan, UNRWA, 1976), Occupied Palestine (dir. David Koff, 1981), and Who Are the Palestinians? (BBC, 1983). These films are fairly early examples of Palestine solidarity activism aimed at an English-speaking audience, and they emerge at a crucial juncture in the general shift, from the 1970s onward, from third-worldist and liberationist ideas of solidarity to civil society and humanitarian approaches. I argue that these films respond to the organizational needs of their particular moment by drawing on both notions of what it means to be in solidarity, a strategy that remains in evidence in contemporary forms of Palestine solidarity activism. They thus have important resonances with, and lessons for, cultural activism in our present moment.
‘Some of the Palestinians’ excerpt from Mamoun Hassan on Vimeo.
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