The 2012 London Palestine Film Festival opens tonight...

The Palestine Film Festival is a fantastic annual event gone form strength to strength, now firmly established in the calender. I just wish I could go again this year - be there if you can. The 2012 London Palestine Film Festival opens tonight... palestinefilm.org LPFF12 opens tonight The 15th London Palestine Film Festival opens today at the Barbican Cinema. View the festival programme here, and read on for OPENING WEEKEND HIGHLIGHTS: Saturday, 15:30: Man Without A Cell Phone + Yala to the Moon Man Without a Cell Phone, Sameh Zoabi, 2011 (click image for synopsis) Another chance to catch this year's Festival opener: Sameh Zoabi's debut feature is a quirky comedy that moves deftly between political satire and generational drama. Preceded by Suhel Nafar and Jacqueline Reem Salloum's short Yala to the Moon, in which young Aseel remakes the world around her using only her imagination... and some nifty recycling tricks! Followed by a Q&A with Sameh Zoabi in conversation with film critic Carmen Gray. Read more... Yala to the Moon, Suhel Nafar & Jacqueline Reem Salloum, 2011 (click image for synopsis) BOOK NOW ...............................Saturday, 20:00: Gaza Hospital + Panel: 30 Years Since the Siege of Beirut Gaza Hospital, Marco Pasquini (click image for synopsis) This UK Premiere and panel discussion is co-presented with MAP (Medical Aid for Palestinians) to mark the 30th anniversary of the siege of Beirut. Marco Pasquini's doc uses extraordinary archive footage and penetrating interviews to chronicle the rise and demise of the PLO's pioneering welfare programmes in Lebanon during the late 1970s. The director will be joined by veteran Gaza Hospital surgeon Dr Swee Ang, revolutionary filmmaker Monica Maurer, and MAP's James Denselow. Read more... BOOK NOW ............................... Sunday, 18:15: Five New Short Dramas from the West Bank Flower Seller +Haneen+The Well+First Lesson+Birth Flower Seller, Ihab Jadallah, 2011 (click image for synopsis) This collection of fiction shorts from the West Bank spans film genres, with new works of historic drama (The Well, Ahmad Habash), high-pace thriller (Flower Seller, Ihab Jadallah), comedy (First Lesson, Areen Omari), allegory (Haneen, Ossama Bawardi), and a coming-of-age family story (Birth, Dima Abu Ghoush). Read more... Haneen, Ossama Bawardi (click image for synopsis) The Well, Ahmad Habash (click image for synopsis) BOOK NOW ............................... Sunday, 20:00: British Colonial Film in Palestine, 1917 - 1947 + Panel discussion Script for 1947 British film Portrait of Palestine, detail. (click image for event details) Undoubtedly a highlight of this year's festival, this exclusive selection of official, amateur, and newsreel film from the period of British colonial rule has been especially curated by Francis Gooding of the Colonial Film: Moving Images of the British Empire project. Followed the screenings, several of which are silent and will be accompanied by live commentary, Gooding will deliver a presentation on the making of 1947 British Colonial Office film, Portrait of Palestine. This will be followed by a panel discussion on moving images of the British colonial period in Palestine, chaired by historian Mezna Qato and with the participation of curator and art historian Francis Gooding, filmmaker Kamal Aljafari, historian Ilan Pappe, and visual anthropologist Christopher Pinney. Read more... BOOK NOW PFF on Facebook @LondonPFF Forward to a Friend Lacan Palestine This Monday... Don't miss Monday's UK Premiere of Mike Hoolboom's psychoanalytic-celluloid voyage into an inner space called "Palestine". NOTE: Due to circumstances beyond our control, the director will no longer be in attendance. BOOK NOW / READ MORE Exhibition Navigations: Palestinian Video Art, 1988-2011 Last week to catch the 2012 exhibition, which comes to an end on Thursday April 26th.  Support the PFF Please support the work of the PFF by making a secure donation through our website or using the Paypal button below. Trailer View festival trailer here Ella Shohat Book Talk, Signing, & Reception Next Thursday, April 26th, at SOAS. Ella Habiba Shohat's seminal work, Israeli Cinema: East/West and the Politics of Representation was heralded by Edward Said as a "tour-de-force" on its initial publication in 1989. Now in a new, updated edition, Shohat will give a talk illustrated by excerpts and followed by a discussion with leading documentary filmmaker Eyal Sivan. This keynote event is free and unticketed, and will be followed by a drinks reception and book signing - read more.  Beyond Palestine The LPFF12 includes two screen events focused on key regional issues "beyond Palestine". This Monday, Syrian blogger and commentator Wassim Al-Adel introduces Hatem Ali's potent cinematic critique of Syria's Assad regime(s), The Long Night (pictured). BOOK NOW Then, on Tuesday, a screening of The Problem: Testimonies of the Saharawi People is followed by an expert panel on the struggle for self-determination in the Western Sahara - "Africa's last colony".  BOOK NOW Funding and programme partners of the 2012 London Palestine Film Festival Copyright © 2012 Palestine Film Foundation, All rights reserved.  unsubscribe from this list | update subscription preferences