Palestine Cinema Days | Activity
MACBA joins the international initiative launched last year in solidarity with the Palestinian film festival Cinema Days, forced to be held in exile. During the first days of November, organizations and spaces all over the world will once again screen films from the festival free of charge. One of the featured films, the documentary The Wanted 18will be screened at MACBA. Through humor and animation, it tells the story of a Palestinian community’s resistance during the 1987 uprising.
Presentation by Amer Shomalidirector of The Wanted 18 (online from Ramallah), in conversation with Maria BerriosDirector of Conservation and Research at MACBA.
This feature film combines live action footage with animation to tell the curious story of 18 cows. Acquired by a Palestinian community in the late 1980s, the cows became a symbol of freedom and resistance, providing milk for the Palestinian residents of Beit Sahour, so that they would not have to rely on Israeli producers. Soon the illegal cows, cherished by the Palestinians, were being sought by the Israeli army as a threat to national security. With humor and passion, this film captures the spirit of the 1987 uprising through the personal experiences of those who lived it.
Palestine Cinema Days Festival is an annual event organized by Filmlab Palestine in October of each year. It aims to put Palestine on the map of the global cinema industry and the film scenein addition to promoting local and international films across several places in different cities within Palestine. Filmlab Palestine launched the first edition of Palestine Cinema Days in 2014 (which was called Cinema Days) and it has become an annual tradition ever since.
In 2023, Filmlab Palestine had to postpone their Palestine Cinema Days festival. Instead of celebrating cinema in Palestine, they brought Palestine to the world. MACBA hosted “Palestine Cinema Days Around the World”, which happened in 86 cities, across 139 venues, spanning 41 countries! This global event featured 171 screenings of 9 films from and about Palestine.
Programme
19:00 – 19:15 h
Presentation by Amer Shomali and María Berríos (in English without simultaneous interpretation)
19:15 – 20:30 h
Screening: The Wanted 18Amer Shomali, Pal Cowan, 2014, Palestine-Canada, documentary, animation, 76′, original version with Spanish subtitles.
Organized by
participant
María Berrios (MACBA) is a sociologist, editor and curator from Chile, her work focuses on contemporary art, politics, and culture in Latin America, and beyond, with special interest in collective cultural experiments and Third World movements between the 1960s and 1970s. She is co-founder of the editorial collective vaticanochico and has been a guest professor at multiple academic, cultural and self-organized institutions in Europe and Latin America. Among her recent curatorial projects are The Crack Begins Within. 11th Berlin Biennale (2020-21) curated together with Renata Cervetto, Agustín Pérez Rubio and Lisette Lagnado, and In the Jungle There Is Much to Do, Museo de la Solidaridad Salvador Allende (2022-2023). She is currently Director of Curatorial Programs and Research at MACBA.
read more
