Film Screenings / Programs / Series
PALESTINIAN VOICES
November 16 – February 29
Charged with the conviction that it’s vitally important at the present moment to present films that shed light on the Palestinian experience, that humanize Palestinian civilians, and that explore the historical context for the current war, we will be presenting screenings over the coming months of films that showcase Palestinian voices (beginning with a visit from filmmaker Mai Masri).
Here at Anthology, we feel that our primary role is to provide a platform for different artistic and political voices, and to express ourselves through the films we present, and so we generally prefer to let our programming speak for itself. In that spirit, we offer this film series. But in light of the ongoing and seemingly unstoppable infliction of civilian casualties in the region, and in response to the efforts here in the U.S. to silence those who express their protest against the Israeli government’s actions, we feel compelled to articulate the motivation for these screenings.
So much of the rhetoric today seems to hinge on equating either the Israeli people and their government, or the Palestinian people and Hamas, an equation that is unjust in both cases. These attitudes undermine the human capacity for nuanced thought and historical understanding in a way that can only lead to further conflict and suffering. To our mind there’s no difficulty in recognizing, on the one hand, the pain of the October 7 attacks, the history and present-day resurgence of anti-Semitism, and the deep-seated sense of existential threat that is the legacy of the Holocaust within Jewish culture, while on the other hand acknowledging the humanitarian disaster in Gaza, the ongoing occupation of the Palestinian territories, and the immense power differential that exists between Israel and the Palestinian people today. It’s our strong conviction that there’s room, intellectually and emotionally, both to mourn the victims of the October 7 attacks and to recognize the injustice that continues to be inflicted on Palestinian civilians. To let the very real phenomenon of anti-Semitism stand in the way of an understanding of the experience of the Palestinian people and a call for peace is only to allow one tragedy to beget another. And a social-cultural climate in which people are censored or dismissed for protesting the killing of civilians, or for highlighting the history of the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories, is one that urgently calls for the raising of an alarm.
With these screenings, we aim to push back against the stifling of voices – both Palestinian voices and voices of protest. And we take the occasion to join the call for Palestinian self-determination, an end to the killing of civilians, and the passage of humanitarian aid into Gaza, and to protest the censorship of political speech here in the U.S.
Stay tuned for details of future programs, which will take place in December and in 2024.
