Boston Palestine Film Festival

Last updated

The Boston Palestine Film Festival (BPFF) is an annual film festival held in Boston, MA that was established in 2007. The festival brings Palestine-related cinema, narratives, and culture to New England audiences with the mission to "showcase the extraordinary narrative and culture of Palestinians through cinema and art." [1] The thirteenth annual festival took place October 18–27, 2019.

Contents

Overview

Run by volunteers and co-presented by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, BPFF features documentaries, features, rare early works, video art pieces, as well as new films by emerging artists and youth. The selected works from directors around the world offer views of Palestine and its history, culture, and geographically dispersed society.

Each year, guest filmmakers from various countries and expert commentators are invited to be part of the festival and discuss their work with audiences. Since its founding in 2007, BPFF has presented over 300 Palestine-related films, as well as numerous major concerts, workshops, and art exhibits.

Winners

YearBest Feature NarrativeBest Feature DocumentaryBest Short
2019 The Tower Imprisoning a GenerationN/A
2018The Reports on Sarah and Saleem Soufra N/A
2017N/AStitching PalestineAyny - My Second Eye
2016 The Idol Open BethlehemN/A
2015 Eyes of a Thief The Wanted 18 N/A
2014GiraffadaMy Love Awaits Me by the SeaN/A
2013N/AVoices Across the Divide, A World Not Ours (co-winners)N/A
2012N/AThe War Around UsN/A
2011Man Without a Cell PhoneN/AN/A
2010N/AJerusalem: The East Side StoryN/A

See also

Related Research Articles

VideoDance Festival started in 2000 in Athens and Thessaloniki as an international dance film festival, but soon it widened up to include more kinds of experiment on movement and the moving image. The festival has counted 7 editions from 2000 to 2007.

Middle Eastern Cinema collectively refers to the film industries of Western Asia and part of North Africa. By definition, it encompasses the film industries of Egypt, Iran, Bahrain, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Palestine, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. As such, the film industries of these countries are also part of the cinema of Asia, or in the case of Egypt, Africa.

Silver Lake Film Festival

Silver Lake Film Festival ran from 2000 to 2007. It was a 501 (c) (3) nonprofit organization established to provide a showcase for cutting-edge independent film, music, digital, and other arts in Los Angeles, California. The Festival was held annually at various venues throughout Los Angeles’ Eastside, showcasing well over 200 narrative features, documentaries and short films. In 2005, in addition to its annual event, SLFF launched a very successful monthly series of short films with curated programs from an international array of filmmakers that is consistently SRO. The 7th annual edition ran for ten days, May 3–12, 2007, and included such varied programming as MP4Fest and MusicFest, along with curated film programs on architecture and design, urban sustainability, and an ASCAP Music Lounge along the lines of those at Tribeca and Sundance Film Festivals.

<i>Film Comment</i> American arts and culture magazine

Film Comment is an arts and culture magazine now published by the Film at Lincoln Center, of which it is the official publication. Film Comment features reviews and analysis of mainstream, art-house, and avant-garde filmmaking from around the world. Founded in 1962 and originally released as a quarterly, Film Comment began publishing on a bi-monthly basis with the Nov/Dec issue of 1972. The magazine's editorial team also hosts the annual Film Comment Selects at the Film at Lincoln Center. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, publication of the magazine was suspended in May 2020, and its website was updated on March 10, 2021, with news of the relaunch of the Film Comment podcast and a weekly letter.

The Independent Film Festival Boston is a not for profit film festival in Boston, Massachusetts.

Cinema of Palestine

Cinema of Palestine is relatively young in comparison to Arab cinema as a whole. Palestinian films are not exclusively produced in Arabic and some are even produced in English, French. The films of Palestinian director Elia Suleiman are Palestinian films.

The Chicago Palestine Film Festival is an annual film festival begun in 2001 in Chicago and is one of the most important venues in the US for the screening of Palestinian cinema. It accepts works in a variety of genres — documentaries, dramas, comedies — in both long and short formats. Although the organizers "are especially interested in work by Palestinian filmmakers,...nationality is not a selection criteria."

Osian's-Cinefan, the largest film-festival devoted to Asian and Arab cinema, is part of Osian's Film House Division. The festival celebrated its 10th anniversary in July 2008. After a two-year break, the 12th staging of the festival took place in July 2012.

Palestinian art

Palestinian art is a term used to refer to paintings, posters, installation art and other visual media produced by Palestinian artists.

Emily Jacir Palestinian artist and filmmaker (born 1972)

Emily Jacir is a Palestinian artist and filmmaker.

Annemarie Jacir Palestinian filmmaker and poet

Annemarie Jacir is a Palestinian filmmaker, writer, and producer.

Udi Aloni

Udi Aloni is an Israeli American filmmaker, writer, visual artist and political activist whose works focus on the interrelationships between art, theory, and action.

Boston Jewish Film Festival

The Boston Jewish Film Festival (BJFF) is an annual film festival that screens the best contemporary films on Jewish themes from around the world. The festival presents features, shorts, documentaries, and conversations with visiting artists in order to explore the Jewish identity, the current Jewish experience and the richness of Jewish culture in relation to a diverse modern world.

The Provincetown International Film Festival (PIFF) is an annual film festival founded in 1999 and held on Cape Cod in Provincetown, Massachusetts. The festival presents American and international narrative features, documentaries and short films for five days in June of each year.

French Institute Alliance Française (FIAF) is a 501(c)(3) not–for–profit organization incorporated in the State of New York. Its mission is to enhance the knowledge and appreciation of French and Francophone culture, to increase the knowledge of the French language, and to encourage interaction among French, Francophone, and American people through programs in education and the arts.

DC Palestinian Film and Arts Festival

The DC Palestinian Film and Arts Festival (DCPFAF) is a non-profit, volunteer-run annual film festival established in 2011 that showcases the work of Palestinian filmmakers and artists in Palestine and in diaspora, showcasing the range and complexity of Palestinian identities and narratives. The DCPFAF aims to bring together Washington, DC's various communities through art, catalyzing conversations about film, culture, and diaspora, utilizing the lens of Palestinian filmmakers as an entry point.

A growing number of film festivals are held in the Middle East to showcase films from the region as well as international standouts. In addition, institutions and organizations in other parts of the world are increasingly honoring the new generation of filmmakers in the Middle East with Arab film festivals.

Najwa Najjar is a film writer/director. Recently elected to the Academy of Arts and Sciences 2020. Born to a Jordanian father and Palestinian mother, she began her career making commercials and has worked in both documentary and fiction since 1999. Her debut feature film Pomegranates and Myrrh picked up 10 international awards, sold worldwide and was released theatrically and screened at over 80 international festivals.

Rasha Salti is a researcher, writer, producer, and curator of art and film. She lives and works between Beirut and Berlin. Salti co-curated many film programs at public institutions, including ArteEast, Lincoln Center and Museum of Modern Art in New York, and collaborated with film festivals as a programmer, such as the Abu Dhabi International Film Festival and Toronto International Film Festival. Since 2017, she is the commissioning editor for La Lucarne at ArteFrance, a program dedicated to Auteur documentaries. Her curatorial projects were exhibited at numerous international public institutions, including Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art, Haus der Kulturen der Welt in Berlin, Museo de la Solidaridad Salvador Allende in Santiago de Chile, the Sursock Museum in Beirut.

References

  1. "Mission | Boston Palestine Film Festival". www.bostonpalestinefilmfest.org. Archived from the original on 2012-10-08.