Practical
Tuesday, 3 December, 2024
- 19:00 until 21:00
Cinema RITCS - Antoine Dansaertstraat 70, 1000 Brussels
Tickets €8, €6 (discount rate for students)
Jocelyne Saab (30 April 1948 – 7 January 2019) was a pioneering figure in Lebanese cinema. Saab’s talents extended across multiple roles: not only was she a remarkable film director, but she was also a journalist, photographer, scriptwriter, producer, and artist who harmoniously wove these disciplines into her cinematic vision.
Saab was deeply fascinated by Palestinian life and struggle. In 2013, she founded the Cultural Resistance International Film Festival of Lebanon, and dedicated her work to giving a voice to the marginalized and displaced communities, exiled fighters, and cities ravaged by war. Through her lens, she captured the struggles of those affected by historic violence, crafting powerful narratives that reflect on the realities of conflict and the role of art in resisting it. Her films not only document suffering but also create space for resilience and hope.
This evening, we will explore three of her short films, each offering a unique perspective: one through the lens of women, another through the eyes of children, and a third from the viewpoint of the men of the Palestinian Liberation Organization. Together, these films encourage reflection on the complexities of conflict and the powerful role of art in preserving lived experiences and recording history for future generations.
Program
19:00 – Welcome by Wouter Hessels (Film historian RITCS) and Iman Lechkar (Chairholder VUB Chair Fatima Mernissi)
19:10 – Introduction by Mohanad Yacubi (filmmaker, involved in the restoration of Jocelyne Saab’s films)
19:30 – Screening of Jocelyne Saab’s Short Films
- Les Femmes palestiniennes (1974)
- Les Enfants de la Guerre (1976)
- Le Bateau de l’Exil (1982)
20:30 – Conversation with Omar Jabary Salamanca, a political scientist specializing in Palestine, archiving, and documenting colonial violence, Hadil Alramli, a Palestinian-Belgian producer, journalist, filmmaker, and researcher in art and social sciences and Flora Woudstra Hablé, coordinator Cinema RITCS.
Bios
Hadil Alramli is a Palestinian-Belgian producer, journalist, filmmaker, and researcher in art and social sciences. She has more than fifteen years of rich experience working as a photojournalist, trainer and art director with various institutions in the Middle East and Europe. She holds a MSc in Cinema from the Luca School of Arts in Belgium and a BA in Media and Communication from the Islamic University of Gaza. Hadil has received an array of national & international prizes, including the Arts in Society Award in Belgium for her work on applying cinema therapy in adolescent education—a research project now integrating clinical applications and expanding on an international scale.
Mohanad Yaqubi (Kuwait, 1981) is a filmmaker, producer, and co-founder of Idioms Film in Ramallah. He is also a member of Subversive Film, a collective dedicated to redistributing militant cinema. Since 2017, Yaqubi has lectured and conducted research at KASK School of Arts in Ghent. Trained as a mechanical engineer at Birzeit University, he later earned a master’s in Feature Film from Goldsmiths, UK. His research focuses on archives and solidarity movements from a Palestinian perspective. His films include Off Frame AKA Revolution Until Victory (2016), which premiered at Toronto IFF, Berlinale, and Cinéma du Réel, and R21 AKA Restoring Solidarity (2022), which premiered at documenta15 and IDFA.
Omar Jabary Salamanca is a writer, teacher, organizer and research fellow based at the Université libre de Bruxelles. His work is concerned with the governance of space, matter, bodies and environments in a range of historical and geographical contexts, particularly in the Middle East. He is also interested in anticolonial histories and circulations of visual and material culture. Combining theory with multi-sited ethnographic fieldwork and archival practice, his work and practice crosses the fields of critical geography, political ecology, science and technology studies and Middle East studies. Omar is co-founder of United Screens for Palestine and the Kitchen and Sabr collectives.
Flora Woudstra Hablé is a Brussels-based writer, filmmaker and cinema programmer. Her work focuses on community, equity and decoloniality, with a special focus on the Levant. A graduate of the research masters Cultural Analysis and Journalism at the University of Amsterdam, she recently completed a bachelor in filmmaking at RITCS and is currently producing a short film at LUCA Brussels.
Tickets and organization
Tickets are available online through the Cinema RITCS website for €8, with a discounted rate of €6 for students, RITCS staff, RITCS alumni, job seekers, and seniors (65+). Cineville ticket holders can attend for free but must still reserve a ticket.
This event is part of Frames of Resistance, a series of film screenings that highlights the important contributions of Arab film producers, particularly their gendered perspectives on the Palestinian question. This year’s program makes a vital connection to Israel’s ongoing war on Gaza and Lebanon, amplifying voices that shed light on Israeli colonization, violence, and the resilience of Palestinian men, women, and children.
The film series is presented by VUB Crosstalks, the VUB Fatima Mernissi Chair, VUB Palestine Solidarity Network and Cinema RITCS.
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