Palestine Cinema Days is an annual festival organised by Filmlab Palestine since 2014. Taking place every October, Filmlab Palestine work with venues across the world to screen films that inspire collective action toward justice and liberation. The festival offers a unique programme of international film screenings for adults and children, panel discussions, professional film workshops, child-friendly events, and opportunities to network.
This year, Spike Island joins arts venues across the UK and internationally in opening our space to Palestinian filmmakers and voices on the anniversary of the Balfour Declaration. This is part of our continuous effort to amplify marginalised artists and stories through our artistic programme.
The screenings are free, but booking is required.
PROGRAMME
Naila and the Uprising (2017) chronicles the remarkable journey of Naila Ayesh whose story weaves through the most vibrant, nonviolent mobilisation in Palestinian history — the First Intifada in the late 1980s. When a nation-wide uprising breaks out in 1987, a woman in Gaza must make a choice between love, family, and freedom. Undaunted, she embraces all three, joining a clandestine network of women in a movement that forces the world to recognise the Palestinian right to self-determination for the first time.
Run time: 76 minutes
ABOUT FILM LAB PALESTINE
Founded in 2014 and inspired by the personal experience of its founders, Filmlab Palestine uses filmmaking to empower young Palestinians living in refugee camps in Jordan to tell their own stories. Using their expertise, Filmlab Palestine works to provide the much-needed technical and artistic support for emerging Palestinian filmmaking voices, and to expand and cultivate Palestine’s existing cinema culture.
Following the slogan ‘It’s time to tell our stories’, Filmlab Palestine uses audiovisual storytelling as a tool for self-expression and preservation, all while solidifying Palestine’s role in the global cinema industry.
ABOUT AFLAMUNA
AFLAMUNA is a cultural nonprofit based in Beirut working to harness the power of independent Arab cinema to elevate the most pressing social, political, and cultural movements of our time. Established as a cooperative under the name of Beirut DC in 1999 by a group of Lebanese filmmakers and cultural organisers, it became a nonprofit organisation in 2006 under the same name, launching multiple programs and initiatives that helped independent cinema flourish in the Arab region. Today, after over two decades, AFLAMUNA upholds this legacy while keeping an eye to the future.
AFLAMUNA France is an independent cultural nonprofit organisation based in Paris founded in 2021, sharing the same mission and vision as AFLAMUNA.
