Power of The Archive - Between Palestine and Pan African Cinema

Join us for a special discussion between Azza El-Hassan, the Palestinian filmmaker and archivist, and June Givanni, who formed a Pan African

About this Event

The discussion on the power and place of the archive for non-white communities will start with a screening of a selection of some of the films that have been restored by Azza El-Hassan as well as the films that June Giovanni has helped to archive and preserve as part of the June Givanni Pan African Cinema Archive. The discussion will then be hosted by Hudda Khaireh, an independent researcher and member of Thick/er Black Lines artist collective.

June Givanni:

June Givanni Pan African Cinema Archive (JGPACA) is a 30-year personal collection of films and film-related materials which are used to provide events and information for public engagement with Pan African cinema. The archive includes Films, Photographs and Stills, Posters, Audio, Publications, Manuscripts, Publicity Materials and Film Directories.

The materials were collected from the 1980s onwards and continue today. However, the archive references Pan African cinema that stretches back to the earliest African- American pioneers of independent cinema such as Oscar Micheaux in the 1920s; through the 1960s development of African cinemas alongside national independence movements on the continent; through to the 1980s and 1990s in the Caribbean and the UK with their significant cultural and artistic movements, that inspired filmmaking in those territories. Much of this material is still being catalogued and prepared for online consultation, and most of it is yet to be digitised. Most of the material is in English and there is also a significant amount in French.

Azza El-Hassan and The Void Project

The Void Project is an art project by filmmaker Azza El-Hassan that looks at the effect of the Israeli state’s abduction and destruction of Palestinian visual archive on Palestinian visual narrative.ّ

In The Void Project the looting of visual archives is seen to trigger a process of recreating, salvaging and preserving visual archive; acts that aim to fill the void which is created by the abduction and destruction of archive. The Void Project duplicates these three acts through its projects: Hidden, Archive Fever and Pep Archive and by doing so it aims to contribute to filling the void.

In an ‘Archive Fever, several Palestinian films have been restored, found or identified for restoration within the project. Most recent films to be restored, are films that were made by women filmmakers, during the revolutionary years of Palestinian Cinema. These restorations were done in collaboration between The Void Project and the London Palestine Film Festival.

Other Cinemas:

This event is part of Other Cinemas Easter Weekender exploring the power of the archive in helping non-white communities tell and share their own stories. For more screenings and talks happening on that weekend, see here.

Other Cinema is a project set up to share the films and stories of non-white people in spaces and ways which aren’t alienating to these communities. We focus on films and documentaries by established non-white filmmakers and invite them to share their journeys, struggles and successes in the field. Other Cinemas also champions new and emerging non-white filmmakers in the hopes of building spaces and connections which are sustaining to these filmmakers who often struggle in a sector which is hostile to them. Other Cinemas was established by Turab Shah and Arwa Aburawa, two local filmmakers who wanted to make the world of film more accessible to non-white communities.