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Parkour in Palestine

Curator and Interlocutor: Yara Almunaizel
Thursday May 20th | 20:00 | Online streamed live from Forum Factory Berlin

Palestinian parkour athlete Ihab Dawoud, will take us on his journey toward becoming a parkour professional. This talk will focus on overcoming hurdles both physical and mental, as well as finding an opportunity to make physical structures your playground, through Parkour in Palestine. The panel explores how neglected spaces can be used to create a sense of freedom and push against the norm. Parkour is a sport but also a claim and an expression of freedom of movement, something that is severely restricted in the Palestinian occupied territories. Parkour in Palestine reminds us of the life under occupation and the limits it sets. Ihab will share some of his own films and give a short overview of his journey toward becoming a Parkour professional, on which Yara will follow up with questions, before opening up the floor to the audience.

Panelist:

Ihab Dawoud
Parkour athlete

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The Use of Archives in Palestinian Cinema 

Convenor: Nahed Awwad
Cancelled

Since the 1948 Nakba (Catasprophe), material for Palestinian archives was either destroyed or looted and scattered all over the world, like the Palestinian people themselves. The archives often ended up in other countries’ archives, in Europe, the US, or in Israel. This absence and denial of access to Palestinian archives has lead Palestinian artists and film makers to look into alternative ways in order to reconstruct the Palestinian narratives that had been missing for decades. This panel will explore how Palestinian artists have (re)constructed the archives and reclaimed Palestinian narratives though their work. The film-makers did not only rely on the official archives; instead, they started looking for private family photo albums which they used in different forms in their films. This panel will explore the different uses of archive in Palestinian cinema and how they contribute to building and reclaiming a narrative that had been absent for decades.

“Searching colonial archives for subaltern narratives is an emotionally daunting experience. I began to explore the condition of Palestinian statelessness and the absence of a national Palestinian archive as liberating conditions, especially through contexts of artistic creation and documentary film.”  Mhassen Nasser Eldin

Panelists:

Presented by Nahed Awwad

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Make Your First Parkour Moves

Workshop with Ihab Dawoud
Sunday May 23rd | 13:00 | Meeting point: Amphitheater Mauerpark

As preparation, watch this video:

Join us for a hands and feet on workshop with Palestinian parkour/freerunning athlete Ihab Dawoud. In this hour long session you will be introduced to the art of Parkour. Make sure to wear comfortable foot wear and dress for the outdoors. Ihab Dawoud was born in 1998, in Qalqilya-Palestine where he also grew up. From a young age, he was fascinated by defying gravity, being suspended in the air, and creating alternative spaces. He became passionate about parkour and quickly found a like minded community in Palestine where he also starting teaching parkour at the age of 16. Ihab creates his own short films and starred in documentaries such as Epicly Palestine’d and STORRO’s docu Series Parkour in the Holy Land. Ihab moved to Berlin in 2017 where he continues his journey in developing his skills and passion. Ihab is also a passionate filmmaker, music producer, and enjoys skateboarding and yoga. Check out his work on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/ihab_dawoud/

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Orientalizing the Holy Land

or
How did the Gaze of Western Christian Travelers contribute to shaping today’s image of Palestine in Europe?

Convenor: Cora Josting
Saturday May 22nd | 14:00 |Online streamed live from Forum Factory, Berlin

Christian European men travelled to the Middle East in search of the land as described in the book holy to them. Some prominent travellers, most notably Gustaf Dalman, built up whole archives, now mostly housed by theological faculties in universities, amongst them Berlin and Greifswald. What were their conceptions at the time, the beginning of photography done by travellers (app 1900-1913), how did the images of Arab peoples, indigenous Palestinians contribute to the way they are still portrayed today? And how does this shape the way Europeans see, judge and act on the disputed land that once was known as Palestine?

Panelists:

Presented by Cora Josting

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Silences & Words: the Meaning of Writing and Reading Palestinian Literature Now

Convenor: Dr. Ruth Abou Rached
Sunday Nov 15th | 11:00 | Via Zoom

This session explored the innovative ways that silence and the act of listening in Palestinian Literature can be read, why silence and listening are vital themes for contemporary criticism and what we can hear or see when Palestinian Literature speaks on its own terms. This panel will cover a range of critical themes relating to Palestinian literature: the politics of creative silence in post-2000 Palestinian literature & literary production; innovative ways by which Palestinian writers have written and re-written stories; how different networks of solidarity and hope can be read as moving across different borders, times and locations through fiction. This panel will be structured in three parts: Palestinian literature experts will first share their critical knowledge of Palestinian literary production in the form of a  lecture/presentation (in English); followed by a brief round-table discussion between the three panelists & panel convenor (in English) and then a Q&A with the wider audience across three languages as needed (German, English & Arabic).

Panelists:

Presented by Dr. Ruth Abou Rached

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Feminism at the Intersections of Occupation, Patriarchy and Coloniality

Convenor: Shuruq Josting
Monday March 8th | 19:00 | Via Zoom

While initiatives like Tal3at gained momentum in the last year, feminist struggles at the intersections of feminism, the remnants of European coloniality and the Israeli occupation have been present for much longer. Recently, they came forward following a series of femicides, with protests spreading all over historic Palestine and its diaspora and intersecting with other struggles such as the movement for Queer liberation, but also with the interests of diasporic communities that are subject to exploitation and racialization in their respective host countries. Representatives of these communities will together discuss the futures of flint* and queer liberation in Palestinian communities and beyond.

Panelists

Presented by Shuruq Josting