re:assemblage collective

― wave~form~projects + re:assemblage collective present:

Fourth in a series of film screenings affirming Palestinian people’s sumud ( صمود ṣumūd) meaning "steadfastness" - a Palestinian cultural value, ideological theme and political strategy) and resilience, with an opportunity for discussions on the impacts of the ongoing genocide in Gaza and continuous repression across historic Palestine. Our two collectives are coming together to co-present screenings of current and historical films under the banner ‘from the river to the sea’, in line with other interconnected global initiatives centering Palestinian voices in cinema. The series foregrounds political education through film, concurrent with a call to support BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) for individuals and institutions across Turtle Island.

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Indoor Screening
24 July 2024 · 7:00pm screening
918 Bathurst Cultural Centre·

Entrance by donation at the door

Wheelchair accessible venue

Fertile Memory · Michel Khleifi

Fertile Memory

Directed by Michel Khleifi
Palestine · 1981 · 99'00

Fertile Memory is the feature debut of pioneering director Michel Khleifi. Lyrically blending both documentary and narrative elements, Khleifi skillfully and lovingly crafts a portrait of two Palestinian women whose individual struggles both define and transcend the politics that have torn apart their homes and their lives.

“Both Sahar and Romia are trapped by the society in which they live, but they experience this stuckness differently. Sahar possesses the words, the other doesn’t. Romia exists, but without defining herself as an individual. Both are frustrated by history, the intellectual one perhaps doubly so for her awareness of this frustration, of the loneliness imposed on her by her situation as a divorcée. Romia accepts her solitude after becoming a widow without bitterness, because she has decided that there is no other way. One character’s words corner those of the other, and I insisted on the film to work in that way, so that the viewer reacts to it, takes an active part in the film, becomes an accomplice.” – Michel Khleifi

Born in Nazareth in 1950 to a Palestinian working-class family, Michel Khleifi is considered the founder of contemporary Palestinian cinema and one of its most original voices. After immigrating to Belgium in 1970, he studied theatre and television at INSAS, Brussels and worked for RTBF (Belgian television) before making his first feature‐length documentary, Fertile Memory (1980), which combined a lyrical aesthetic with a critical political engagement, as did Ma’loul Celebrates its Destruction (1985).

In 1987, he directed Wedding in Galilee, the first feature film entirely shot in Palestine by a Palestinian director, which premiered at the Cannes Directors’ Fortnight and won the International Critics Prize.Further fiction features followed: Canticle of the Stones (1990), L’ordre du jour (1992) and Tale of the Three Jewels (1995), and documentaries Forbidden Marriages in the Holy Land (1996) and Route 181 – Fragments of a Journey in Palestine and Israel (2002, co‐directed with Eyal Sivan). Zindeeq (2009) won the Golden Muhr at the 2009 Dubai International Film Festival. Khleifi lives in Brussels, where he has taught filmmaking at INSAS for over thirty years, in addition to other teaching posts at Columbia University, St Joseph University in Beirut and AM Qattan Foundation in Palestine and Jordan.