The 2019 Festival has now ended, if you missed it, we were pleased that Leeds Councillor Al Garthwaite opened our fifth Leeds Palestinian Film Festival at Hyde Park Picture House on 18 November. Renowned director Elia Sulieman’s 2019 film ‘It Must be Heaven’ was shown in collaboration with Leeds International Film Festival as part of their Official Selection.
https://vimeo.com/371334105
Yet again, we had an array of diverse films, both documentaries and feature films and and we worked again in collaboration with partners, Otley Film Society, LIFF, Films at Heart and Screen Seven. We also forged new collaborations this year with Beckett for Palestine, Leeds Pax Christi and Leeds Justice and Peace Commission. We screened mainly new releases with the exception of ‘Jeremy Hardy v The Israeli Army’, in recognition of the late Jeremy Hardy’s campaign work in Palestine.
We covered subjects ranging from the advocacy of an Israeli human rights lawyer to a Palestinian psychiatrist’s examination of the psychological strategies of the Israeli occupation. We also screened ‘Gaza’, a beautiful and enlightening film about everyday life in the Gaza strip and ‘Soufra’, an inspirational film about a team of women in the Burl El Barajneh refugee camp, Lebanon, who set up their own social enterprise catering company. We had great discussions after our films, with Sir David Hare joining us at the screening of his stunning animated documentary ‘Wall’ that follows his journey to Palestine/Israel.
We attracted new audiences with just under 900 people attending this year’s festival. We were really sorry that we had to turn away people at our last screening, but we tried to make amends showed an extra, free screening of ‘Wall’ in January 2020.
