NAZRA
(a look)
Palestine Short Film Festival
Edited by
AssoPace Palestina Association – Rome
Restiamo Umani con Vik Association – Venice
Anémic Association – Florence
École Cinéma – Naples
Italian Center for Cultural Exchange-VIK – Gaza
ArtLab – Jerusalem
FilmLabPalestine – Ramallah
Annual travelling short film festival, in a multicultural environment of Palestinian and international authors, on the following topics:
• freedom
• human rights
• justice
with reference to the current situation in Palestine.
Nazra Palestine Short Film Festival is targeted, through the fast-paced, young and clever language of short films, to a cinema-loving audience, by introducing often very talented authors, although they sometimes are low-budget.
The Festival’s mission is to show the difficulties and the expectations experienced on a daily basis by Palestinians who live under occupation, with no freedom nor respect for human rights, through the look of who experiences these issues at first hand, or the look of authors from other parts of the world.
Nazra is the look at other people, the perception of them but also of ourselves
We would like to encourage a dialogue on equal terms about cinema and art as ways to communicate beyond the walls, real or virtual, which create isolation, and beyond cultural and life differences.
Nazra becomes an educational and cultural path
By organizing workshops in cultural centres in Italy and in Palestine, a distance cooperation able to share the knowledge and understanding of each other’s culture with every participant and every member of the audience.
Nazra carries a message of multiculturalism, peace and justice through the competing artwork
Nazra gathers the best short films produced by authors from Palestine and other countries, showing in the Italian and Palestinian cities hosting the Festival.
The Festival is yearly and its first edition is due in 2017.
There will be 5 prizes, one for each of the 5 sections of the contest:
• Fiction by Palestinian author
• Fiction by non-Palestinian author (about Palestine)
• Look from Palestine (Palestinian author) – documentary
• Look at Palestine (non-Palestinian author) – documentary
• Experimental
The members of the jury will be nominated every year and will be chosen within a pool of experts on Italian and Palestinian cinema and culture.
The travelling Festival will start with a screening in Venice, where the selected works will be shown within a three-day full program.
The Festival jury will assign awards to the worthiest works on the final day.
Nazra Palestine Short Film Festival will continue the film’s screening in Bologna, Florence, Rome, Naples and then will fly to Palestine, going through Gaza, thus finishing its journey in Jerusalem and Ramallah.
Aims and purposes of the Festival
The Festival generates from the idea of promoting the cinema skills of authors who use short-films as expression of their artistic capabilities, but also as a young, fast and rich in content universal language, dealing with topics such as freedom, justice and emancipation from occupation and apartheid, focused on Palestine.
We want:
• The possibility of channelling generational frustrations, using video/film/artistic communication methods, non violent but carrying a high-impact message, therefore highlighting the progress made by many authors in order to carry their culture out of the narrow and often forgotten borders of an occupied and troubled land.
• To promote dialogue, which always carries exchange, understanding and positive contamination through cinema, one of the most appropriate media tool.
• To promote reflection on these topics, by bringing different realities closer to each other, in order to better understand problems and difficulties of a militarily occupied country with very few resources and hopes for the future.
We believe that the Nazra Palestine Short Film Festival could become a traditional and recurring point of reference, and a crucible for artistic events aimed at promoting dialogue.
Coordinators responsible for the project:
Luisa Morgantini – former vice president of the European Parliament, President of Assopace Palestina
Franca Bastianello – president of Restiamo Umani con Vik
Gianna Bandini – Association Anèmic
Meri Calvelli – Italian Center for Cultural Exchange VIK of Gaza
Art director:
Stefano Casi
President:
Luisa Morgantini
Director/Administrative Secretary:
(Franca Bastianello, Franca Marini, Gianna Bandini, Meri Calvelli, Marianna Bianchetti, Sabrina Innocenti)
Roles: secretary, archive, translation, subtitling, contact, etc.
Juries (national and international):
Jury members will be nominated every year and will be selected within a pool of experts on Italian and Palestinian cinema and culture.
The Italian jury will consist of 4 members.
The Gaza jury will consist of 2 members.
The jury of Palestine – Occupied Territories will have two additional members.
The juries will select together the winners of the 5 prizes of the competition about short fiction films, documentaries, video clips, art videos, very short and experimental videos by Palestinian and International authors on/from/for Palestine.
Nazra Palestine Short Film Festival
Summary
Cities involved in the project: Venice, Bologna, Florence, Rome, Naples, Gaza, Jerusalem, Ramallah.
Participants: Palestinian and non-Palestinian film authors.
Aims:
• To encourage artistic and cultural expression among Palestinian directors and producers of excellence;
• To increase communication of and interest in the following topics: freedom, justice and peace among non Palestinian authors talking about Palestine;
• To open a dialogue with all parties.
Contents: overcoming of psychological (prejudice and lack of mutual understanding) and physical (wall and apartheid) barriers
Methodology: film and communication arts
Reproducibility: establishing a yearly and travelling short-film Festival with awards.
Attachments
• Festival regulations
• Registration form
The President
Luisa Morgantini