For Cultural Purposes Only








Director | Sarah Wood
Illustration | Woodrow Phoenix
Animation | Kate Anderson
Photography | Ruanne Abu-Rahme
Cartography | Simon Deeves
Music | Basel Abbas
Edit | Lucy Harris
UK | 2009| 8 mins

In an age dominated by the moving image what would it feel like to never see an image of the place that you came from?

The Palestinian Film Archive contained over 100 films showing the daily life and struggle of the Palestinian people. It was lost in the Israeli siege of Beirut in 1982.

Here interviewees describe from memory key moments from the history of Palestinian cinema. These scenes are drawn and animated. Where film survives, the artist’s impressions are corroborated. This is a film about reconstruction and the idea that cinema is an expression of cultural identity - that cinema fuels memory.

The film was commissioned by Animate Projects in association with Arts Council England and Channel 4. The title, For Cultural Purposes Only is taken from the article by Annemarie Jacir of the same name.

The film won has been awarded special mentions at Exis, Seoul, 25 fps, Zagreb and at L'Alternativa, Barcelona 'for its testimonial power and subtle use of resources when telling a story of vanished images.'


Articles:
Guardian
Sight and Sound
Dazed and Confused
Little White Lies
Frankfurter Rundschau
Rotterdam Film Festival

Media:
Start the Week

Screenings/exhibtions:

July-August 2013
Participating in Think Film curated by Branka Benčić
Pula Film Festival, Croatia

British Film Festival, Yerevan, Armenia

June 2011
Kaliber 35, Munich
 
March 2011
Tampere Film Festival, Tampere

Februrary 2011
British Plaestinian Film Festival, Bethlehem

January 2011
Britspotting, Berlin

November 2010
L'Alternativa, Barcelona Awarded Special Mention
Offmostoles, Madrid
Janela International Film Festival, Brazil
Kassel Documentary Film Festival

October 2010
Impakt, The Netherlands
Cortopotere, Italy
Boston Palestinian Film Festival

September 2010
25 fps, Croatia Awarded Special Mention
Branchage Film Festival, Jersey
Cambridge Film Festival, UK
Exis, Seoul Awarded Special Mention
Haifa International Film Festival, Israel

July 2010
Two Riversides

May 2010
Oberhausen Short Film Festival

April 2010
London Palestine Film Festival

March 2010
BAM, New York

January 2010
Rotterdam International Film Festival

December 2009
London, Tate Modern

Still want to look at something else? Why not read about Darwish's last collection of poems here.

1 comment:

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