Maureen Clare Murphy, The Electronic Intifada, 9 May 2007
Hamid Dabashi, founder of the Dreams of a Nation: A Palestinian Film Project, has said that one of the distinguishing qualities of Palestinian national cinema is that it has and continues to be produced during the throes of trauma. This stands apart from other national cinema (German, Italian, and Iranian, to name a few) which came to maturity through dealing with past national trauma. However, there has never been a Palestinian-produced feature film focusing on the Nakba.
Yet, the Nakba is at the core of Palestinian cinema, as exemplified by the Palestinian Revolution Cinema series curated by Palestinian artist Emily Jacir. Maureen Clare Murphy, The Electronic Intifada, 20 April 2007
What role can music play in confronting the Israeli occupation? This is the question posed yet not definitively answered in Helena Cotinier and Pierre-Nicolas Durand's documentary It's Not a Gun, which follows Palestinian musician Ramzi Aburedwan as he realizes his dream of establishing a music education school in Palestine as part of his al-Kamandjati (meaning "the violinist") project.
Ramzi, who grew up in Ramallah's Al-Amari refugee camp, says, "I spent my whole childhood during the first intifada throwing stones. And then, by chance, I had the [opportunity] to play music." Maureen Clare Murphy, The Electronic Intifada, 11 April 2007
The short films featured at this year's Chicago Palestine Film Festival neatly demonstrate the wide spectrum of Palestinian cinema and cinema on Palestine.
The shorts range from a contemplation of the mloukhieh dish (don't make the mistake of comparing it to spinach!) to a young Palestinian boy in America trying to join the ranks of the cowboys in his neighborhood's play of "cowboys and Indians." Showing with Leila Khaled, Hijacker the opening night of the festival, Make A Wish stands out amongst the shorts.
Maureen Clare Murphy, The Electronic Intifada, 9 April 2007
When she hijacked two planes over thirty years ago, refugee Leila Khaled helped put the Palestinian struggle on the international radar. A generation later, however, the realization of Palestinians' rights is elusive as ever and the tactics of their resistance are increasingly scrutinized. The limits of resistance are examined in Ronit Avni and Julia Bacha's documentary Encounter Point as well as Lina Makboul's Leila Khaled, Hijacker.
Maureen Clare Murphy, The Electronic Intifada, 8 March 2007
Since the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington, D.C.
, Middle Easterners have found themselves under the microscope, especially in the US, and our polarized world is being misdiagnosed as a "clash of civilizations." Thankfully, standup comedians Dean Obeidallah, Ahmed Ahmed, Aron Kader, and Maz Jobrani are here to skewer it all in the must-see Axis of Evil Comedy Special, which airs in the US on Comedy Central this Saturday. Comprised of American performers of Middle Eastern descent, the Axis of Evil Comedy Show is an ongoing tour that began in 2005 and has been greeted across the US with critical acclaim.
Maureen Clare Murphy, The Electronic Intifada, 18 February 2007
Both Salwa Salem's and Ghada Karmi's childhoods were violently disrupted by what Palestinians call al-Nakba, or the Catastrophe -- the involuntary mass exodus of nearly three quarters of the Palestinian population when the State of Israel was established in 1948. Marking the destruction of their country, this event would define their lives as ones of exile. In their respective memoirs, The Wind in My Hair and In Search of Fatima: A Palestinian Story, Salem and Karmi recall idyllic childhoods in Palestine before 1948 in a society rich with culture and defined by the extended family.
Their individual experiences, chronicled in their engrossing works, give a window into that of a generation of Palestinians born into dispossession. Maureen Clare Murphy, The Electronic Intifada, 4 December 2006
"People don't know anything about us. That's why we're doing comedy," New York Arab-American Comedy Festival co-founder Dean Obeidallah explained at the Festival's opening night at the Gotham Comedy Club on 14 November 2006.
Following sold-out shows in previous years, the 4th Annual Festival extended to six nights, featuring two stand-up comedy nights, a short film night, and three sketch comedy theatre nights (to which a fourth show was added and sold out as well). The week kicked off with a press conference held by the New York Foreign Press Center of the -- no joke -- U.S.
State Department. Maureen Clare Murphy, The Electronic Intifada, 12 November 2004
Palestine mourned today as President Yasser Arafat, who passed away on November 11 in France, was laid to rest in the Muqata'a compound in Ramallah. In emotional, often chaotic scenes, thousands of Palestinians came to pay their last respects to "Abu 'Ammar".
The video, text and images in this article were produced by Maureen Clare Murphy, Arts, Music Culture Editor of the Electronic Intifada, who is currently living and working in Ramallah.
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