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 AFAC announced the selection of 36 new grantees (24 individuals and 12 institutions) from its 2011 second open call for general grants, covering the categories of Cinema, Music, and RTR (research, training and regional events). Grant recipients include seven artists and cultural institutions from Palestine. In total, AFAC received 321 applications; all underwent meticulous evaluation by experts and specialist jurors in the relevant fields, resulting in the selected winners announced in AFAC’s first annual Gala dinner on December 18th.
Please scroll down for the names of the palestinian grantees
Cinema
Grantee: Larissa Sansour (Palestine)
Title: Nation Estate
Project brief: A ten-minute sci-fi short that mixes computer generated imagery and real actors to offer a clinically dystopic yet humorous approach to the deadlock in the Middle East. In a not too distant future, the conflict in Palestine has reached its conclusion. Palestinians have their nation now in the shape of a single hi-tech building – the Nation Estate – located in the West Bank. The film follows the female lead in a futuristic folklore outfit on her way to her flat on the Bethlehem floor, unveiling the building on her way to an Arabic electronica soundtrack.
Grantee: Saed Andoni/ Amer Shomali (Palestine)
Title: The Wanted 18
Project brief: This is the story of the most powerful army in the Middle East chasing 18 cows. In 1987, a group of Palestinian activists started a co-operative dairy farm in Beit Sahour with 18 cows. The people in the Bethlehem area came to depend completely on the co-op's milk, which they called the 'intifada milk'. However, once the co-op became successful, the Israeli army ordered its closure, claiming the cows to be a threat to Israeli national security. Defying the army, the activists went undercover, hiding the 18 cows in people’s houses and continuing to produce milk.
Grantee: Mai masri (Palestine)
Title: 3000 Layla
Project brief: A newlywed Palestinian schoolteacher is arrested after an Israeli military patrol gravely injures one of her students, provoking a clash between the students and the soldiers. ‘Layal’ is detained in a high-security Israeli prison where, to her shock, she discovers that she is pregnant. Though she delivers her baby boy while chained to a bed, the child transforms her life and gives her hope. When the women of the prison protest by going on hunger strike, the prison director threatens to take Layal’s child away. With the help of the women, Layal learns to stand up for herself and fight for her child.
Grantee: Kamal Al Jaafari (Palestine)
Title: Passerby
Project brief: On a nightly walk, two friends are approached by a strange woman asking for the way to Tel Aviv. The encounter prompts a rupture in their world. One of them comes to believe that he is being watched by the secret police, and is pulled into a realm of unexpected events, mysteries and crimes. Observing his friend’s transformation, the other pulls away to become the narrator of an “individual’s fate” in the Arab ghetto of "Israel".
Grantee: Raed Andoni (Palestine)
Title: From the Arab World…With Love
Project brief: A collective feature-length documentary made of five personal narratives which take on the issues of identity and its passage from one generation to the next. Five Arab films set in five different cities reflect the personal experiences of their respective directors and the places they come from. The purpose of this project is to break through geographic and political boundaries in achieving a single shared artistic project. This film is not about the Arab world but from the Arab world.
Music
Grantee: Shadi Ghassan Zaqtan (Palestine)
Title: Theib (Fox) and album of songs
Project brief: This album includes a number of songs written in the Nabatian dialect and free verse, dealing with social and political topics that address the circumstances of exile, isolation, civil war and other topics affecting the Palestinian population whether within their homeland or expatriated.
Research, Training and Regional Events (RTR)
Grantee: PEN MEDIA (Palestine)
Title: Ramallah Docs 2012
Project Brief: The project consists of four sessions that will take place in Ramallah, Damascus, Cairo and Leipzig which will provide training and development workshops for Arab documentary filmmakers. The project sessions will assist participants to develop and produce new artistic works, including 12 short films inspired by the “Arab Spring” and by the role of social media in promoting, organizing and propagating revolutionary movements in the Arab world. The sessions will also assist participants in developing a complete production package with a professional trailer for their films, which can be presented to pitching forums, funders and producers for the purposes of the production and broadcast of 12 long-duration documentary films, based on their short films and pitches.
To read the full list follow the link arabculturefund.org/
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