Michel Khleifi in Lebanon and shows his films in and outside the camps

Beirut – “Al-Quds Al-Arabi”: Palestinian film director Michel Khleifi will be a guest in Lebanon and the refugee camps, as part of the “Cinema Stations” program, which is being prepared by a club for all people, from today until this month. A busy program announced by a club for all the people with the guest cinematic, represented by film screenings, dialogues and seminars.
The program starts today from the “Siblin Professionalism” in Iqlim Al-Kharroub, with the screening of the movie “The Fertile Memory”, in cooperation with the Al-Jana Foundation. On the same day, the movie “The Tale of the Three Jewels” was screened at 3:30 in the afternoon at the “Alwan” Center in Ain El-Hilweh camp.
Tomorrow, the film “Fertile Memory” will be shown at 2 pm in the library of the “Ghassan Kanafani” Cultural Foundation in the Beddawi camp in Tripoli.
On the 6th, the movie “Fertile Memory” was shown at the “Beirut” theater at the Jesuit University in Beirut, at 7:30 pm. And on the 7th, the movie “Song of Stone” was shown at the Barzakh Library in Hamra at 7 pm. And on the 8th, the movie “The Tale of the Three Jewels” was shown in the “Zokak El Blat” mansion at 7 pm, in the presence of students from the Lebanese University.
On the 9th, the Institute for Palestine Studies – Tallet Al-Khayyat will host a symposium on Michel Khleifi’s cinema, in which he will be interviewed by Hadi Zakak and Rabih Shami, at 6:00 pm.
And the conclusion of the cinematic screenings, all of which take place in the presence of the director, will be on March 10 at the Sursock Museum, with a screening of the restored version of his famous movie “The Wedding of Galilee” at 7 pm.
Al-Quds Al-Arabi asked the president of a club for all people, Naja Ashkar, about the motives for this celebration, by one of the pioneers of Palestinian cinema, Michel Khleifi? He says: Michel Khleifi has not visited Beirut for 12 years. It is our custom to honor Arab directors, as happened with Dawood Abdel Sayed from Egypt, Muhammad Malas from Syria and Qais Al Zubaidi from Iraq. Now our cinematic station is with Michel Khleifi, and he deserves it. The meeting with him was scheduled three years ago, but the revolution came, and then Corona and the explosion.
The Palestinian Cinema Archive is at the forefront of our interest as a club for all people. And Michel Khleifi presented, as a Palestinian director, the first feature film, “The Wedding of Galilee,” which came after Burhan Alawiyya’s “Kafr Qassem” and “Kassem Hawal’s” “Returning to Haifa.”
□ The majority of the performances will be in the camps, in addition to the “professionalism of Siblin.” How will it reach the largest number of young people?
■ Performances in the camps covered the region, Sidon and Tripoli. The youth of the Beirut camps have access to the performances scheduled in the capital. In choosing the venues for the screenings, we tried to provide the opportunity to attend the films in more than one place. Communication with young people to attend performances takes place through all available means.
□ What are the objectives of showing this type of films coming from Palestine?
■ Michel Khleifi has a rich experience in his feature films and documentaries. We are interested, as a club for all people, for the new generation to watch these films, because they are not available “online”, and to meet directly with Michel Khleifi. I mention here that Michel Khleifi practiced education at the Jesuit University for four years. He contributed to producing generations of Lebanese, Palestinian and Arab filmmakers, and that was in the nineties of the last century. The sung of Michel Khleifi’s cinema is represented in presenting a picture that we need for the Palestinian people inside Nazareth, Haifa, Galilee and others. Among his important films are “The Fertile Memory” and “The Wedding of Galilee.”
□ Who financially supports these cultural encounters?
■ We received support for this activity from Al Mawred Al Thaqafi and Aafaq two years ago. Michel Khleifi was scheduled to attend the Student Arab Short Film Festival. His presence was postponed, and now things are ripe and the tour will be for his films only. Through this tour, we will meet with Khulifi films and with him personally, whether in the camps or outside them.
Knowing that we started networking with him since 2019, following an acquaintance at the Sousse Festival in Tunisia. We are now in 2023 and things are ripe, despite all the circumstances in Lebanon.