Mohanad Yaqubi delivered a Master Class on Palestinian Militant Cinema. Drawing on recently found film rushes, rare documentary footage and clips of Third Cinema, Yaqubi introduced us to a fascinating and often neglected world that engages with the depth of Palestine's film-making history, its role in shaping Palestinian identity, and its ties to the wider Third Cinema movement.
The presentation raised questions with regards to the role of 'militant cinema' as a tool of documentation but also to intervene in the political upheavals and liberation movements that shook the world in the midst of the past century. Counterpoising the militant period of Palestine cinema with post-Oslo cinema will open up a conversation about the political role and nature of Palestinian cinematic language today, its potential and possibility.
Mohanad Yaqubi is a filmmaker and one of the founders of Idioms Film. He teaches film studies at the International Art Academy in Palestine. He is part of Subversive Films, a curatorial and research collective that focuses on militant film practices. Yaqubi is a Producer of internationally screened films such as Infiltrators by Khaled Jarrar, Pink Bullet by Ramzi Hazboun, and a co-producer of Habibi by Suzan Youcif and Though I Know the River is Dry by Omar R. Hamilton. He is also the creator and producer of the project Suspended Time, an Anthology film by nine filmmakers reflecting on 20 years after the signing of the Oslo peace accords. His latest short No Exit, written in collaboration with Omar Kheiry, had its premier at the Dubai International Film Festival.