Rashid Masharawi was born and raised in Shati refugee camp, Gaza Strip. He is a self-taught filmmaker, beginning to work at eighteen in the cinema industry and acquiring skills on over twenty films before starting himself to write and direct his own. Masharawi’s films portray his knowledge of living under the Israeli Occupation in refugee camps, the new space of the intifada, as well as his constant reflection on cinema narrative.
After a decade of working and establishing a name as a filmmaker, Masharawi founded in 1996 the Cinema Production and Distribution Center (CPC) in Ramallah, which main purpose is to organize workshops to give young Palestinian filmmakers to acquire knowledge in the field of cinema by working in actual productions. The CPC also initiated the Mobile Cinema, which brings screenings to refugee camps in the form of an annual “Kids Film Festival.”
Thus while his features such as Curfew, Haifa, Ticket to Jerusalem and documentaries such as the recent Live From Palestine have received international television broadcasting, awards and critical recognition, Masharawi has remained in the past decades living and producing within the Occupied Territories. Although he considers the value of his international recognition very important in reinforcing his situation as a Palestinian feature filmmaker, he considers himself more as an artist and director rather than a Palestinian partisan.
He is regularly invited to show his video installations and short films in art exhibitions such as the Biennale of Shargea, Gangart-Vienna, Casino Luxembourg, Free Art Academy-The Netherlands. His feature films has been studied in Israeli Academy of Cinema, Harvard University and other universities in Los Angeles.
In Documenta11, Kassel-the largest contemporary art exhibit in the world-with an attendance of 600.000, Masharawi was invited by artist Fareed Armaly to collaborate on one of the largest projects of the exhibitions, "From/To" while parallel also having his films screened.
Filmography
Little Wings, Documentary, 52’ (2009)
Hawra’ Baghdad, Documentary 2009 (52’)
Laila’s Birthday, Feature 2008 (90)
Waiting (Attente), Fiction, Feature 2005 (90’)
Arafat My Brother, Documentary 2005
Shahrazad-One Moon, Shorts 2003
Hummus for the Feast, (Humus al-Eed), 12', (Palestine, 2003)
Ticket to Jerusalem, 85', Fiction (Palestine/Netherlands, 2001)
Live From Palestine, Documentary (Palestine, 2001)
Love Season, (Palestine, 2001)
Upside Down (Makloubeh), 6', Beta SP, Experimental (Palestine, 2000)
Out Of Focus, Documentary (Palestine, 2000)
Behind The Walls, (Palestine, 1999)
Tension, (Palestine, 1998)
Rabab, (Palestine, 1997)
One Step and Another, (Palestine, 1996)
Waiting (Intizar) (Palestine, 1995)
Haifa, 75’, 35mm, Fiction, (Palestine/Netherlands, 1995)
Curfew, Fiction, (Palestine, 1993)
Long Days in Gaza, (Palestine, 1991)
Dar O Dour, (Palestine, 1991)
The Shelter, (Palestine, 1989)
Travel Document, (Palestine, 1986)
“What I have been trying to do is make out of the Palestinian situation a cinema. I have something like fifteen films, between features, shorts, and documentaries, and together I feel they can offer a mirror and document of the Palestinian life in the last twenty years, in the same time to try to make cinema.”
