The events of a special round of the Ramallah Doc Pitching 2017 were concluded on Friday, 20 October 2017, at the A. M. Qattan Foundation (AMQF) main office in Ramallah. The round was a culmination of months of work and preparations. Organisers of this cinema event, namely the AMQF, Consulate General of France (Jerusalem), Goethe Institut (Ramallah) and Filmlab Palestine, announced the presentation of two travel grants, US$ 2,000 each, for participation in various cinematography forums. Grants were offered to filmmakers Samaher Al Qadi for her film project As I Want, and to Mahasen Nasser-Eldin for her film project We Carve Words in the Earth.
Projects participating in the final session of the Ramallah Doc 2017 included: Searching for Home by Dima Abu Ghoush; Fly, Sylvana! by Emtiaz Diab; As I Want by Samaher Al Qadi; On That Day by Mohanad Yaqubi; Stolen Archives by Mariam Shahin; Tantura by Hala Gabriel; Tiny Souls by Dina Naser; and Cima by May Marei.
The producers of selected film projects participated in a series of training workshops on production, trailer development and pitching techniques.
Mahmoud Abu Hashhash, Director of the Culture and Arts Programme, stated: “We hope that this day will be a prelude to further collaboration and networking. We hope that a number of these inspiring projects, which were screened today, transform into real films that find their way to the public in Palestine and beyond. I won’t say that the projects selected for the grant are winners, but they may need the grant more than others to help their directors to take them forward.”
Addressing collaboration of a group of partners to organise the Ramallah Doc 2017, Hanna Atallah, Artistic Director of Filmlab Palestine, said: “This collaboration is so important. An institution cannot accomplish this difficult mission by itself. Partnership strengthens work and increases opportunities.”
Mona Kriegler. Director of the Goethe-Institut (Ramallah), commented: “It has been a good opportunity to listen to nine significant stories, which were presented in the final session. We decided to choose two projects that addressed extremely important themes. These need to be addressed and discussed now. They [the directors] should be given the opportunity to move forward with their projects.”
Chloé Lavalou, Coordinator of Audiovisual Collaboration Projects at the Institut Français Jérusalem, said: “This is an important work. It provides a space to create opportunities for Palestinian filmmakers here. We always seek to draw the attention of French producers to participate and listen to Palestinian projects and to discuss potential collaboration and joint work.”
On her project As I Want, Al Qadi said: “It is a personal exploration of what it means to be a woman in the Middle East. The film combines a web of inspiring stories of women who seek to break the taboos and attain their rights.”
Al Qadi expressed her pleasure at receiving the grant, saying: “To win this grant in my city of Ramallah means a lot to me. My next step is to start filming special scenes in Ramallah. I will return to Paris to initiate the production stage.”
Al Qadi is a Palestinian film director. She studied at the High Cinema Institute and at the Academy of Art and Technology of Cinema, both in Cairo. In her works, Al Qadi focuses on women and artists in the Middle East. In the past, she directed three films: Mohammed Bakri (2008), Gamalaat (2009), and Raj3’een (2012).
Nasser-Eldin’s We Carve Words in the Earth addresses the pre-Nakba feminist movement in Palestine. The plot comprises writings published in 1936 by a group of women as well as the experiences that sought to change at a time of political turmoil and cultural renaissance. Nasser-Eldin says: “It has been a wonderful opportunity to create a space to work with together as directors and producers. It has also been an opportunity to present and share ideas and projects.”
Born in Jerusalem, Nasser-Eldin is a director of documentary films and a university lecturer. She is interested in oral and feminist history to rebuild the narrative and cast light on a marginalised and forgotten life.
Since its inception in 2009, the Ramallah Doc project aims to support Palestinian filmmakers and, generally, documentary filmmaking. It furnishes an opportunity to filmmakers to screen their documentary projects to a group of producers and authorised editors from major international TV stations. This round of the Ramallah Doc 2017 brought together authorised editors and producers from several countries, including Canada, USA, France, Germany, Switzerland and Palestine.