WORKSHOP: Making Space for Palestinian Cinema: Visibility, Refusal, and Exhibition

Ghorbankarimi, Maryam (2026) WORKSHOP: Making Space for Palestinian Cinema: Visibility, Refusal, and Exhibition. In: The NECS 2026 Conference (European Network for Cinema and Media Studies): In/Visible, 2026-06-18 - 2026-06-27, Université Paul-Valéry Montpellier.

Abstract

This workshop brings together Farah Atoui, Claire Begbie, Yael Friedman, Maryam Ghorbankarimi, Mahasen Nasser-Eldin and Viviane Saglier to examine contemporary practices of curating and exhibiting Palestinian cinema across alternative spaces. Focusing on case studies from the UK, Canada, Germany, and Palestine, the workshop explores how Palestinian films become visible—or are rendered invisible—through specific exhibition frameworks, discursive contexts, and political conditions. The discussion addresses Palestinian film festivals and community screenings in the UK, paying particular attention to questions of reception and audience engagement in relation to Palestine-related programming. Participants will also reflect on curatorial experiences in Montreal including strategies for fostering critical dialogue and political education with audiences through post-screening discussions, contextualization, and collaborative programming. These reflections foreground curation not merely as selection, but as an active pedagogical and political practice. The workshop further extends to the classroom as a crucial, if often overlooked site of exhibition. Framed as a space of education, discursive production and circulation, the academic classroom shapes how Palestinian cinema is encountered, interpreted, and mobilized, raising questions about pedagogy, responsibility, and the formation of political consciousness and solidarity within institutional settings. Finally, the workshop explores alternative exhibition spaces—community venues, artist-run centres, pop-up screenings, and informal networks—as vital infrastructures for Palestinian cinema that bypass restrictive institutional frameworks and enable accountable, relational, and politically committed modes of spectatorship. Engaging with the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI), the participants will examine how PACBI guidelines inform ethical curatorial decisions around programming, partnerships, and refusal, opening alternative pathways for circulation when festivals and institutions censor Palestinian work or fail to meet boycott standards. Collectively, the workshop invites reflection on exhibition as a site of resistance, solidarity, and cultural work in the face of ongoing silencing and invisibilization.