Kamal Aljafari – MASTERCLASS: A Picture Lasts Longer | WATCH DOCS

A Picture Lasts Longer

Masterclass with the leading Palestinian documentary filmmaker and visual artist whose work centers on the cultural identity of Palestine. Through films, installations, and archival exploration, Aljafari symbolically reclaims the collective memory of his people, long appropriated by the occupiers. His films have been awarded at major festivals around the world, and his latest work (With Hasan in Gaza) was the only documentary selected for the main competition at this year’s Locarno Film Festival.
Event held in English only.

December 8, 6 pm at KINOMUZEUM. Buy a ticket

The director says about his oeuvre: 

Throughout the past decade, I have found myself continually making films that rework already existing images—sometimes personal, sometimes collective. From film to film, the thought that appeared in the end credits of RECOLLECTION (2015), “A picture lasts longer than a human being,” has grown into an entire body of work. It is a space where I keep discovering my own memories and the strange autonomy of images.

Kamal Aljafari is one of the most widely recognized Palestinian filmmakers — a documentarian and visual artist whose work is devoted to memory and to shaping the cultural identity of Palestine. In his films, Aljafari reclaims images of Palestine—first appropriated by British colonizers and later by Israeli occupiers—and restores to them the status of fully legitimate cultural texts.

His previous film, A Fidai Film, won the Burning Lights Jury Prize at last year’s Visions du Réel festival, while his latest work, With Hasan in Gaza, was the only documentary selected for the main competition at this year’s Locarno Film Festival.

During the 25th WATCH DOCS Festival, Kamal Aljafari will receive the Marek Nowicki Award, which this year is being presented collectively to Palestinian documentary filmmakers. His newest film is also part of the festival’s main competition.