Filmreihe Palästina: Waiting for Ben Gurion & Veiled Hope: Women in Palestine

Filmabend im Amerling Haus Stiftgasse 8. 1070 Wien Dienstag, 21. April 2009,
19:00 Uhr
Filme von Norma Marcos
“Waiting for Ben Gurion” 2006, 30 min., Arabisch mit engl. U.
“Veiled Hope: Women in Palestine” 1994, 55 min.

Norma Marcos:
"I shot „Waiting for Ben Gurion“ spontaneously during a time when I was put in prison at Ben Gurion Airport in Israel. I was travelling from Paris to the Occupied Palestinian Territories… While stuck in my hometown of Bethlehem for 7 weeks I had a very intimate conversation with my niece, Yara (7), through my little DV camera. She told me about her vision of the concrete enclosure. The second reading of the film has more to do with how things are perceived and the consequences of those ways of perceiving on our lives. The main character, in this case, a child, symbolizes that free eternal youthful state which can relativize the hard reality of exter-nal structures. Her joyful and chaotic camera movement symbolizes a breakdown of the limit-ing internal structures through which we filter and perceive reality – in this case, the percep-tions that wall us in and sow the seeds for future enclosures of the soul. This film is a call to awareness for thousands of citizens of Palestinian origin who have been either denied entry through Israeli ports or will be going through hell at Ben Gurion Airport each time they want to visit their family. It is also a cry of alarm for an extraordinary number of foreigners who have been illegally denied entry through Israeli ports….”

“Veiled Hope: Women in Palestine” 1994, 55 min.,

English “Veiled Hope” explores the personal and political challenges facing Palestinian women through a series of wonderful portraits of women living in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. The women explain how in their daily lives as doctors, schoolteachers and activists they are working to rebuild Palestinian cultural identity. They also provide a rare insight into the complex feelings women have surrounding the emergence of political Islamic movements. “Veiled Hope” gives an in-depth analysis of the position of Palestinian women as they juggle women’s and national liberation struggles. Donations gladly accepted.

Organized by Women in Black (Vienna) www.fraueninschwarz.at in co-operation with the Verein Kulturzentrum Spittelberg.