Updated for clarity: Dec 10, 2023
In my Fall 2023 film theory class, we read the article “Narrating Looted and Living Palestinian Archives” by Kareem Estefan, in which Estefan explores the concept of “reparative fabulation,” as it relates to the Palestinian film archives stolen and/or destroyed by the Israeli government since the 1948 Nakba. Estefan defines reparative fabulation as “an at of the radical narrative imagination that animates unrealized political potentialities glimpsed in the gaps endemic to violated archives.”
After class, I saw an update by Bisan Owda and decided to explore the concept of worldbuilding as resistance. Below I use Estefan’s scholarship and interweave my thoughts about the loss of archives and the use of speculation.
In my rush to share this information, I did not adequately reference Estefan’s work and words. I am making this addendum due to my concerns regarding attribution and to ensure I stay aligned with my academic integrity.
In her Nov 29th update Bisan Owda, a Palestinian journalist and filmmaker who has been documenting her experience of the current genocide in Gaza since Oct 7th, revealed that Israeli armed forces have destroyed the central archive building in Gaza. This building contains thousands of Palestinian historical and cultural documents that are more than one hundred years old. (Source)
“They know actually what they are bombing. They do this intentionally and now, literally, we don’t have anything. The future is unknown, the present is destroyed, and the past is no longer our past,” she said in the video. She says Israel is destroying Gazan history to “destroy the depth of us.”
This is not new. For decades, Israel has been destroying Palestinian libraries and cultural institutions as well as familial records and personal archives of Palestinians. The erasure of these documents is an attempt to erase Palestinian memory and history. In a 2019 Jadaliyya article, “Archive Documents: The Kahan Commission and the 1982 Sabra-Shatila Massacre,” Mouin Rabbani and Sherene Seikaly write:
Historical evidence is a battleground. Every single Israeli attack on Palestine or Palestinians has targeted archives. In 1948, this happened en masse. Many family papers and other collections have since resurfaced in various Israeli libraries and archives. In 1982 Israel looted the Palestinian Research Center in Beirut and carted off its entire contents. Such plunder did not happen only during major wars. It happens at every intersection of Israeli conquest and settlement, and is part of everyday life.
In the documentary Kings and Extras: Digging for a Palestinian Image, director Azza El-Hassan chronicles her search for the missing Palestinian Cinema Institute (PCI) archive containing 100 documentaries created by Palestinian filmmakers between 1968 and 1982, before the June 1967 War—also known as the “Six-Day War.” The creation of these films, through the support of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), was the first time cinema became a significant cultural endeavor for Palestinians. The PCI archive was lost in 1982 when Israel invaded Lebanon.
In the film, El-Hassan travels from the occupied West Bank to the nearby camps of Syria Jordan, and Lebanon, and asks Palestinian people about the archive and if they think she should continue searching. She interviews three women on their way to work and interviews them about the missing films, asking if they think it’s worth looking for the archive.
One woman replies: “No. Now is not the time to be thinking about cinema.”
“Why isn’t it the right time to be thinking about cinema?” El-Hassan asks.
“People can’t get home,” she says. “If you want drama, go to the checkpoint. Go and watch men being tied up.”
The PCI archive is significant because it shows Palestinians not as refugees or victims, but as revolutionaries. These films were Palestinian worldbuilding and sculpting the Palestinian image beyond struggle, beyond victimization. These are images made by Palestinian filmmakers and producers who were interested in reclaiming their own self-representation and self-image.
“[The] significance [of the PCI films] lies not only in their historic documentation of Palestinian life in the refugee camps and on the frontlines of guerrilla struggle, but in their nascent and evolving conceptions of how to sculpt a Palestinian image, and a Palestinian narrative, in the wake of the destruction of Palestine.”
— Kareem Estefan, “Narrating Looted and Living Palestinian Archives: Reparative Fabulation in Azza El-Hassan’s Kings and Extras”
Recently, Palestinian filmmaker Yazen Mizyed shared his reasons for pursuing filmmaking on Twitter. “I fell in love with the idea of freeing Palestine through a lens. Crazy right?”
Similarly, El-Hassan “frees Palestine through a lens” by documenting the memories, speculation, and oral histories of Palestinian people throughout the diaspora. Outside of imperialist notions of the archives, El-Hassan creates a living archive that documents that which cannot be categorized or destroyed—” Palestinian longing, memory, creativity, humor, melancholy, hope.” (Estefan, 60)
As the film continues, we understand the journey becomes less about finding the archives and more about documenting the lived experiences of Palestinians. By assuming the authority granted by the documentary form, she uses speculation to restore what has been lost by projecting her own idea of what those lost films may look or feel like. Toward the end of the film, as she reviews damaged, decayed 16mm footage from the 1982 war, she begins to speculate: “I imagined that for a few seconds, defeat ends and the victims win.”
In this documentary, El-Hassan’s “speculative act of envisioning” a world where Palestine is free is an act of resistance. (Estefan, 63) Speculation permits us to speak back to what we have been told about history, to question history itself, to fill in gaps left behind by settler-colonialist violence. Speculation requires us to deeply listen to the silences of marginalized histories and lived experiences. Speculation takes on a political and radical agenda when harnessed to reclaim power and narratives.
You can watch Kings and Extras on Youtube Here:
After the completion of Kings and Extras, El-Hassan began The Void Project, a collection of Palestinian audio-visual materials mostly from the 60’s, 70s, and 80s. The website reads: "In The Void, the story behind a salvaged photo is traced, and films that have been hidden because their owners feared for the film’s life, are restored and exhibited. The Void Project also produces films that aim to heal its protagonists from a visually-recorded event or moment.”
Some films that have been restored:
Palestine in the Eye (1976): The film chronicles the profound impact of Hani Jawharieh’s death for the PLO Film Unit. The film reflects on his life through interviews with family, colleagues, and his own cinematography, including the moment of his death while filming for the Unit in 1976.
Jerusalem: The Flower of all Cities (1969): A harmonious picture of Palestinian civil life is disturbed by the Israeli army’s occupation of the city following the 1967 war with Israel.
Sources: “Narrating Looted and Living Palestinian Archives” by Kareem Estefan
Learn More about Palestinian Archives:
“The Importance of Palestinian Archives: & Anti-Erasure Tactics” an Instagram Info-graphic by mayarhamdan and i.am.shaima.
”Palestinians have safeguarded their culture for decades, passed down through generations globally. Palestinian culture persists, and we’ll fiercely ensure its endurance, even in the face of a biased digital age.”Dreams of a Nation Project and Book
A Columbia University-based film project by Hamid Dabashi committed to the preservation and promotion of Palestinian cinema. The project began in the early 1990s with the acquisition and inclusion of Palestinian films in courses Dabashi taught at Columbia on Middle Eastern cinema.
”Dreams of a Nation is a work in progress. We are committed to two principle objectives: 1) expanding and preserving our archive with the goal of making it the largest collection of Palestinian cinema possible— inclusive of features, shorts, and documentaries— and 2) providing a solid database documenting Palestinian cinema for contemporary use and for the posterity.”Librarians and Archivists with Palestine
Librarians and Archivists with Palestine (LAP) is a network of self-defined librarians, archivists, and information workers in solidarity with the Palestinian struggle for self-determination.“I Wish To Photograph Beauty” Print Sale Until Dec 15
”As the genocide unfolds before our eyes, in Gaza and the West Bank, courageous Palestinian photographers, visual storytellers and citizen journalists are working tirelessly to document the relentless attacks on their land, on their loved ones, and on their very existence.
Now, more so than ever, it is imperative to amplify Palestinian narratives, and to support those currently documenting the ongoing atrocities. We are launching this print sale to support these artists and image-makers as they wield their cameras against injustice and bring clarity to the fog of war.
All proceeds from this print sale, regardless of which print you purchase, will go directly to support their continued work and recovery from the ongoing conflict, when the guns go silent.
Together, let us help ensure the future of Palestinian narratives.”