SAF presents series of talks alongside screenings at film festival

Featuring regional and international filmmakers, writers, producers and academics, this year’s talks centre on notions of modernity in African and Asian film, cinema as resistance and resilience in Palestine and beyond, and innovations in documentary filmmaking. 

The talks will take place on 16, 17, 23 and 24 November 2024 at Gallery 1 & 2 Courtyard, Al Mureijah Square, in Sharjah’s historical quarter. 

Free and open to the public, the programme is as follows: 

Conversation – Countering the Colony: Reclamation, Archives and Visual Memory 
Saturday, 16 November 2024 | 6:00 pm–6:45 pm

Focusing on the importance of visual memory in countering colonial erasure, this conversation explores the reclamation and use of archival images in Kamal Aljafari’s experimental documentary A Fidai Film (2024). Originally part of the collection of the Palestine Research Center in Beirut, the images were looted by the Israel army during its 1982 invasion of Lebanon. 

Panel – Celluloid Visions: Analogue, Hybrids and Innovations in Documentary Storytelling
Sunday, 17 November 2024 | 6:00 pm–6:45 pm

In this panel, filmmakers who utilise analogue film and celluloid-digital hybrids share their artistic process. From experiments with colour and exposure to home movie aesthetics, they discuss their innovative approaches to documentary storytelling and visual language. 

Panel – Modern Reckonings: Contemporary Life in New African and Asian Cinema
Saturday, 23 November 2024 | 4:30 pm–5:15 pm

This panel brings together filmmakers who grapple with themes of modernity. Centred on lived experiences in Africa and Asia, their SFP7 films foreground the challenges and opportunities of modern life, from migration, labour and issues of belonging to the introduction of new technology. 

Conversation – From Gaza’s Ground Zero: Dispatches Amidst Genocide and Resilience 
Sunday, 24 November 2024 | 7:30 pm–8:15 pm

In this conversation, filmmaker Rashid Masharawi discusses his latest project, From Ground Zero (2024), which is a collection of 22 short films made by Palestinians during Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza. Masharawi talks about the arduous process of realising the films and how creativity can be an act of testimony and resilience in the face of unspeakable circumstances.