For Cultural Purposes Only

In an age dominated by the moving image what would it feel like to never see an image of the place that you came from?

The Palestinian Film Archive contained over 100 films showing the daily life and struggle of the Palestinian people. It was lost in the Israeli siege of Beirut in 1982. Here interviewees describe from memory key moments from the history of Palestinian cinema. These scenes are drawn and animated. Where film survives, the artist’s impressions are corroborated. This is a film about reconstruction and the idea that cinema is an expression of cultural identity – that cinema fuels memory.

The film was commissioned by Animate Projects in association with Arts Council England and Channel 4. The title, For Cultural Purposes Only is taken from the article by Annemarie Jacir of the same name.

The film won was nominated for a Tiger award at Rotterdam Film Festival 2010 and was awarded special mentions at Exis, Seoul, 25 fps, Zagreb and at L'Alternativa, Barcelona ‘for its testimonial power and subtle use of resources when telling a story of vanished images’.

Director: Sarah Wood. UK, 2009, video, 8 mins

Illustration: Woodrow Phoenix
Animation: Kate Anderson
Photography: Ruanne Abu-Rahme
Cartography: Simon Deeves
Music: Basel Abbas
Edit: Lucy Harris

Distributed by CFMDC

Watch it here

Articles:
Guardian
Sight and Sound
Dazed and Confused
Little White Lies
Frankfurter Rundschau
Rotterdam Film Festival

Media:
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