Dear friends of Cinema Jenin!

we proudly announce the Worldpremier of the film CINEMA JENIN – The Story of a Dream on November 22 in the section “International Competition” of the 24th International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (idfa).

The dream of reopening the old cinema in Jenin/Palestine began with the critically acclaimed film “Heart of Jenin” (2010 German Film Award). The documentary film tells the story of Ismael Khateeb, a resident of the Jenin refugee camp, whose 11-year-old son Ahmed was shot dead by Israeli soldiers in 2005. Ismael and his wife decided to donate their son’s organs to Israeli children- a gesture of peace and reconciliation. The film helped to spread the message across the world. Jenin itself, however, still lacked a proper place to show its very own story. Therefore, Ismael Khatib, his translator Fakhri Hamad and filmmaker Marcus Vetter decided to bring the old cinema in the heart of the city back to life. Cinema Jenin is meant to be a place for the people, with much to offer: culture, fun, education, job opportunities, and a bridge to the wide world behind the wall.

The film CINEMA JENIN tells this story from the very first moment. It becomes a drawn-out process, as the German director at the center of his own story encounters complex cultural relationships and sentiments. Initially, he doesn’t understand many Palestinian customs and he gets taken to task for it on several occasions. What’s more, the involvement of foreign parties is a delicate issue for many Palestinians – especially when it comes to Israel. Although the new cinema is supposed to welcome everyone, the enterprise prompts reactions that reveal the painful nature of the relationship between Palestine and Israel. The word “peace” becomes extremely charged, and the initiators Ismael, Fakhri and Marcus have to take care that the social project doesn’t turn into a political one. These and other problems need to be solved with the help of a few big names, lots of volunteers, and even more cigarettes. (IDFA)

CINEMA JENIN is produced by BOOMTOWN MEDIA, FILMPERSPEKTIVE and CINEPHIL in co-production with SWR | BR | NDR | arte, SENATOR FILM PRODUKTION and YES TV.
Funded by MFG BADEN-WÜRTTEMBERG, MEDIENBOARD BERLIN-BRANDENBURG, DFFF DEUTSCHER FILMFÖRDERFONS, BKM, RABINOVICH FOUNDATION and SUNDANCE INSTITUTE.

We would like to thank all the generous supporters, sponsors and volunteers. Without their support Cinema Jenin would not have been possible!

Cinema Jenin and its accompanying projects are still in their early stages. In order to establish Cinema Jenin as an economically viable and self-supporting project, Cinema Jenin still need financial, conceptual, and personal support to continue our work. The tasks include further training of the Palestinian team in managing the cinema and organizing cultural events, ensuring a diverse film program, proceeding with film and theatre workshops, developing educational activities as well as professional training opportunities, and much more.

Sincerely
Your Cinema Jenin Team

Screenings in Amsterdam

20/11 – 12:00 Industry screening
22/11 – 17:15 World Premier in Tuschinski 1
24/11 – 11:30 Extended Q&A

More information: www.idfa.nl

Filmcredits:
Director Marcus Vetter
Photography Alex Bakri
Editing Saskia Metten
Music Avi Balleli
Production Philippa Kowarsky for Cinephil
Thomas Grube for Boomtownmedia
Uwe Dierks for Boomtownmedia

Involved TV Channel
Yes Docu
BR
ARTE
SWR

This year the Dresden Sinfoniker are building a bridge to the city of Jenin in the West Bank: in August 2010 the city’s cinema, which had been closed since the first Intifada in 1987, re-opened its doors. It is one of only three cinemas in a region marred by decades of political conflict. The city became world-famous through the fate of Ismael Khatibs, who donated the organs of his eleven-year old son Ahmed, killed by Israeli soldiers, to Israeli children. This great gesture of reconciliation created the foundation for the rebuilding of Jenin’s cinema only three years later.

The internationally acclaimed Iranian composer and kamancheh-virtuoso Kayan Kalhor composed the piece Cinema Jenin – A Symphony especially for the project, which he will premiere together with the Dresdner Sinfoniker and four other soloists from Iran, Egypt, Israel and the USA on the 1st October 2011 at the Festspielhaus Hellerau. The music will be accompanied by scenes from Marcus Vetter’s documentary Cinema Jenin, currently in the making, which tells the incredible story of the rebuilding. The program will be complemented by Kayan Kalhors Silent City, a piece for kamancheh, percussion and strings. The evening is also the opening of the TonLagen Festival and will begin at 6 pm with the award-winning documentary Das Herz von Jenin by Marcus Vetter. The concert starts at 8 pm. The Dresdner Sinfoniker will accompany Marcus Vetter’s documentary Cinema Jenin on a tour through Isra-el and the West Bank in the spring of 2012.

Cinema Jenin – A Symphony is under the patronage of Frank-Walter Steinmeier and is a co-production of the Dresden Sinfoniker and Ben Deiß.

SOLOIST
SKayhan Kalhor, KamanchehKamil Shajrawi, OudAli Bahrami, SanturSa‘ad Mohamed Hassan, Arabische ViolineShane Shanahan, Percussion

CONDUCTOR
Andrea Molino

For further information please contact:
PR + Medien
Petra Huber
petra@pr-huber.de
+49-172-2405084
www.cinemajeninsymphony.com
www.dresdner-sinfoniker.de

SENATOR FILM VERLEIH
Senator Distribution will release „Cinema Jenin“ in Fall 2011. Further information: www.cinemajenin.org

This will take place on the 26th August, which also happens to be 26th day of Ramadan: It is suggested & supported by the Ministry of Culture in Ramallah as part of Jenin Summer cultural festival 2011 which will include a well known group from Nazareth called Al-Haqq music band of 25 musicians and dancers performing national Palestinian songs and traditional folklore dancing. We predict this event to bring a large crowd of audience over 500 people to make a perfect Ramadan celebration.

This is a big advertising screen 5×8 meters hanging on the roof of the cinema at an Angle so that it can be easily seen by people walking on the street below. It happens to be the only one of its kind & size in the north of Palestine. We rent it out now to companies who want to place their advertisement in the heart of the preferred area of Jenin with many thousands recipients per day. This important income will help us to pay our daily running cost. For more information please call 0599-208829.

To keep Cinema Jenin going as a successful cultural and entertaining center, to serve the Palestinian community, we need your help in donating a small amount of money to be able to get out of our financial crisis. Without your help we cannot go on.
Please call 0599-208829 or visit our donation-website for further information.Thank you, we really appreciate your support.

During the Summer Festival from 9th July – 26th July we had a special Festival for children taking place simultaneously inside and outside the cinema including a magician, a clown and a theatre play.

from 9th July – 26th July

On the 9th of July Cinema Jenin presented the Jenin Summer Culture Festival attended by the Palestinian Minister of Culture Seham Barghouti and her delegation, the governor of Jenin Mousa Qadura. Guests from the Cultural Media like poets, writers and musicians from the local area of Jenin as well as guests from palestinians of 1948 attended as well the festival. The films screened for one week were all documentary, discussing the living problems facing palestinians on a daily basis under occupation. It also included palestinian films beyond the 1948 borders in Haifa, Nazareth and other towns.

On the 16th of July the Festival started with the very successful Marj Ibn-Amer with Palestinian Folklore Dancing starting and the famous Dabka Group Al Asayel from Ramallah. There where over 800 excited people of all ages in the audience who participated in singing and dancing with the group until midnight. Along the second week Cinema Jenin presented other famous palestinian groups with all types of Folklore Dancing and singing like Nazareth Folklore and Dabka Group. The young superstar Morad Swaiti sang on the third night of the Festival, which was very entertaining for the youth. Included in the Festival, there was a market of traditional embroidery, accessoires, sewing products like pillow covers and palestinian traditional food from a Women skills association. All in all, a lot of families and people of all ages came and enjoyed these multicultural days of the festival.

Festival Picture-Gallery

It was an unusual incident that shocked the workers at Cinema Jenin when it happened towards the end of March. Every thing started to get blown away by a strong windy weather accompanied by some rain. The large black fabric cover sheltering the area next to the cafeteria kitchen fell down as the four steel pillars supporting it started shaking and losing their anchors in the ground.
Also the screen and the stage (platform) lost some of its wood due to both wind and rain which we had to replace costing around $5000.

In November 2005, Ismael Khatib’s 12-year-old son, Ahmed, was shot in the head by an Israeli soldier at the Jenin refugee camp. After the doctors at the hospital declared Ahmed dead, his Palestinian father decided to donate his son’s organs to six Israeli children, saving their lives. The news of Ismael’s decision went around the world. The Israeli director, Leon Geller, and the German documentary filmmaker, Marcus Vetter, tell the story in the film The Heart of Jenin, which has already won many awards, including the Cinema for Peace Award.

Heart of Jenin will be screened on German TV (ARD) on june 21 at 10.45 pm.

After a few weeks of silence after Juliano Mer Khamis’ death, we would like to tell you that this silence was not the result of the closing down of the cinema. Although the situation in Jenin is quite uncertain at the moment and most of our volunteers decided to leave the city for a while, our great Palestinian staff has taken over all responsibilities and continues the work for the ongoing success of our project. Nevertheless, we cannot accept any applications for voluntary work right now, but will inform you as soon as the situation changes!