Cinema Jenin is coming soon… that was our message at the first press conference we had last week on Wednesday. Meeting place was the German Arab Society in Berlin-Moabit – a part of the Capital that isn’t as noble as one someone acquainted with the area would expect this kind of official première to take place in. But: The place was charming, colourful and exactly that what we wanted! A warm atmosphere, perfect lighting for the ongoing film project and very nice hosts like Mr. Bock and Mrs. Darwisch who made everything go so smooth.

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Yesterday, Matt kindly invited for a Jenin evening at his place in the centre of Berlin, a big apartment he is charing wi th 5 other nice people. He prepared a copious, delicious Palestinian buffet, as good as the ones we know from the kitchen table in our guesthouse – except that the humus was home-made, like everything else! Wonderful!

And on top of this, I had the chance to bring a surprise guest: Ismael! I got the phone call in the morning that the had arrived in Berlin – and I did not tell anybody.

We showed the Cinema Jenin trailer and photos from my last stay in Jenin, discussed and made plans with the ones who will come to Cinema Jenin guesthouse soon. Shortly before 11 pm, we watched TV: Ismael’s interview at Gottschalk’s People of the Year 2009.

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Cinema Jenin is a transparent development project which seeks to encourage people to get actively involved. Everyone is welcome to come and visit us in person or online. The project Cinema Jenin still needs your support. Although the renovation of the cinema building will likely be completed by January 2010, we still need to finance the following:

• The renovation of the Cuneo Center for Peace
• Establishing of a studio for subtitling and synchronization
• A sound system for the open air cinema
• Lighting equipment and microphones for theatrical performances
• Digitizing 20 films for the festival
• An LED Screen
• Film Workshops for the youth of Jenin
• Festival organization
• Accomodation for volunteers
• Transportation for Equipment

For donations please check our website here!

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The Cinema Jenin association will be running a poster campaign from January 2010 onwards in order to publicize the project internationally. The idea is to find sponsors who are willing to finance a large poster or a poster space and who will be given the option to publish their logo on the poster in return. Posters are already available for download in various formats from the website. Everyone can distribute the poster – the names and logos of sponsors comprise the tesserae in the Cinema Jenin butterfly logo.

Our poster and postcard you find in our download section here.

The German Foreign Ministry supports ‘Cinema Jenin’ within the framework of its ‘Future for Palestine’ programme. The Ministry has made possible part of the renovation of the cinema with more than 240,000 Euro including the acquisition of two D-Cinema projectors. ‘Goethe Institute Ram’Allah’ is planning to open a movie library and gallery on the first floor of the cinema and is also using one of the rooms of the guesthouse for German lessons. AirBerlin has been extremely generous in sponsoring monthly flights (and excess luggage) to Tel Aviv and back and, in this way, support the work of our volunteers and staff. The ‘Cinema Jenin’ association would also like to thank our partners and sponsors, like Ferrostaal, Gerriets, Xpand, Bewegte Bilder, the ‘Cinema for Peace’ Foundation, Hasso Plattner Ventures and all the many others whose logos are shown on our webpage and without whose generous support we would not be able to do what we are doing!

Cinema Jenin has also found a new reliable partner in the city of Tubingen: The formal ties between the project and the city will ensure that there will be a consistent cultural exchange and increasing connections with Europe after the opening of the cinema. What had started with the cinema in Jenin will also be growing in Tubingen.

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At the very beginning of the project we decided to spend as much of the donations we received and are still receiving here in Jenin. One aspect of this decision concerns the contractors, the other the products we choose to use.
For example the cinema-chair. The original chairs from the sixties, covered with pigeon feces, in large parts damaged and to narrow in width, were not usable anymore. Nevertheless the chair-legs were made of beautifully designed cast iron. So instead of importing a modern chair from abroad, spending the budget for example in Turkey, we decided to restore the existing chairs, upholster them, and at the same time enlarging the width so that they meet todays demands of comfort. It´s obvious that such a route requires more time and energy from our side to ensure quality, but our aim to support the very local economy was always a good guide when we had to make such decisions.

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