Deadline for applications: 23 March 2026

In the 1960s and 1970s, multiple groups across the Global South, including the Palestine Cinema Group, issued film manifestos that reflected on the conditions of filmmaking and circulation in their contexts, and articulated both conceptual and material interventions. These manifestos, alongside the films produced during that period, reveal the experimentation involved in forging revolutionary aesthetics emerging from moments of anti-colonial mobilization.

Drawing on these histories, this study group asks: if we were to write a film manifesto today, in the midst of the ongoing, hyper-mediated genocide of Palestinians, what would we write? How might we map the relationship between images and action? And what interventions would be necessary within current conditions of image production, spectatorship, and circulation?

The study group will combine curated film screenings, close readings, and collective discussion to cultivate a space for critical image interpretation, working toward the collaborative drafting of a contemporary manifesto. 

The workshop will be conducted in Arabic and English, with the possibility of translation into Arabic as needed. Those interested in images, film, filmmaking, and anti-colonial movements and theory are encouraged to apply. 

To apply, please fill in the form here.

Selma Shaban is a film curator and researcher whose work focuses on anti-colonial film movements and on experimental approaches to creating liberatory moving-image practices. Most recently, she completed a Watson Fellowship where she researched and trained in film archiving practices across multiple countries in the Global South. Her work includes curating film programs and delivering talks in cities such as Philadelphia, Beirut, Tunis, Dar Es Salaam, and Bangkok. During college, she organized screenings of Palestinian films and contributed to the collective making of the “Hani Jawharriyeh Cinema,” which she discusses in a chapter in an upcoming edited volume from the University of California Press. She graduated from college in 2024 with a double major in Philosophy and Islamic Studies, and she is currently based in Amman.

This event is part of the "Cinematic Transformations from the Global South" program

Projects at the Lab: The Cinematheque | All That We Witness presents in February, March, and April, a series of events that engage the concept of cinema and its role through film practices and productions from the Global South. The program seeks to revisit the meanings and forms of cinematic expression from a perspective that moves beyond the dominant global system shaping film production and circulation, and the formal and thematic frameworks they often impose. The program includes talks and study sessions, alongside a film screening program and collective discussions.