The genocide in Gaza continues with unrelenting violence against people, land, and life. Over the past two years, it has become clear that this is a war waged not only on the ground, but also across screens.

Within this terrain, the moving image has taken on a volatile charge. No longer confined to formal production or institutional channels, it now surfaces through phones, drones, surveillance feeds, and AI systems. Bystanders become chroniclers; the besieged document the brutality inflicted upon them, releasing raw, unfiltered testimony with the power to rupture entire propaganda infrastructures.

Never before has such violence been so extensively recorded and shared. Yet these images do not move freely.  They pass through hostile circuits, where powerful actors determine what can appear, disappear, or be cast into doubt. 

This vast machinery—of states, corporations, and media networks—works to overwhelm and obscure. The visual field is flooded with simulations, distortions, and strategic falsehoods. Images are weaponized: not to reveal, but to confuse, to invert, to exhaust. 

In other instances, journalists, artists, and civilians have been tracked, bombed, and killed, not only to silence what the image shows, but to curtail the very act of making it, the networks that carry it, and the people who insist on its truth.

Perception itself has become a battleground, shaping not only how reality is understood, but whether it is seen at all.

These urgencies raise essential questions:
What does it mean to create, witness, or share a moving image in this moment, politically, ethically, and socially?

How do we navigate a visual field where testimony, propaganda, and simulation can look alike but carry radically different stakes?
What responsibilities fall on artists, filmmakers, and thinkers when images shape not only what is seen, but the very terms of life and death?
And what new terrains or spaces must we forge to make such images matter?

Projects At The Lab: The Cinémathèque invites proposals that grapple with these questions through the moving image. We welcome artists, filmmakers, researchers, curators, and archivists to propose new or ongoing projects that critically engage the role of film and video in this moment, across witnessing, making, archiving, resisting, and imagining.

Hosted within the Cinémathèque space at Darat al Funun, selected projects will unfold through short-term artistic residencies of four to six weeks. Proposals may take the form of research inquiries, curated screening programs, workshops, formal or visual experimentation, or gatherings for collective study and analysis. Artists are encouraged to treat the Cinémathèque not only as a site for reflection and inquiry, but also as an adaptable medium in itself, one that opens onto new circuits of circulation, reception, and refusal.

Participants will have access to resources including the Arab Film Archive, the Khalid Shoman Collection, and other digital film libraries will support each project.
Out of this process, a living archive will take shape, sustained through discussions, workshops, screenings, and the forms of engagement that emerge.

Application Guidelines

Applications are welcome from individuals or collectives, based in Jordan or abroad. Remote and online projects will also be considered.

To apply, please send the following materials to: opencall@daratalfunun.org

1. Project Proposal (maximum 500 words)
2. Statement of Interest, explaining your reasons for wanting to participate in the program (maximum 500 words)
3. Provisional Timeline for the implementation of the project (the duration of production and presentation should not exceed 6 weeks)
4. Proposed Budget for the execution of the project
5. Short Bio (maximum 250 words)
6. Samples of Previous Work (if available)

Deadline for applications: Sunday 30 November 2025 (11:59 PM Amman time)

For more information, please email opencall@daratalfunun.org