Modern Palestinian Filmmaking in a Global World Sarah Frances Hudson University of Arkansas, Fayetteville
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University of Arkansas, Fayetteville ScholarWorks@UARK Theses and Dissertations 5-2017 Modern Palestinian Filmmaking in a Global World Sarah Frances Hudson University of Arkansas, Fayetteville Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarworks.uark.edu/etd Part of the Near and Middle Eastern Studies Commons, and the Visual Studies Commons Recommended Citation Hudson, Sarah Frances, "Modern Palestinian Filmmaking in a Global World" (2017). Theses and Dissertations. 1872. http://scholarworks.uark.edu/etd/1872 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by ScholarWorks@UARK. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UARK. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. Modern Palestinian Filmmaking in a Global World A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies by Sarah Hudson Hendrix College Bachelor of Arts in English Literature, 2007 University of Arkansas Master of Arts in Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies, 2011 May 2017 University of Arkansas This thesis/dissertation is approved for recommendation to the Graduate Council: ____________________________________________ Dr. Mohja Kahf Dissertation Director ____________________________________________ Dr. Ted Swedenburg Committee Member ____________________________________________ Dr. Keith Booker Committee Member Abstract This dissertation employs a comprehensive approach to analyze the cinematic accent of feature length, fictional Palestinian cinema and offers concrete criteria to define the genre of Palestinian fictional film that go beyond traditional, nation-centered approaches to defining films. Employing Arjun Appardurai’s concepts of financescapes, technoscapes, mediascapes, ethnoscapes, and ideoscapes, I analyze the filmic accent of six Palestinian filmmakers: Michel Khleifi, Rashid Masharawi, Ali Nassar, Elia Suleiman, Hany Abu Assad, and Annemarie Jacir. After a detailed examination of each filmmaker’s body of work, I examine the trends that occur across the genre that have the greatest impact on the Palestinian filmic accent and that differentiate the genre of Palestinian film from that of accented cinema more generally. These trends include the interstitial nature of Palestinian fictional filmmaking, the importance of relationships between Palestinian filmmakers, the seeming necessity of travel to the education and training of the directors, and the invasive nature of the Israeli occupation on any film made in or about the West Bank or Gaza. My analysis identifies a thematic shift within the genre from a focus on collective and nationalist themes to themes that center upon individual experiences of occupation. While other scholars argue this shift is the result of new directors entering the genre, my analysis identifies this trend within the corpus of individual directors whose work spans the entirety of the Palestinian fictional film genre, indicating this shift is the result of a change in accent rather than the result of the appearance of new directors. By examining both the individual accent of Palestinian filmmakers and the regional accent of Palestinian fictional film, I deduce that the thematic shift from collective to individual experiences is accompanied by a move toward increased reliance on Palestinian funding and personnel for these cinematic projects and increases in the availability of these films to Palestinians living in Israel proper as well as those living in the West Bank and Gaza. From this information, I have concluded that Palestinian fictional cinema is in the process of a significant change in accent, indicating that the accent of a regional cinema changes over time in addition to changing across areas and individuals, which Naficy has previously noted. @2017 Sarah Hudson All Rights Reserved Acknowledgements This dissertation would not be possible without the help and support of the University of Arkansas and the professors who enabled my growth as a scholar. I would especially like to thank Dr. Ted Swedenburg, who introduced me to Palestinian film, and Dr. Mohja Kahf, who has alternately been my coach, counselor, and cheerleader throughout the dissertation process. I also feel the need to both thank and apologize profusely to the Interlibrary Loan departments at the University of Arkansas and Tulsa Community College. Both organizations did a tremendous job in tracking down my esoteric and difficult-to-find source material, and I repaid them by being routinely late with my returns. I would also like to thank a number of local businesses who contributed to my ability to pursue this project by providing me with “offices” away from my office. Significant portions of this project were researched and written with the help of caffeinated beverages and Wi-Fi from Tanglewood Branch Brewery in Fayetteville, AR; The Gypsy Coffee House in Tulsa, OK; and the Tulsa Community College Southeast Campus Library and Writing Center. In addition to the help and support I received regarding the actual researching and writing of this dissertation, I am a firm believer that no one makes it through a PhD program relatively unscathed without the emotional and psychological support of friends and family. I would have become a miserable hermit without the social nudging of Joshua Cunningham and Leslie Burns, while Stephanie Scott and Anna Johnson were instrumental in reminding me that I was not, in fact, losing my mind, even when it felt very much like I was. My mother, Carolyn Hudson, and sister, Claire Gordon, also contributed to the maintenance of my sanity throughout the two years of dissertation writing and six years of graduate school. I am eternally grateful for their love and support throughout my life, but especially over the last decade. I also owe an unpayable debt of gratitude to Jake Pipinich for his love and support throughout this process. Through all of the moments of frustration, anxiety and despair, he loved me despite my grouchiness, always pushing me forward, and both I and this dissertation are the better for it. Dedication “We are not to simply bandage the wounds of victims beneath the wheels of injustice, we are to drive a spoke into the wheel itself.”—Dietrich Bonhoeffer I would like to dedicate this dissertation to my father, Judge James S. Hudson, Jr. (1954-2009), whose passion for justice and love of a rational argument were, at times, both inspiring and infuriating for those who lived with him. Table of Contents Chapter One: Palestinian Cinema, Globalization, and Accented Cinema………………………...1 Works Cited……………………………………………………………………………...27 Chapter Two: Early Audiences and Technology: Khleifi, Masharawi, and Nassar……………..30 Michel Khleifi: Film and Funding Pioneer………………………………………………31 Masharawi: Grit and Productivity………………………………………………………..50 Ali Nassar: Melodrama and Israeli Money………………………………………………66 Works Cited……………………………………………………………………………...81 Chapter Three: More Recent Cinema: Suleiman, Abu Assad, and Jacir………………………...83 Elia Suleiman: The Absurdity of Nationalism…………………………………………...86 Hany Abu Assad: High Risk, High Reward Filming…………………………………...111 Annemarie Jacir: The Dream of Return………………………………………………...138 Works Cited…………………………………………………………………………….167 Chapter Four: Ideoscapes………………………………………………………….……………172 Blocked Space and Time……………………………………………………………….176 Weddings and Cultural Celebrations…………………………………………………...186 Exile and Return: (Be)Coming Home…………………………………………………..191 Images of Violent Resistance: Absences and Deflections……………………………...195 Psychology: From Symbolic to Realistic……………………………………………….202 Works Cited…………………………………………………………………………….215 Chapter Five: The Palestinian Cinematic Accent………………………………………………219 Technoscapes and Financescapes………………………………………………………222 Ethnoscapes and Mediascapes………………………………………………………….226 Ideoscapes………………………………………………………………………………235 Conclusions………………………………………………………………………….….238 Works Cited………………………………………………………………………….…242 List of Figures Figure 1…………………………………………………………………………………………..44 Figure 2…………………………………………………………………………………………..44 Figure 3…………………………………………………………………………………………..45 Figure 4…………………………………………………………………………………………..46 Figure 5…………………………………………………………………………………………..47 Figure 6…………………………………………………………………………………………..64 Figure 7…………………………………………………………………………………………..65 Figure 8…………………………………………………………………………………………..69 Figure 9…………………………………………………………………………………………..70 Figure 10…………………………………………………………………………………………98 Figure 11…………………………………………………………………………………………98 Figure 12………………………………………………………………………………………..150 Figure 13………………………………………………………………………………………..151 Figure 14………………………………………………………………………………………..151 Figure 15………………………………………………………………………………………..152 Figure 16………………………………………………………………………………………..153 1 Chapter One: Palestinian Cinema, Globalization, and Accented Cinema As non-Western film developed throughout the latter half of the twentieth century and as once colonized countries developed national cinemas, Palestine's brutal and prolonged struggle for national independence left the endeavors of its cineaste orphaned in a global economy of national cinemas. Despite the lack of support from a developed national cinematic industry, Palestinian filmmakers have neither given up nor slackened in their efforts to produce high quality films that represent themselves and their visions of life in Palestine and its people. As with several non-Western cinemas that developed during times of armed conflict