Foragers Film Screening

Coldharbour Blue Cinema, 259-260 Hardess Street, Loughborough Junction, London SE24 0HN, United Kingdom

Foragers by Jumana Manna 65mins

Foragers depicts the dramas around the practice of foraging for wild edible plants in Palestine/Israel with wry humor and a meditative pace. Shot in the Golan Heights, the Galilee and Jerusalem, it employs fiction, documentary and archival footage to portray the impact of Israeli nature protection laws on these customs. The restrictions prohibit the collection of the artichoke-like ’akkoub and za’atar (thyme), and have resulted in fines and trials for hundreds caught collecting these native plants. For Palestinians, these laws constitute an ecological veil for legislation that further disposses them from their land while the occupation's state representatives insist on their scientific expertise and duty to protect. Following the plants from the wild to the kitchen, from the chases between the foragers and the nature patrol, to courtroom defenses, Foragers captures the joy and knowledge embodied in these traditions alongside their resilience to the prohibitive law. By reframing the terms and constraints of preservation, the film raises questions around the politics of extinction, namely who determines what is made extinct and what gets to live on.

The Flowers Stand Silently, Witnessing by Theo Panagopoulos 17mins

When a filmmaker of Palestinian descent based in Scotland unearths a rarely-seen Scottish film archive of Palestinian wildflowers, he decides to reclaim the footage. This tender film essay questions the role of image-making as a tool of both testimony and violence when connected to entanglements between people and the land.

Ahl el Thara (People of the Soil) by Vivien Sansour 7mins

Comissoned by Somerset House for their 2025 Soil exhibition, this film aims to give glimpses of people of soil from different corners of the earth whose hands and hearts are weaving new visions, rooted in the acknowledgement of the grief we are experiencing and the dream we hold onto that something else must be possible. Most of the footage chronicles several trips to visit people of soil who are part of the Palestine Heirloom Seed Library’s Seed Protectors Project, a program in which seeds from Palestine take refuge across the United States in soil lovingly tended by volunteers. In this video, we focus particularly on California and a moment when a meal, ceremony, and grieving space was conjured on the grounds of the agroecology farm to honor the lost, including two farmer friends from Palestine murdered: elder Abu Nabil, from the West Bank village of Sabastya and beloved youth, Mohammad Saqir, from Gaza. He was targeted by a missile while distributing free vegetables. They are people of the soil. This film is in their honor.

All proceeds from the event will go to Gaza Soup Kitchen: https://gazasoupkitchen.org/

Doors: 6:50pm

Welcome from Dunya Films: 7:00pm

Intro from Theo Panagopoulos: 7:10pm

Screenings: 7:20pm

End: 9pm

Dunya Films hosts film screenings from predominantly the SWANA (South West Asia and North Africa) region, providing space to gather, watch and learn.

Follow us on social media to stay in the know about upcoming events: https://www.instagram.com/dunya_films

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Coldharbour Blue, 259-260 Hardess Street, London, United Kingdom

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