Nearly fifty years after they were believed to have been lost or destroyed, fragments of films made by the Palestine Film Unit during the 1970s and early 1980s will be screened in Leeds this weekend.
The event, titled Militant Palestinian Cinema… In a Day, will take place on 18 October at Hyde Park Picture House. It marks one of the first times these films, many created in exile, smuggled across borders, and suppressed during the height of the Palestinian liberation movement have been shown publicly since their underground circulation decades ago.
The archival material has been painstakingly recovered and digitised through a collaboration between film preservationists, archivists and Palestinian cultural institutions. The work represents a rare visual record of a period when Palestinian filmmakers used cinema as a direct instrument of political struggle.
“These films were made under extraordinary circumstances, often smuggled across borders, screened in secret, and deliberately suppressed,” said Saeed Taji Farouky, the Palestinian-Egyptian-British filmmaker leading the day-long event. “That they survived at all is remarkable. That we can now see them is nothing short of miraculous.”
The screenings form part of Hyde Park Picture House’s Film School series and will be framed by discussions examining how militant cinema emerged from the Palestinian liberation movement and intersected with global currents in radical filmmaking. Sessions will address three themes: the origins of militant Palestinian cinema, international solidarity and Third Cinema, and new approaches to political filmmaking today.
The Palestine Film Unit, founded in the late 1960s, operated as part of the wider liberation movement. Its members regarded their cameras as weapons, producing films that depicted refugee life, resistance, and the realities of occupation, countering narratives that dominated international media at the time.
Wendy Cook, Head of Cinema at Hyde Park Picture House, said the rediscovery of these films sheds light on a neglected chapter in global film history. “Cinema is too vast for any single venue to encompass entirely, so we’re privileged to work with specialists like Leeds Palestinian Film Festival who help bring these vital, underseen stories to light,” she said. “These aren’t just historical artefacts – they’re living documents that speak directly to today.”
Farouky, whose documentary A Thousand Fires won the Marco Zucchi Award at the Locarno Film Festival in 2021, is also lead tutor at London’s Radical Film School. He said the films’ recovery invites a reassessment of how Palestinian filmmakers influenced global documentary practice.
“Palestinian filmmakers were experimenting with form and technique in ways that influenced documentary cinema globally – yet their work has been systematically erased from film history,” he said. “This day is about reclaiming that legacy.”
The event concludes with a screening of Little Palestine, Diary of a Siege (2021), Abdallah Al-Khatib’s acclaimed documentary set in the Yarmouk refugee camp during the Syrian civil war, underscoring the enduring relevance of militant cinema’s themes and aesthetics.
Supported by Leeds Palestinian Film Festival and Film Hub North, the programme aims to make the rediscovered material accessible to wider audiences through reduced ticket prices.
