2018
Text
Attac and Insult. On the Dispute over the Palestine-Films of Lebanese Director Ziad Doueiri. In: inamo 95 | autumn 2018, pp. 32-3, online (in German)
Lecture
22.11.2018 @ 19.00 at the Kinemathek Karlsruhe (Germany)
Opening lecture of the film series Syria, mon amour (in German). More
Lecture
Friday the 19th of October 2018, 12:00-13:00 at Dar Jacir, Bethlehem, Palestine
PFM Case Study on Co-production│A Look behind the scenes of PLO-GDR cooperation in film-making
Using the example of the cooperation in filmmaking between the ceased German Democratic Republic (1949-1990) and the Palestine Liberation Organization that started in 1975, Irit Neidhardt’s talk gives an insight to the first co-production agreement between the GDR’s DEFA and the PLO’s Department for Culture and Information as well as the films made on its basis and is looking at the role the cooperation played for each partner’s political and diplomatic strategies. As most official co-production agreements follow similar patterns, this case study will provide a better understanding of these cross borders collaborations nowadays.
Paper
Cinema-Going in the Arab World: Exhibition, Distribution, and Audiences. A workshop in Cairo, Egypt (14-15 September 2018) organized by the Netherlands-Flemish Institute in Cairo with support from “DICIS” / Digital Cinema Studies
the paper: Without Mention of the Contracted Partner: On Cooperation in Film and TV between the PLO and the GDR. more
Film talk
20.9.2018 at 7:30 pm at Werkstatt der Kulturen in Berlin
screening of Sarah Francis' BIRDS OF SEPTEMBER (LB/QATAR 2014), introduction and conversation with Irit Neidhardt. In the series Beyond Spring. The film has Engish subtitles, the conversation is held in English.
Text
Anatomy of an Investigation. Review of Andreas Maus' feature documentary The Kuaför from Keupstrasse, in imano 94 | summer 2018 in the focus on the NSU, page 94.
Talk
06.09.2018 at 18:00h at the Amerika-Gedenkbibliothek Berlin
Arab Film-making. A conversation with Irit Neidhardt (mec film) and Eva Kietzmann (ZLB Film Library) more (German)
Text
Zaatari – Memories of the Labyrinth, TV-review on the homonymous film by Paschoal Samora on 24.7.2018 at fr-online.de (German)
Lecture
Jerusalem, Jeruschalajim, al-Quds - On the Roots of Palestine-Images in the European Everyday Culture (in German)
Sunday 24th June 2018 at noon at the Quäker Nachbarschaftshaus, Kreutzerstraße 5-9 in Köln-Ehrenfeld
more (in German)
Panel
29th May 2018, 9-10am at the Cité international des arts, Paris
The Circulation of Palestinian and Arab Cinema in Europe - at the Festival Ciné-Palestine Industry Days
From art house cinemas to festivals and to alternative exhibition venues, the panelists will discuss their experience of distributing, curating and programming independent Palestinian and Arab cinema in Europe.
Speakers: Béatrice Grossi - Programmer - Cinéma Le Studio, Irit Neidhart - Distributor, mec film, Christophe Postic - Co-Artistic Director of Les États généraux du film documentaire de Lussas
Moderator: Mélanie Simon-Franza - Distributor, Juste Doc more
Concept and Moderation
Sun, 29.04.2018, 3 pm, Altes Pfandhaus, Cologne (Germany)
HEIM - Stage reading of TV series script with Ursula Strauss and Jesse Albert. Discussion with Liwaa Yazji and Mohammad Abu Laban. Moderation: Irit Neidhardt. At the International Women's Film Festival Dortmund | Cologne in the Focus: ABOUT GERMANY.
"Heim" is the new Arab Germanism for refugee centre. After moving to Berlin at the end of 2015, Liwaa Yazji and Mohammad Abu Laban (together with David Hermann) wrote the script for a TV-series, their first episodic drama to be produced in Germany.
What does it mean to transfer familiar work to a new environment? How is research carried out? Who is the series written for? Does production in Germany mean the film addresses a German audience? What limitations does an author face when he is not yet familiar with the new system, and what freedoms result from this situation? More
Lecture
17.4.2018 at 18:30h @ Wolf Kino Berlin
On Solidarity and Dependency – The beginnings of PLO-GDR filmmaking in the 1970s in the program „For an Invisible People, Camera Would be Their Weapon” (Elias Sanbar) Lecture and Talk with Irit Neidhardt and Mohanad Yaqubi of the Special: 70 Years Nakba at ALFILM, the Arab Film Festival Berlin.
When the Palestinian Liberation Organization PLO and the GDR, the socialist German state (1949-1990), started to cooperate in film-making in 1974 both were just diplomatically recognized by the majority of the UN member states and received their respective seats at the United Nations. The PLO was an affluent liberation movement operating from exile and the GDR was a sovereign state with a weak economy. In addition to their sincere anti-imperialist convictions, there was a big portion of pragmatism beneath the almost twenty year long cooperation in film and television between the two partners. This short lecture gives an insight to the first coproduction agreement between the GDR’s DEFA and the PLO’s Department for Culture and Information as well as the films made on this basis.
Panel and Talk
14.4.2018 at 6.30 pm at Rote Frabrik Zürich (Switzerland)
Round Table on the realities of productions with Sawsan Darwaza, Irit Neidhardt & Viola Shafik in the framework of the Under the Same Sky film program on gender perspectives from the Arab World.
15.4.2018 at 5.00pm at Roten Fabrik Zürich
Talk and Q&A Eccomi ... Eccoti with Raed Rafei (director/producer) and Irit Neidhardt (producer).
program booklet (PDF)
Text
A Country Allegendly Outside History TV Review of François-Xavier Trégan's reportage Yemen – Chaos and Silence on March 27th, 2018 at fr-online.de (German).
Inhouse
How to optimise the film’s chances at a festival? Festivals and Markets: building a strategy. With Andreї Kamarovsky (Orange Studio) and Irit Neidhardt (mec film)
Saturday, 24 March 2018, at The Smallville Hotel, Beirut, Lebanon; in the framework of the Beirut-Locarno Industry Academy
Text
Now online on Linksnet (in German only): The review Shawq (Longing) - The Syrian Ramadan-series about the abduction of Razan Zeytouneh. First published in: inamo 91 | autumn 2017, p. 67 (German)
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Cinema as Self-Assertion: Films from Palestine. Introduction to the film series in REX Kino Bern / Switzerland in February 2018.