Bristol Palestine Film Festival Trustees Statement
October 2023
Bristol Palestine Film Festival October 2023 Statement
The Bristol Palestine Film Festival was founded in 2011 with the aim of giving a platform to Palestinian stories, voices and culture through a yearly festival of Palestinian cinema and arts. Every year since then, we have held our festival in Bristol as a celebration of the rich diversity of Palestinian culture, both from Palestine and the diaspora, highlighting voices and stories that are too often marginalised, silenced and forgotten.
Like many others, we have watched with horror at the events that have unfolded in Israel/Palestine since 7 October. We acknowledge the huge grief, shock and mourning across Israel and Palestine at this time, and we extend our deepest sympathies to those who have lost friends and family members.
We, the board of trustees at Bristol Palestine Film Festival, have decided that we will go ahead with our festival this year in December, with a slightly reduced programme. We also recognise that the situation may change, and we will reassess throughout this time to ensure that it is still appropriate to go ahead in December as planned.
We believe that it is still as important as ever to provide a platform for Palestinian cinema and culture, and to provide a space for reflection and discussion of the themes raised in our programme. We have decided that our festival this year will raise funds for Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP), a British charity working in Gaza and the wider region providing frontline medical services.
We welcome cinema goers from all communities and backgrounds, and we hope all who attend will benefit from this space for education, reflection and discussion of cinema, arts and culture.