Hyde Park Picture House to host screening of rare archival Palestinian film clips

Hyde Park Picture House (HPPH) is set to host a screening of rare archival Palestinian film clips.

This weekend, the videos, which have been unseen for 50 years, will form part of a groundbreaking day school, exploring the lost pictures of the Palestine Film Unit.

As part of the event, titled “Militant Palestinian Cinema… In a Day”, the cinema will play the special screening on Saturday 18th October.

Lasting throughout the day, restored clips from films made in the late 1970s and early 1980s are being showcased.

What will be showing?

Some clips will not have been shown since their original underground screenings during the height of the Palestinian liberation movement.

Many have been restored and digitised through an extensive collaborative effort involving archivists, film preservation experts, and Palestinian cultural institutions. This recovery follows decades of damage, fragmentation, and near-loss.

Saeed Taji Farouky, the Palestinian-Egyptian-British filmmaker hosting the event, said: “These films were made under extraordinary circumstances – often smuggled across borders, screened in secret, and deliberately suppressed…That we can now see them is nothing short of miraculous.”

Why are these films so important?

Leeds Palestine Film Festival, 2024

The Palestine Film Unit – a collective of filmmakers working with the Palestinian liberation movement – has compiled these archival clips to represent an underrepresented yet crucial chapter in cinema history.

The filmmakers responsible for these works understood themselves as combatants against the struggles of life in Palestine. Armed with cameras, they depicted life in refugee camps, forms of resistance, and the reality of occupation at a time when Palestinian narratives were almost absent from global media.

Saeed said: “What’s striking about these films is how innovative they were.”

Most Read

Erm, explaining Ethan Slater’s gay-for-pay moment as naughty video resurfaces after Wicked

Jonathan Bailey reveals tragic reason Fiyero picks Elphaba in Wicked: For Good, that was cut

Exclusive: Love Is Blind’s Nick addresses his sexuality for first time after those comments

“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. This day is about reclaiming that legacy,” the filmmaker added.

Wendy Cook, head of cinema at HPPH, told The Leeds Tab: “We’re privileged to work with specialists like Leeds Palestinian Film Festival who help bring these vital, underseen stories to light. These aren’t just historical artefacts – they’re living documents that speak directly to today”

How the day will run

Taking place from 10am to 5:15pm, the day school is supported by the Leeds Palestinian Film Festival, and funded by Film Hub North, with reduced ticket prices for increased accessibility.

The event concludes with an evening screening of Little Palestine, Diary of a Siege (2021) at 6pm, by Abdallah Al-Khatib. Little Palestine is a documentary about life in the Yarmouk refugee camp during the Syrian civil war. The film will contextualise the value of militant cinema traditions in the present.

Hyde Park Picture House will also be hosting several screenings throughout the Leeds Palestinian Film Festival. This year, the festival takes place from Wednesday 12th November, to Saturday 12th December, and will be hosted in venues and cinemas across Leeds.

Tickets to the event are available to book here.