Cinema Jenin

Built in the early 60s, Cinema Jenin (West Bank) was considered to be one of the largest and most impressive cinemas in Palestine. Every day hundreds of people watched movies from the Arab world. Later, action films and American B movies were shown until the cinema was closed with the outbreak of the first Intifada in 1987. Ishmael Khateeb, a resident of the Jenin refugee camp, Marcus Vetter, a renowned German documentary filmmaker, and a group of zealous locals and foreigners want to bring the old cinema back to life. In 2005, Ishmael’s 11 year old son Ahmed was shot by the Israeli army. Despite his grief, he decided to donate his son’s organs to Israeli children saving their lives. In 2006, still deeply affected by his son’s death, he opens a culture centre for the children of the camp as an alternative to their street life. Thanks to foreign donations the centre provides many activities among film courses. A while later the children want to produce their first short film and they realize there is no place to show it: The only cinema in town was closed long ago. Cinema Jenin located in the heart of the city next to the old church, the market and the main roads can serve Jenin (50,000) and Nablus (140,000 inhabitants). The only West Bank cinema in Ramallah is not in reach. Since Jenin suffers from great isolation on all levels - economic, social and cultural - there are very few possibilities of enjoying leisure activities and benefiting from cultural nurturing. People are stuck at home watching television. The window to the world: TV and internet for those who have access to computers. The aim is to encourage a culture of cinema-going for the population of Jenin and its refugee camp by showing a mixture of unique, thrilling, entertaining and courageous quality films. These include fiction films, documentaries, comedies, children’s films, Arabic classics and contemporary movies. see Heart of Jenin - http://www.filmperspektive.de/cms/content/view/74/1/lang,en/