The Missing Archives
Kerning Cultures
Kerning Cultures Network
4.9 • 529 Ratings
🗓️ 3 June 2021
⏱️ 44 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In 1968, a trio of Palestinian filmmakers began making films about life under Israeli occupation. Almost 15 years and over 90 films later, their film unit became a dominant force in the Arab film industry. But in 1982, their film reels disappeared. Overnight, decades of footage and thousands of hours of archives were gone. Today on Kerning Cultures, the search for the Palestinian Film Unit's lost archives.
This episode originally aired in August 2020 and was produced by Zeina Dowidar, with editorial support from Alex Atack, Nadeen Shaker, Tamara Rasamny, Dana Ballout, and Hebah Fisher. Fact-checking by Zeina Dowidar. Sound design and mixing by Mohamad Khreizat. Kerning Cultures is a Kerning Cultures Network production.
For the list of films and other resources mentioned in this episode, visit our blog: https://kerningcultures.com/kerned-and-cultured/palestinian-film-unit
Support this podcast on patreon.com/kerningcultures for as little as $1 a month.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hi, this is Dana. We won't be releasing any new episodes for the next couple of months. |
| 0:09.0 | We're away producing and reporting our autumn season, which will be out in September. |
| 0:14.0 | But in the meantime, we want to bring back a few of our favorite episodes from the past. |
| 0:18.8 | And if you're new to Kearning cultures, you might not have heard them |
| 0:21.3 | before. So we hope you enjoy them. This week's episode is called The Missing Archives, and it |
| 0:27.4 | comes to us from producer Zena Duaydad and my co-host, Hibba Fisher, who you'll hear first. |
| 0:34.1 | We're going to start our story today in Jordan, about 50 years ago. |
| 0:38.6 | More specifically, in a flat in Amman in 1968. |
| 0:42.5 | This is producer Izana Duidhar. |
| 0:44.4 | Mustafa Abu Ali, Heni Johraia, and Serefa Jodallah were seated at the kitchen table. |
| 0:50.0 | The three of them were filmmakers, and they were Palestinian in origin. |
| 0:53.7 | And that day, they were |
| 0:55.0 | probably talking about the aftermath of the 1967 war. The 1967 war, known also as the Six-Day War, |
| 1:03.6 | saw Israel deliver what came to be known as the Naksa or defeat to Egypt, Jordan, Syria, and |
| 1:09.1 | Palestine. That June, Israel occupied the whole of historical |
| 1:13.4 | Palestine, as well as additional territory from Egypt and Syria. By the end of the war, Israel had |
| 1:20.0 | expelled over 300,000 Palestinians from their homes, including over 130,000 who were displaced |
| 1:27.3 | for the second time since 1948. |
| 1:29.3 | For Mustafa, Heaney and Solefa, this meant not being able to return to their hometowns. |
| 1:35.3 | They'd all been photographers and filmmakers for years before they were expelled from their homes, |
| 1:41.3 | but this war transformed their lives and their work forever. |
| 1:46.3 | It was this moment that something called the Palestinian film unit was born, |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Kerning Cultures Network, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Kerning Cultures Network and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.