The Phoenix Videoblog

We left Al-Feneiq today. Sad moment. We are on our way back, in Jerusalem. We heard it is rainning in Paris.

Yesterday the workshop finished officially with a screening of our films. We drank soda and wished everybody goodbye as our trip is coming to an end.

After the screening we went back to the computer room and let a French young man plug in his video camera with the result that our computer was infected by a virus that kept making it shut down. Thanks to disc partitions we did not loose any data but our 2nd computer was infected as well, for the virus had lodged itself in a flash memory. We worked till 5 o’clock to get things back to normal!

Here, one of our flash memory, a bit traumatised by the events and protected by a Palestinian bracelet.

On one hand we are trying to tie up all the projects: create DVDs for the workshop participants (what takes two clicks at home takes hours of resolving difficulties here), make our last interviews, prepare for our screening and goodbye party tomorrow, while at the same time we are trying to enjoy as much as possible our last days together.
So yesterday we worked till 2 o’clock on the computers and today we got up at 7:30 to go the dead sea.

As usual in Palestine, you know when you leave but you never know when you will arrive. On the way back we were caught at a check point for a while.

Today we have been invited to try a traditional Palestinian meal (with sheep). It is called Gresha and it tastes great.

Tonight, we have been invited to a wedding.

Here, in Palestine, nobody has forgotten the villages abandoned in 1948, during the “Nakba”. Old people have kept the keys of the houses they haven’t seen for years. But it is now impossible for most Palestinian to go back to the places where their parents and grandparents were born and lived.

As tourists, we can move freely. We went to one of these villages, Dayr Aban, in the company of Noga, a volunteer of Zochrot, who could guide us to the place as all indications have been erased.

Many people here in Dheisheh camp come from this village. Before the second Intifada, it was still possible for them to come back here for a visit. They were still allowed to see the ancient houses of their families, half destroyed in the middle of the sabras. This is no longer the case.

On some walls, we can read names of people who lived here.

For years after the “Nakba”, or what the Israeli call “the Independence War”, the official explanation was that Arabic people had left their villages following the orders of their leaders. They had planned to return once they had won the war. The truth now officially accepted is that they have been forced to leave, sometimes in a very violent manner, by Israeli militias using threats and murders.

In the background, you can see Beit Shemesh with its modern buildings. Most of the villages have completely disappeared. Dayr Aban is one of the few where it is still possible to see the remains of the tragic history of this land, but for how long?

Everybody is stressed, excited and tired at the same time. The films are about to be finished.

We do the mixing, the color-correction and the title-sequences in Arabic, thanks to the multilingual keyboards.

The afternoon ends with a screening of “Azur and Asmar” which seems to be more successful than “Pingu”, although we have to stop regularly to make summaries of the story in Arabic.

We will finish a bit late tonight as we also have to prepare the subtitles of all the films in French for our association.

Today the Al-Feneiq Sound Studio was granted with an extension. We used the curtains instead of a blanket.

We recorded the commentaries for a film called “Our dream” about the camp and the hopes of peace and freedom. Most of the films are about to be finished now.

In the afternoon, a screening was planned with children of the camp between 4 and 6 years old. They discovered “Pingu” the little penguin and all his family.

Yesterday, we recorded the commentaries for a film about the camp, but the quality was so poor we decided it was time to inaugurate the Al-Feneiq Sound Studio. A nice blanket with suns and moons, our little microphone and the emotional texts written by our young authors, and the Al-Feneiq Studio was born.

Now there is only one person’s voice missing and you will be able to see the film.

Then in the afternoon, we filmed a Palestinian Cooking Program: the receipt of Maklouba. It means “turned around” and involves chicken.
Then the day ended drinking tea with women embroidering.

Today begins with the title-sequence, a good opportunity to check how to write Regarde a vue in Arabic, it sounds a bit like ‘reghardafoo’.

We also have some translation and subtitles to do for the French and Arabic interviews of the Conference.

At the beginning of the afternoon, we made an interview of two boys sent to prison by the Israelis without trial or explanation, a rather commonplace scandal here.

Then, at the end of the day, we went to film a demonstration, the idea being to transform our computer room and our classes into a media lab for the second part of our stay, as most of our Palestinian friends now come and go freely to us.

Our first video is finished and available here.

Some of our Palestinians friends know already about editing (Windows Movie Maker) and progress very quickly. For others, it is a discovery. There are some documentaries in the making and a short fiction which is now nearly finished; title-sequences are the only things left to do.

In the evening, a summer camp organized by ‘Generation Palestine’ ends with a conference in the Al-Feneiq Center. Our workshop is in charge of the video, it will be available very soon on this website. And to finish, a little picture of Naji, the soul of Al-Feneiq and the person responsible for many workshop and actions.