MIFTAH
Thursday, 28 March. 2024
 
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The Palestinian Initiatives for The Promotoion of Global Dialogue and Democracy
 
 
 

"MIFTAH helped me to choose my future career"

This month's success story revolves around Kanaan Kanaan, a graduate of Al Najah University's Media Department in Nablus. He lives in the Balata Refugee Camp north of the city and received his high school diploma while imprisoned in the Israeli Maggido detention center in 2004. This experience, he says, impacted his choice to study journalism and media at university.

Kanaan later participated in the annual documentary film festival at Al Najah as part of MIFTAH's "Gender, Peace and Security" project, funded by UNFPA in response to UNSC resolution 1325.

The project has targeted media students at Al Najah for the fourth consecutive year and supports the production, distribution and discussion of films about population issues. MIFTAH believes in the role of visual media in promoting social issues and social change, especially in regards to gender.

Following is Kanaan's own account of working with MIFTAH:

A few days ago I graduated. Now, my energies are all focused on how I am going to broaden myself in this field. I have realized that filmmaking is perfect for me. I am not looking for fame or fortune but I feel my duty is to expose - through my camera - pertinent issues in our society. I am a journalist above all else. It is gratifying enough to be able to expose issues and stories otherwise absent from the media and to present them to the individuals and institutions at the festival.

I first participated in the project as part of a course entitled, "Population Communications" in cooperation with MIFTAH. My participation in the project helped me discover my love for documentary film making even though this was not my first time participating in documentary film festivals.

Throughout my university years, I was always interested in the media and journalism, which is how I heard about the documentary film festival. Students could show their films as part of the communications class in coordination with MIFTAH. So I signed up for the first time in 2007. That year, I produced a film about a blind man who makes a living from selling newspapers. This experience encouraged me to search for other human interest stories that are absent in our media. During my search, I heard about people who still lived in caves, which was the story I chose for my second entry in the project.

While I was filming, I visited people who live in a remote area called Khirbat Touba, south of Yatta in the Hebron district. I saw people without water, electricity or roads but I was able to capture on camera their steadfastness to this land so they would not leave it to Jewish settlers. The story, which I told along with my colleagues Tahreer Sawafteh and Sahar Shalabi, recounts the story of children's lives in Khirbet Touba and the hardships they face from nearby settlers. I filmed Israeli soldiers who begrudgingly accompany the children on their way to and from school to "protect" them.

After the film won first place I began to search for ways to further develop my filmmaking. I then took part in a course for trainee directors taught by Palestinian director Wafa Jameel. I also benefited from the directors MIFTAH hired to supervise the production of our films in addition to participating in a documentary film course at Birzeit University with director Riyad Duibes.

After my participation in the Gender, Peace and Security project, I began to help my fellow colleagues, whether in filming, directing, mixing or simply offering advice. Despite the limited resources in our journalism department, there was still a good amount of people who were willing to work and wanted to improve their performance in this field. I looked over some of the students' work; I put notes and offered advice about a certain idea or the chronology of events or the dialogue, etc. I tried my best to offer help where it was needed.

In 2009 as part of the same project, I wrote the screenplay for a film called "Memory" which my colleagues and I produced and directed. It also won first place at the festival.

In 2010, I was able to participate with five of the 10 films participating that year. The films were: "Armies and Arabs", "Alleyways", "We used to have a sea", "Roll call" and "Hiba-phone". Three of the films won the first three places.

One of the films I participated in making was given an award even before I finished filming it. "Roll Call" talks about school dropouts. It follows the story of Anas, a high school dropout who skipped school for over 90 days to hang out with his friends who were also dropouts. This is despite the fact that he was an honor student. However, after I talked to him, I sensed that he really wanted to go back to school. He was scared though that the school's administration would refuse to readmit him. So I spoke to the educational advisor and the administration and was able to get him back into the classroom. He went back to being a hard working student and dreaming of finishing his higher education.

This is where I see the importance of filmmaking, especially when it tells a human interest story. Through these films we can help change things we don't like, even if just a little. This is our real reward.

Here I would like to point out the role MIFTAH has played in its efforts to make this annual documentary film festival a success. MIFTAH played a role in why I chose this career. The project's sustainability (the fact that it is held every year) encouraged me even further. I can even speak for my colleagues when I way that MIFTAH is keyed into their ideas and concepts from day one and helps to realize them by sending experts who work with them and supervise their films from the beginning. I hope such cooperation with MIFTAH continues because I can see how much my fellow students are eager to participate.

MIFTAH is different from other organizations which demand exaggerated qualifications or years of experience without any contribution from them towards improving the skills of the graduates. What I would like to say to these organizations, especially those who deal with youth is that there are scores of young men and women out there who have so much potential and so many ideas. But they need a platform to voice them, something which they can offer.

In the end, I would like to thank MIFTAH for its support during this project. I hope the organization continues with the good work it is doing. I would also like to suggest that each year, more films are allowed to participate.

 
 
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