In 2023, the PFFA commemorated the 75-year anniversary of the 1948 Al Nakba (“the catastrophe”) when the mass displacement, dispossession, and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians by the Israeli state began. 75 Years Al Nakba, the third edition of PFFA, featured films focussing on Palestinian agriculture, landscapes and their disappearance throughout time.
Opening with the Dutch premiere of Jumana Manna’s documentary Foragers (2022), the PFFA was held during three consecutive days at an established art house movie theatre. Guest director Alia Yunis joined for a screening of her documentary The Golden Harvest (2019), which was accompanied by an olive oil tasting session, a tradition continued in the following editions of the festival.
The 2023 PFFA was catalytic in reviving an art project consisting of a private collection of archive photos that had been dormant since they were displayed at a Palestinian museum in 2009. In March 2023, gallery Bar Bario hosted a warm-up event to the festival, with the opening of the exhibition Five Minutes from Home: In Search of Jerusalem Airport, coordinated by the PFFA. The opening was accompanied by a historical documentary by Berlin-based Palestinian director and curator Nahed Awwad, who showed some of her films at the 2020 PFFA edition. These images, chronicling the search for the abandoned Jerusalem Airport, made a reappearance at the 2023 PFFA when they were exhibited in the Rialto mezzanine area.
This was also the first year that PFFA received funding from the Amsterdam Fund for the Arts (AFK).
The PFFA wishes to thank all who contributed to the third festival edition and is grateful to our partners, funders and those who generously donated to the 2023 voordekunst crowdfund.
