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Shashat is
a formally registered NGO in Palestine
whose focus is on women’s cinema and the social
and cultural implications of women’s representations.
Shashat was formed
in order to provide sustainability
and continuity to these objectives through an
annual Women’s Film Festival and Year-long Screening Program
so that they are not one-time events.
The annual “Shashat’s Women’s Film Festival”
and the year-long screening\discussion program “Cinema for Everyone”
as well as the other areas of Shashat’s work
will contribute
to cumulative change, assure follow-up to its
activities
and build on networks, contacts and resources
developed.
Shashat’s Board of Directors is
made of women and men
active in the
field of culture, academia and development.
President of
the Board is Samira Hassassian;
Vice President
is Ayman Annimer; Board Secretary is Adila Laidi; Treasurer is Hanan
Khalaf.
Other Board
members include Dr. Faiha Abdel-Hadi; Dr.
Mirvat Bulbul, and Rana al-Malki .
Shashat is based in Ramallah,
Palestine, but in its commitment
to reach
under-represented areas it has established partnerships
in Nablus
with An-Najah National University and in Bethlehem
with the
Bethlehem Peace Center.
The Palestinian cultural scene has suffered
fragmentation
due to internal and external conditions.
Competition and exclusiveness have marked much of artistic activity
due to limited resources. Israeli conditions
of closure
and checkpoints have also contributed
significantly
to this fragmentation.
Because of this
Shashat is intent
on building networks and partnerships with
different cultural
and civil society institutions in order to more
effectively
reach its objectives.
This, quite significantly, will assure reaching
different communities and publics in Palestinian cities, towns,
villages
and refugee camps, and will compliment work
being done
by other institutions.
This collaborative strategy provides
territorial reach in areas
where cultural life is weak and where there is
limited exposure
to artistic works by women filmmakers.
Gender inequity in Palestine is grounded in
popular
cultural
perceptions of women held by the public, policy-makers
and most of the institutions whose decisions
have
a
profound impact on Palestinian life.
These cultural
perceptions leave women with a poverty
of options and
choices of what is available to them in their lives. Lack of access
to knowledge of alternatives, possibilities,
and other ways
of being hinder the range of possibilities
women have of
being and living.
Culture and
media play a significant role in forming
and influencing
popular cultural attitudes and public opinion
on women and
their social status, as well as having the capacity
to provide
alternatives to and criticism of existing ones.
They can play a
transforming role and be an intervention agent
in changing
cultural stereotypes about women.
They can
legitimize alternative values and practices
which promote
equal rights for men and women
and access of
women to essential social and economic services
and
opportunities as well as creative expression.
This can
contribute to their growth, dignity
and the
improvement of the quality of their lives.
Showcasing and
creating alternative gender portrayals
as well as
critiquing existing ones is one step in challenging social
perceptions of the role of men and women in society
and the
respective far-reaching values attached to these roles
which impact all
areas of Palestinian life.
Intervening in
gender values which are taken for granted
and legitimated
through on-going cultural reproduction
can be
challenged by the critiquing of these images
in addition to
showcasing and creating alternative images
of being men and
women. Women’s access to self-expression
creativity and
decision-making in the cultural field
are essential
components of democratic development
promoting equity
and growth and dignity for all citizens -
men and women.
This has been clearly outlined
in the Beijing
Platform for Action (1995, paragraph 33).
Shashat is a unique NGO in that there
does not exist in Palestine an organization which has focused on and
made
as its priority women’s representations in film and video,
the critiquing
of existing ones, and the provision of alternative portrayals of
women and men.
This is the
vision and mandate which underlies Shashat’s formation,
strategy and programs.
We are
committed in all of our activities
to the
integration of the creative, developmental and educational
ramifications of women’s representations
and the
implications of these
representations.
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