This event is complementary to the SAFAR Futures screening of R21 AKA Restoring Solidarity curated by Amina Ali, Asmaa Elsouda and Osama Harhor who are taking part in SAFAR’s mentorship scheme for early-career Arab film programmers. Handpicked in response to this year’s festival theme “A Journey Through Space & Time”, R21 AKA Restoring Solidarity documents cross-continental relationships of solidarity spanning Japan and Palestine in the 1970s and 1980s.
This talk will be a unique opportunity to hear from Mohanad Yaqubi in more detail on his process working on the Tokyo Reels project, which served as the basis for R21 AKA Restoring Solidarity.
Amidst the crowd mingling after the screening of Yaqoubi’s earlier film Off Frame aka Revolution Until Victory, a woman in the audience approached them gently with a piece of paper, and asked to meet before they leave Japan. The A4 print out contained a sort of a list, mostly in Japanese with occasional English words. After a quick translation, they came to understand this was a list of films on the Palestinian struggle. This collection of 20 films was safeguarded for decades by Japanese activists before its preservation by Subversive Film. The Tokyo Reels was first exhibited as an installation and mini film festival at documenta fifteen.
Join us on the final day of SAFAR for a talk and discussion with Yaqoubi, where he will walk us through the story and process behind restoring a collection of such historical importance. How does one restore a film when its condition acts as a witness of time and of a generation in struggle?
This event is free and open to anyone interested in the politics and archive of film, and we encourage the attendance of all newcomers irrespective of their experience working with film.