Figure 1.--Here a Palestinian Radio and Film Authority van enters the village of Zarnouka in Ramle (1938). The xcited children follow the van to watch the silent film that they were going to show to the village. Movies at the time were only shown in the cities. At the time there were few talkins in Arabic.

We know of no film activity in Palestine during the Ottoman era. We notice some activity durig the Nritish Mandate era. The British Mandate Goverment set up the Palestine Broadcasting Service (PBS) in Jerusalem. The PBS Arab Division, Ajaj Nuwayhid, was one of the founders of the nationalist Independence Party (Hizb al-Istiqlal). He sought an obtained considerable autonomy for the Arabic-language programing. The PBS appears to have also been involved in movies, at least with approving and to some extent showing British and foreign films. There apparently was a Palestinian Radio and Film Authority which may have been another name for PBS. The first Palestinian made filns were documentries. The first known Palestinian film is believed to be a documentary on King Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia´s visit (1935). It was made made by Ibrahim Hassan Sirhan who was based in Jaffa. It was a silent movie that was presented at the Nabi Rubin festivals. Sirhan then joined with Jamal al-Asphar to produce a 45-minute film, 'The Realized Dreams' about orphans. Sirhan and al-Asphar also produced another documentary about Ahmad Hilmi Pasha, a member of the Higher Arab Commission. Sirhan established the Arab Film Company production studio together with Ahmad Hilmi al-Kilani (1945). The company ptoduced the feature film 'Holiday Eve' and then 'A Storm at Home'. Both films were lost when Sirhan fled Jaffa during the First Arab-Israeli War (1948). As a result of the War, the nacent Palistinian film industry would take years to begin over.

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Created: 1:44 AM 11/1/2009
Last updated: 1:44 AM 11/1/2009