Balata - US Summer Tour
July 6th - August 14th 2005 
The tour presentation will include the most recent and ground-breaking films produced by the Balata Film Collective and a children's art exhibit entitled "Unoccupied Minds".
"Unoccupied Minds" consists of artwork and corresponding audio interviews of twenty-three children living within the area surrounding Balata/Nablus. The interviews and art address the opinions and sentiments of children from the ages of eight to fourteen on a wide variety of topics in the attempt to gain a glimpse of the effects of their surroundings, hopes for the future, and understanding of the past. We will also provide time for questions and dialogue.
Over the past year, the Balata Film Collective has produced sixteen films covering issues and events directly affecting residents of the Balata Refugee Camp as well as the broader Palestinian whole. The collective was initiated to enable young Palestinians from Balata to break their isolation, challenge their oppression and represent their lives to the world.
We are still attempting to organize the summer tour and are looking for groups, organizations, and individuals willing to provide a large space at a given time within Florida, Georgia, North and South Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts. For groups interested in hosting a tour stop please |
Balata Refugee Camp is one of the most hard hit
communities in the West Bank, Occupied Palestine. Refugees from
the 1948 expulsion, the over 30,000 residents are
crammed into a single suffocating square kilometer.
Unemployment is the norm, and most families rely on
UNWRA handouts for survival. It is rare to meet
somebody who hasn't tasted tear gas, every second boy
seems to have been shot at some stage, and there isn't
a house the soldiers haven't entered at some point.
Despite being the largest refugee camp in the West
Bank, Balata receives very limited outside support.
Visitors are rare and links to abroad are practically non-existent.
For more information or to download the videos
featured on the tour visit www.balatacamp.net |