PACBI and the Film Worker at Light Industry
Sunday, October 20, 2024 at 5pm
PACBI and the Film Worker
at Light Industry
361 Stagg Street, Suite 407, Brooklyn
A conversation with Samir Eskanda and Blair McClendon
Presented with Film Workers for Palestine and Screen Slate
Over the past year, in response to the genocide unfolding in Gaza, film workers have come together as part of a broader cultural front, an opposition manifest through street-level demonstrations, open letters, and, in actions like Strike Berlinale, withholding labor. Another strategy, PACBI (Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel), will be the focus of our program this evening, a dialogue between Samir Eskanda and Blair McClendon. Inspired by the historic movement against apartheid in South Africa, PACBI has answered a call from Palestinian civil society to boycott Israel’s cultural and academic institutions since 2004, in protest against its violations of international law and universal principles of human rights. The campaign has been increasingly visible here in New York, as more and more organizations commit to its guidelines. Though a topic of frequent discussion, from group chats to board meetings, the boycott has lacked a truly public forum within the city’s film culture. As such, we see this conversation as an opportunity for film workers to learn more about PACBI—its history and its purview, the injustice it confronts and the challenges it faces.
Samir Eskanda is a Palestinian artist, organizer, and human rights activist based in the UK. Over the past decade, he has provided strategic guidance to many worldwide campaigns, including appeals to musicians, filmmakers and other artists to end performances and screenings in Tel Aviv. His views on the necessary intersection of culture and activism have appeared in Jacobin, the Hollywood Reporter, Sky News, and other outlets.
Blair McClendon is an editor, filmmaker, and writer. His film work has screened at Cannes, the New York Film Festival, Sundance, Tribeca, TIFF, and other festivals around the world. His writing has been published in 4Columns, n+1, the New Republic, and elsewhere. He lives in New York.
Donations for Palestine Legal will be collected at the box office.