Please click here to register to view this film.
Screening will start at 12:00 PM US EDT; 19:00 Palestine, 18:00 Europe, UK 17:00; Running Time 25 minutes, 2012, English language. The film screening will be followed by Q&A discussions with the audience.

Laila Shawa (1940 - 2022)
Palestinian Artist
Shawa’s formal art education was at the Leonardo da Vinci School, Cairo and the University of Rome’s Academy of Fine Arts. She also attended the School of Seeing in Salzburg, established by Austrian artist Oskar Kokoschka. In 1964, back in Gaza, she supervised arts and crafts education for UNWRA while working with the documentary photographer Hrant Nakashian. She co-founded the Rashad Shawa Cultural Centre.

As an artist, Shawa’s concern is to reflect the political realities of her country, becoming, in the process, a chronicler of events. Her work is based on a heightened sense of realism and targets injustice and persecution wherever their roots may be. The initial impetus for a piece often comes from her photographs, which are later transformed by meansof silkscreen printing techniques. The written word is often present in her work, as in the acclaimed Walls of Gaza series (1994), which focussed on the heart-rending messages of hope and resistance spray-painted, by the ordinary people of Gaza upon the walls of their city. She is represented in public and private collections across the world, including the National Galleries of Jordan and Malaysia; the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, UK; the British Museum, London, UK; and the National Museum for Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C., USA.

About the Film

This film was originally broadcast as an episode of ‘Diaspora’ show presented by Lauren Booth on PressTV in 2012. During this episode of the show, the late acclaimed Palestinian artist Laila Shawa (1940-2022) talks about the history of Gaza, the Shawa family and the Israeli occupation. As with many films about Palestine, the content seems current despite the 13 years that had passed since its release.