Cinema Jenin is coming soon… that was our message at the first press conference we had last week on Wednesday. Meeting place was the German Arab Society in Berlin-Moabit – a part of the Capital that isn’t as noble as one someone acquainted with the area would expect this kind of official première to take place in. But: The place was charming, colourful and exactly that what we wanted! A warm atmosphere, perfect lighting for the ongoing film project and very nice hosts like Mr. Bock and Mrs. Darwisch who made everything go so smooth.

Read the rest of this entry »

Yesterday, Matt kindly invited for a Jenin evening at his place in the centre of Berlin, a big apartment he is charing wi th 5 other nice people. He prepared a copious, delicious Palestinian buffet, as good as the ones we know from the kitchen table in our guesthouse – except that the humus was home-made, like everything else! Wonderful!

And on top of this, I had the chance to bring a surprise guest: Ismael! I got the phone call in the morning that the had arrived in Berlin – and I did not tell anybody.

We showed the Cinema Jenin trailer and photos from my last stay in Jenin, discussed and made plans with the ones who will come to Cinema Jenin guesthouse soon. Shortly before 11 pm, we watched TV: Ismael’s interview at Gottschalk’s People of the Year 2009.

Read the rest of this entry »

Cinema Jenin is a transparent development project which seeks to encourage people to get actively involved. Everyone is welcome to come and visit us in person or online. The project Cinema Jenin still needs your support. Although the renovation of the cinema building will likely be completed by January 2010, we still need to finance the following:

• The renovation of the Cuneo Center for Peace
• Establishing of a studio for subtitling and synchronization
• A sound system for the open air cinema
• Lighting equipment and microphones for theatrical performances
• Digitizing 20 films for the festival
• An LED Screen
• Film Workshops for the youth of Jenin
• Festival organization
• Accomodation for volunteers
• Transportation for Equipment

For donations please check our website here!

Read the rest of this entry »

The Cinema Jenin association will be running a poster campaign from January 2010 onwards in order to publicize the project internationally. The idea is to find sponsors who are willing to finance a large poster or a poster space and who will be given the option to publish their logo on the poster in return. Posters are already available for download in various formats from the website. Everyone can distribute the poster – the names and logos of sponsors comprise the tesserae in the Cinema Jenin butterfly logo.

Our poster and postcard you find in our download section here.

The German Foreign Ministry supports ‘Cinema Jenin’ within the framework of its ‘Future for Palestine’ programme. The Ministry has made possible part of the renovation of the cinema with more than 240,000 Euro including the acquisition of two D-Cinema projectors. ‘Goethe Institute Ram’Allah’ is planning to open a movie library and gallery on the first floor of the cinema and is also using one of the rooms of the guesthouse for German lessons. AirBerlin has been extremely generous in sponsoring monthly flights (and excess luggage) to Tel Aviv and back and, in this way, support the work of our volunteers and staff. The ‘Cinema Jenin’ association would also like to thank our partners and sponsors, like Ferrostaal, Gerriets, Xpand, Bewegte Bilder, the ‘Cinema for Peace’ Foundation, Hasso Plattner Ventures and all the many others whose logos are shown on our webpage and without whose generous support we would not be able to do what we are doing!

Cinema Jenin has also found a new reliable partner in the city of Tubingen: The formal ties between the project and the city will ensure that there will be a consistent cultural exchange and increasing connections with Europe after the opening of the cinema. What had started with the cinema in Jenin will also be growing in Tubingen.
Read the rest of this entry »

At the very beginning of the project we decided to spend as much of the donations we received and are still receiving here in Jenin. One aspect of this decision concerns the contractors, the other the products we choose to use.
For example the cinema-chair. The original chairs from the sixties, covered with pigeon feces, in large parts damaged and to narrow in width, were not usable anymore. Nevertheless the chair-legs were made of beautifully designed cast iron. So instead of importing a modern chair from abroad, spending the budget for example in Turkey, we decided to restore the existing chairs, upholster them, and at the same time enlarging the width so that they meet todays demands of comfort. It´s obvious that such a route requires more time and energy from our side to ensure quality, but our aim to support the very local economy was always a good guide when we had to make such decisions.
Read the rest of this entry »

Since I have left to Berlin at the end of the summer, I have been back to Jenin twice, once in October and once now, at end of November, to supervise the construction works.
The visit in October was most effective. Within a week, the stage was enlarged by a steel/wood construction. It was amazing how fast the ironworks and the wooden decking was ready. Here in Jenin, I found the most incredible metal-works company owned by the Jalbuni family, who supported the project from the very beginning by generous donations. With their help, we are also restoring the old cast-iron cinema chairs. Their excellent equipment makes it possible to do almost anything.
Read the rest of this entry »

Having been introduced to “PROJECT CINEMA JENIN“ by a feature in 3sat’s “Kulturzeit“, my wife Angela and myself decided to spend two weeks working in Jenin during this summer. After visiting Marcus and Annette in Tübingen and after the exchange of lots of mails and phonecalls, our trip started August 4th with our Elal flight from Munich to Tel Aviv, our luggage filled with donations. After the first night in the beautiful “Austrian Hospice“ in Jerusalem’s Arabic Quarter, we met with Annette and 15 boys and girls from “Leibniz-Kolleg“ who also had decided to work as volunteers for CJ. The young folks started a short trip through Israel, so Angela, Annette and myself, we went to Jenin by bus. After a very hot three-hours-trip we were welcomed by Achim and Johannes and introduced to all the friendly Palestinian workers and volunteers. Angela, Annette and myself, we really were the first three people who ever slept in the Guesthouse! The next night, Achim joined us, and some days later the “Leibniz-Kolleg“ volunteers arrived.
Read the rest of this entry »

For the opening festival from the “cinema jenin” in august 2010, we are planning a small theatre play which should be performed in the cinema!

In Summer 2008, in the Cuneo Center in the Jenin Refugee camp, me and Ziad Bakri decided to start the first theatre workshop with children from the camp. When we arrived Ismael, had already collected a group of actors who were joining in a mask workshop. Ziad was by my side to translate. You could feel that he also loves children a lot which is very important anyway…
Read the rest of this entry »

Salam aleikum! Shukran! Affuan! These are familiar words to all of us in the guesthouse. It is sufficient to make people smile in the street and shops, but after a wile, you really want to learn more. So we found out that literally around the corner there is a language school, the Student’s Scientific Society Center SSSC. The other day, we kindly have been invited to talk about our future cooperation, to get to know the teachers, their approach and the location. So Felix – who by the way speaks a fluent Arabic and myself (whom you will rarely see on any photo because I am always taking them), we went to school again…

Read the rest of this entry »

In June 2008, Marcus was the surprise guest at „Social Entrepreneurship Forum“ in Potsdam. He showed the trailer of Heart of Jenin and the audience, mainly tough business men, have been deeply moved. So was I. At the following speakers’ dinner, I sat next to him. „This project’s energy is simply incredible. I would love to take part.“ „Welcome“ was his answer.
For the second time, I am here in Jenin now. Sitting in the basement of this old, beautifully renovated guesthouse. I’m enjoying the fresh air and the peace in the middle of this amazing, boiling hot, vivid, dusty city.

And here, in Jenin, I can feel this high energy again. This house is an open system, attracting people from all over the world. They come, they observe, they listen and then they get hooked – everybody ready to participate, contributing with whatever they can. With a brush in their hand to paint a window frame, or a camera to advise the kids how to shoot scenes of their daily life, with a knife to cut the kilos of freshly bought vegetables from the market around the corner to prepare dinner for numerous hungry stomachs, or sitting at one of the laptops, sending mails or working on the layout of an “Cinema Jenin coming soon” advertisement – or just sitting on the terrace till late, a glass of peppermint in one hand and a cigarette in the other, thinking out of the box to find solutions and new ideas or just talking about the daily impressions….
Read the rest of this entry »

Dear friends of Project Cinema Jenin,
some month ago the habitants of Jenin did not really know what these strange foreigners from Europe are doing in their city. Slowly the people realized and understood from personal talks with the team, the volunteers and the local helping hands that we plan to renovate and re-open the cinema next year. So we decided to start a campain in the city to make sure that everybody gets to know about it. In the first step we now have our flyer in Arabic language. Furthermore we announced the re-opening of the cinema, as you can see, on a big banner in Arabic language on the roof of the cinema. Later there will be a LED-screen for commercials produced by the youngsters of the Cinema Jenin Filmschool and Cinema Jenin Production, featuring the movies wich will be show next in the cinema. There are many more ideas regarding this screen.

Read the rest of this entry »

After incredible, never ending thunderstorms (and a serious cold snap) the trees started to flourish as rapidly as our stage in the cinema – it’s just amazing – have a look!
Read the rest of this entry »