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Saeed Taji Farouky Profile
Saeed Taji Farouky

@saeedtaji

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Filmmaker, journalist, educator/lecturer. My latest film A Thousand Fires, opening film Locarno Critics Week

London
Joined March 2009
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@saeedtaji
Saeed Taji Farouky
3 months
The moral and legal case for direct action has never been stronger
@Pal_action
Palestine Action
3 months
BREAKING: Palestine Action cut Leonardo’s Edinburgh factory’s internet cables, disrupting the producers of targeting systems for Israel’s F-35 fighter jets.
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@saeedtaji
Saeed Taji Farouky
2 months
This is one of the best books on cinema I've ever read. This and Michael Roemer's Telling Stories are now the only film books I'd ever recommend to writer/directors
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@saeedtaji
Saeed Taji Farouky
10 months
I've always thought one reason the IDF stole the Palestinian film archive in 1982 was not only to erase our visual and narrative history, but because these films describe the fundamentals of the Palestinian struggle with such nuance and clarity.
@mxwfx
Max Fox
10 months
I just watched a PLO film from the 70s with a poet who makes the point that they distinguish between Zionists and Jews so they can liberate Jews from Zionism to live together in Palestine. Next frame: “this poet was murdered by Israeli forces”
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@saeedtaji
Saeed Taji Farouky
5 months
This is what we mean when we say political cinema is dead. Boring centrists trying to make films about extremism with no real political knowledge, experience, or engagement other than the stats quo.
@PodSaveAmerica
Pod Save America
5 months
“If the left wants to combat right-wing extremism, it needs to be in the business of winning elections.” explains Alex Garland, writer and director of ‘Civil War’. New pod:
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@saeedtaji
Saeed Taji Farouky
2 months
Israel can commit any massacre, say they're targeting a militant, and the whole world's media steps in line. This isn't journalism, it's genocide propaganda.
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@saeedtaji
Saeed Taji Farouky
2 months
This cafe in Amman has a screen that tells you the refugee story of all of its Palestinian employees.
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@saeedtaji
Saeed Taji Farouky
10 months
Your daily dose of Gazans refusing to be broken
@madhoun95
Ahmed El-Madhoun
10 months
Today, I was feeling depressed, so I visited the sea, made new friends, and played football together. I gained a lot of positive energy. The sea in Gaza is our best place. This sea is ours and will always be ours 💙 #Gaza
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@saeedtaji
Saeed Taji Farouky
4 months
Your neighbour in London who you've lived next door to for 6 years and say good morning to every day: "sorry, do I know you?" The delivery guy in Cairo who brings your food order: "you have brought light upon our city. We are honoured by your presence. I love you"
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@saeedtaji
Saeed Taji Farouky
10 months
It went from "The hospital is the command centre" to "hospital is a node" to "they built a command centre under the hospital" to "they build a tunnel under the hospital" to "we built a bunker under the hospital"... pretty quickly
@mehdirhasan
Mehdi Hasan
10 months
Amanpour: "When you say [the bunker under al-Shifa] was built by Israeli engineers, did you misspeak? Ehud Barak: "No, decades ago, we were running the place... we helped them to build these bunkers." Amanpour: "Ok. That's sort of thrown me a little bit."
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@saeedtaji
Saeed Taji Farouky
5 months
I'm doing some research for my performance lecture and please look at these photos of my Palestinian grandad. This is his drip while studying at Texas A&M in 1931.
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@saeedtaji
Saeed Taji Farouky
2 years
I've been reviewing a lot of scripts from students and early-career filmmakers lately, so I thought I'd do a (very subjective) short thread on 5 consistent issues I see with scripts.
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@saeedtaji
Saeed Taji Farouky
10 months
So far 10 confirmed filmmakers who have withdrawn from @idfa in response to their abandonment of the Palestinian delegation: Miko Revereza Maryam Tafakory Charlie Sheckleton Basma Alsharif Jumana Manaa Terra Long Dalia Al Kury Hazem Alqaddi Elettra Bisogno Youse Hammad
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@saeedtaji
Saeed Taji Farouky
11 months
These are excellent (and ridiculously funny) reminders that, no matter what we say, no matter how we resist, we will be called terrorists.
@davidgross_man
David Grossman
11 months
up there with the all-time classic
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Saeed Taji Farouky
4 months
A hill I will die on: this isn't live action.
@FilmUpdates
Film Updates
4 months
The first trailer for Barry Jenkins’ live-action Lion King prequel ‘MUFASA: THE LION KING’. In theaters December 20.
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@saeedtaji
Saeed Taji Farouky
2 years
Still thinking about Aftersun and listening to a lot of interviews with Charlotte Wells and I've been discussing it with students a lot. It's phenomenal both because it's a beautiful film and because it's done so well. 2 observations that I think are important:
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@saeedtaji
Saeed Taji Farouky
5 months
To put this in perspective, Elbit - Israel's largest weapons manufacturer - has 10 factories in the UK. By forcing this closure, activists have reduced their genocidal capacity by 10%.
@Pal_action
Palestine Action
5 months
BREAKING: Palestine Action permanently shut Elbit down in Tamworth! After sustained direct action, the Israeli weapons maker was forced to sell due to increased security costs which cut their profits by 75%. The new owners wrote to Palestine Action to confirm the factory is no
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@saeedtaji
Saeed Taji Farouky
10 months
I never want to hear another fucking word from anyone about how the cultural boycott of Israel is mean or unfair or unproductive. I never want to hear another word of advice about softening my political work. I'll resist as long as I live no matter how much it wrecks my career.
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@saeedtaji
Saeed Taji Farouky
1 year
I still don't understand how "Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're going to get" when the card describes every chocolate and you know exactly what's in them.
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@saeedtaji
Saeed Taji Farouky
9 months
"I see Gaza. A problem is that we, very soon, will not be able to see Gaza anymore. And that’s the problem. And that’s our problem: your problem when you write about films, and my problem." - Pedro Costa
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@saeedtaji
Saeed Taji Farouky
10 months
🚨13 filmmakers now confirmed have withdrawn from @idfa in support of Palestine Miko Revereza Maryam Tafakory Charlie Shackleton Basma al-Sharif Jumana Manaa Terra Long Dalia Al Kury Hazem Alqaddi Elettra Bisogno Yousef Hammad Nika Autor Niles Atallah Dr Nariman Massoumi
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@saeedtaji
Saeed Taji Farouky
9 months
The irony of Israel's pathological framing of their genocide as "saving western civilisation" is that it clearly contradicts their claims to being indigenous to the Middle East.
@KhyamAllami
Khyam Allami (he/him) خَيّام اللامي
9 months
Zionist president Isaac Herzog on MSNBC: "This war is not only a war between Israel and Hamas, it's a war that is intended, really, truly, to save Western civilisation. To save the values of Western civilisation."
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Saeed Taji Farouky
3 months
@FullErnesto Not at all. Palestine action has a pretty good record with acquittals and light sentences. Legal representation is pro bono by some of the best protest lawyers in the country.
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@saeedtaji
Saeed Taji Farouky
11 months
Applications for my free, radical film school are now open. We aim to develop creative voices, build supportive groups of collaborators, and define the next generation of artist filmmakers. Deadline Oct 23. Please spread the word:
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@saeedtaji
Saeed Taji Farouky
11 months
@DavidKlion "I don't see anyone advocating that" he says, while Israel's cabinet members advocate that.
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@saeedtaji
Saeed Taji Farouky
1 year
Thanks to everyone who supported us in our trial for protesting Israeli weapons company Elbit. We were all found guilty, as expected. We permanently shut down Elbit's London HQ and we will continue the fight. The law isn't on our side, but history will prove us right.
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@saeedtaji
Saeed Taji Farouky
1 year
It's just absolutely mind-blowing how people like Shapiro here completely and fundamentally misunderstand even the most basic meaning of "creativity".
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@saeedtaji
Saeed Taji Farouky
2 years
I know I've been moping lately about getting rejected by major UK film funds. Forgive me. I had 3 big rejections in the same week and it was very demoralising. But with a more sober head, I wanted to discuss why it's so upsetting, not so much personally, but more broadly...
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@saeedtaji
Saeed Taji Farouky
2 years
The BBC's coverage of this malicious and inhumane legislation is painfully inadequate. No mention of the fact that this proposed new law breaks international conventions, no deeper analysis of what a meaningless phrase like "stop the boats" means.
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@saeedtaji
Saeed Taji Farouky
4 months
This is absolutely unhinged, racist fiction. It looks and sounds like an SNL skit. US politics is a sick joke. These same people would have been calling civil rights activists "terrorists", and now celebrate their sanitised version of MLK.
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@saeedtaji
Saeed Taji Farouky
4 months
Oh man. I'm in tears. Imagine finding the strength, while enduring genocide, to smile and say thank you to American college students. Never forget that your protests are seen, and they reverberate.
@EyeonPalestine
Eye on Palestine
4 months
Students of Gaza extend their appreciation to American students for their solidarity during the war. They express profound thanks to over 120 university campuses across the United States, as well as numerous demonstrations in Europe, for standing in solidarity with their cause.
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Saeed Taji Farouky
5 months
Here are a the Palestinian militant cinema events I've programmed as part of Open City Documentary Festival, I'd love to see you all there. A selection of rare and restored films from the original Palestine Film Unit (25 Apr, 18:15) :
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@saeedtaji
Saeed Taji Farouky
2 years
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@saeedtaji
Saeed Taji Farouky
11 months
My relatives tell me Nuseirat camp, where they and many people from Gaza's north had evacuated to, was hit around 10 minutes ago.
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@saeedtaji
Saeed Taji Farouky
5 months
🧵I'm really excited to be programming a few screenings and events for @OpenCityDocs all centered around the period of revolutionary, militant Palestinian cinema.
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@saeedtaji
Saeed Taji Farouky
1 year
Roman Roy
@catswithaura
cats with pawerful aura
1 year
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@saeedtaji
Saeed Taji Farouky
2 years
2) If you meet a film executive who says they loved it, ask them if they would have commissioned it based on the script (before Mescal was attached). The answer is almost always no. These unique films exist despite the current UK film industry, not because of it.
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@saeedtaji
Saeed Taji Farouky
3 months
Marguerite Duras here perfectly explaining why film funds' insistence on complete certainty and zero ambiguity is totally in opposition to creative filmmaking.
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@saeedtaji
Saeed Taji Farouky
10 months
🚨18 filmmakers have now pulled their projects from IDFA in support of the Palestinian delegation Miko Revereza Maryam Tafakory Charlie Shackleton Basma al-Sharif Jumana Manaa Terra Long Dalia Al Kury Hazem Alqaddi Elettra Bisogno Yousef Hammad Nariman Massoui (cont...)
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@saeedtaji
Saeed Taji Farouky
2 years
1) In most interviews, Wells explains that she constantly had to push back against feedback to make it more conventional and clear. The industry isn't currently dedicated to developing these kinds of films, yet they love it when people make them.
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@saeedtaji
Saeed Taji Farouky
2 years
1) Arguments. I often see arguments written between two IDEAS rather than between two PEOPLE. Arguments are messy and emotional, not rational philosophical debates. Use them to tell us something about characters, not teach us a lesson in ethics.
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@saeedtaji
Saeed Taji Farouky
4 months
Yesterday I did the final event in my programme of militant Palestinian cinema for Open City, and boy was it an incredibly intense and emotional few days. We had a sold out screening of a selection of the original revolutionary films from the 60s and 70s
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@saeedtaji
Saeed Taji Farouky
10 months
Israel's bombing of Gaza has so far destroyed 28% of Gaza city. (For comparison, 1.7% of London was destroyed during The Blitz)
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@saeedtaji
Saeed Taji Farouky
10 months
This is how my granddad made his money, Jaffa oranges 🍊💪🏽
@LexiAlex
الكسندرا ميراي🇵🇸
10 months
My favorite thing to do is blow one of my British friends' mind with this fact...which I did once again last night
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Saeed Taji Farouky
10 months
🚨22 filmmakers have withdrawn their films from IDFA, the world's largest documentary festival, in solidarity with Palestine and the Palestinian festival delegation. Miko Revereza Maryam Tafakory Charlie Shackleton Basma al-Sharif Jumana Manaa Terra Long Dalia Al Kury ...
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Saeed Taji Farouky
5 months
Your daily dose of Gazans refusing to be broken
@RamAbdu
Ramy Abdu| رامي عبده
5 months
While standing in line trying to get some food in the southern Gaza Strip, he yelled at the journalist Fakri Ibrahim, saying: 'Send this picture to Israel and the world.'
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Saeed Taji Farouky
2 years
This is an absolute mirror of the British apologists for empire who say "it was acceptable at the time" To which we should simply ask, "acceptable to who?"
@txt_kowth
kowther 🇵🇸 gazafunds.com
2 years
incredible stuff from zionists on twitter dot com
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@saeedtaji
Saeed Taji Farouky
1 month
This should put to rest the view that we hate Musk just because he's difficult, rich, or conservative. We hate him because he's a racist who supports genocide.
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@saeedtaji
Saeed Taji Farouky
5 months
You can never kill the joy of direct action
@Pal_action
Palestine Action
5 months
They can arrest us but they’ll never stop us from taking action to end British complicity with the Gaza genocide! #ShutElbitDown
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Saeed Taji Farouky
1 year
@LexiAlex They think people are going to Starbucks for... customised coffee cups??
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@saeedtaji
Saeed Taji Farouky
5 months
Your daily dose of Gazans refusing to be broken
@OnlinePalEng
PALESTINE ONLINE 🇵🇸
5 months
Palestinian children use power lines as a swing to have fun in light of the electricity outage in the Gaza Strip since the beginning of the Israeli war.
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Saeed Taji Farouky
10 months
She's doing such incredible work. The resilience of the Palestinian people is legendary. 💔
@madhoun95
Ahmed El-Madhoun
10 months
Today, I met Fatima, one of Gaza's heroes from North Gaza. She's actively supporting displaced children in the refugee camp through psycho-social initiatives and games. We need brave hearts to help others now. The children of #Gaza truly deserve our support and compassion 💙
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Saeed Taji Farouky
1 year
The BFI's total funding for films was cut by 20% and their messaging seems to be "oh it's fine, we'll make do" instead of challenging the government and advocating for more. It's not a good look. Who is publicly fighting for British cinema?
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@saeedtaji
Saeed Taji Farouky
4 months
1/ We had an incredible screening last night of militant films from the revolutionary period of Palestinian cinema at Open City. A packed house, sold out, and an incredibly engaged audience. You could hear a pin drop (especially since those films have so much silence)
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@saeedtaji
Saeed Taji Farouky
4 months
Also great advice in case you're arrested. It's boring as hell in those cells for 12 hours but they let you bring a book in.
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@saeedtaji
Saeed Taji Farouky
8 months
@LailaAlarian @lisaling This is so appalling. Maybe when she starts with "I'm no expert on the region," she should have just stopped there.
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@saeedtaji
Saeed Taji Farouky
1 year
The BFI's #FilmOnFilm festival was out of this world. Such a well thought-out mixture of films, panels, discussions, workshops with loads of free events. Some of the best and dynamic audience engagement I've experienced in 30 years of going to festivals there.
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@saeedtaji
Saeed Taji Farouky
2 years
I love that Jeanne Dielman was voted no.1. What upsets me now is that all the industry people patting themselves on the back for being progressive and experimental would never, ever finance or support a film like that. The gulf between "best film" and "film we'll make" is huge.
@IsStevens
Isabel Stevens
2 years
Just sharing this email that I read out on stage @bfi last night. In 2014 @SightSoundmag invited Jeanne Dielman's director Chantal Akerman to vote in a documentary films poll we were organising. This was her response to me: #SightAndSoundPoll
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Saeed Taji Farouky
2 years
It reminds me of a favourite quote of mine from this interview with Bresson: "I'd rather people feel a film before understanding it. I'd rather feelings arise before intellect."
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@saeedtaji
Saeed Taji Farouky
4 months
This is what "the only democracy in the Middle East" is doing to freedom of the press.
@AJENews
Al Jazeera Breaking News
4 months
Israel shuts down Al Jazeera offices.
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Saeed Taji Farouky
10 months
One of the best articulations to come out of IDFA
@auntymarx
auntymarx
10 months
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Saeed Taji Farouky
10 months
@LexiAlex Yeah this is one of the major holes in Israel's propaganda war. They claim to simultaneously have the most extensive surveillance system in the world, and be unable to find a militia of 30,000 fighters in a concentration camp they control. 🤔
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@saeedtaji
Saeed Taji Farouky
2 years
In this interview, Wells explains the importance of texture in her film. She means the incidental images of place, atmosphere, mood. They aren't narrative and they're often cut because they seem superfluous, but they're essential to evoking emotion.
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@saeedtaji
Saeed Taji Farouky
1 year
A Thousand Fires is now available online, around the world (a few territories excluded). Our transcendental film about oil, life-cycles, and family in the oil fields of central Burma. 🥇Winner Marco Zucchi award (Locarno) for most innovative documentary.
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@saeedtaji
Saeed Taji Farouky
1 year
I think I met the world's most depressed dog today. Dude's really questioning his life choices.
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@saeedtaji
Saeed Taji Farouky
5 months
It seems the only film to reference Palestine is by a foreign filmmaker, about trans people from Gaza seeking safety in Tel Aviv. Film festivals continue to flatter Israel and pretend no genocide is being committed.
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@saeedtaji
Saeed Taji Farouky
5 months
This is fucking incredible 🥹 These protesters are risking death to stop the US / Israeli war machine. Block the roads 🚙 Block the sea 🌊 Palestine will be free 💪🏽
@abierkhatib
Abier
5 months
Protesters block the entrance of US warship heading to Gaza I can’t imagine how brave these people are ♥️
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Saeed Taji Farouky
2 years
2) Exposition. A classic, of course, but it's a good accompaniment to point 1. Writers get so fixated on the ideas behind their films, they forget about the medium. Tell us a story using all tools available (sound, image, movement, time, location, costume, etc) not just dialogue.
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@saeedtaji
Saeed Taji Farouky
5 months
“I got an email from folks in Gaza asking me what to eat in the wild right now, like, ‘what could be growing outside that we can eat? Because we’re starving.’
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@saeedtaji
Saeed Taji Farouky
6 months
These are the UK universities partnered with Tel Aviv University, researchers into improving the efficiency of Israel's genocide
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@TelAvivUni
Tel Aviv University
6 months
Fast, Furious, and IDF-ready: TAU's engineering students have turbocharged IDF's remote-controlled vehicles, extending their control range to tackle the harshest conditions. With a commitment to saving lives, this breakthrough promises to revolutionize battlefield strategies.
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@saeedtaji
Saeed Taji Farouky
2 years
The interviewer also asks Wells how she maintains the required intensity throughout making her film. My approach is that film should have an unanswered (even unanswerable) question at its core. It's not only compelling for the audience but also gives you a reason to keep going.
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@saeedtaji
Saeed Taji Farouky
1 year
This is terrible handling of the project. Not only is Netflix's vision of the UK film industry very bleak, but their treatment of the competition winners is totally unethical.
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@saeedtaji
Saeed Taji Farouky
1 year
Producing short films is the new unpaid internship
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@saeedtaji
Saeed Taji Farouky
6 months
Never forget that film festivals need us more than we need them. We are their workers, their reputations, their talent, their profiles and voices, their veils of creativity, their acceptable radicals. But change will only come when we become unacceptably radical.
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@saeedtaji
Saeed Taji Farouky
9 months
The pathetic cowardice of these art spaces and venues is infuriating and unforgivable. That wearing a kufayyah is being criminalised and turned into a traumatising act is moral manipulation. You can de-politicise art all you like but at some point
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@saeedtaji
Saeed Taji Farouky
10 months
I want to apologise in advance for still posting things about film and filmmaking. I'm sorry if it seems insensitive. But throughout all this, I think we still need to find ways to examine and understand the world, and to communicate that. For me, this is film.
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@saeedtaji
Saeed Taji Farouky
1 year
Excuse me, this is the interior of the National cinematheque of Portugal ❤️❤️
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@saeedtaji
Saeed Taji Farouky
9 months
I must become a menace to my enemies.
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@saeedtaji
Saeed Taji Farouky
2 years
3) Character. Another problem parallel to 1 and 2. Don't invent characters simply to embody an "issue." Make them real and complex. Make them experience something real. The "issue" is subtext, it's not the plot or story.
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@saeedtaji
Saeed Taji Farouky
2 years
Just quoting Sunak without any attempt at analysis, and using the term "small boat crisis" (clearly a government PR phrase) without any context. Sunak "vows", whereas those challenging his legislation have modifiers attached: "The British Red Cross says". This is shameful.
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@saeedtaji
Saeed Taji Farouky
10 months
It's the PFLP Purring Felines for the Liberation of Palestine
@islamocommunism
♥️🐈‍⬛
10 months
Even the cats in London are protesting for Palestine! Long live Palestine, long live Gaza! 🇵🇸
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