2 months ago
Under the umbrella of the newly launched ALFILM CINECLUB, a participatory initiative designed to transform cinema spectatorship into a collective intellectual and emotional practice, the Network of Arab Alternative Screens (NAAS, Germany) partnered with ALFILM - Arab Film Festival Berlin (Germany) to facilitate a participatory workshop titled Rewriting the Self – Cinema as a Laboratory of Becoming. It took place between April 20th and May 8th, 2026, both online and in-presence.
Conceived in response to shifting political and cultural conditions in Germany, the project reimagines cinema as a collective practice. By transforming spectators into writers and cultural mediators, the workshop aspires to position the festival not only as a site of exhibition, but as a space for shared intellectual inquiry and imaginative becoming.
Through a preparatory session before the festival and a concluding workshop afterward, participants take part in an intensive programme combining film analysis, reflections on Arab cinema history, and creative-critical writing exercises. The workshop encourages participants to engage deeply with the films screened during the festival, and culminates in the publication of original essays or creative texts in Arabic on Malaffat, NAAS' platform dedicated to publishing.
Read articles on Malaffat...
The workshop Rewriting the Self: Cinema as a Laboratory of Becoming is designed for Arab diaspora audiences in Germany—particularly emerging writers, cultural workers, and cinephiles seeking deeper engagement with Arab cinema beyond mere watching. It addresses a growing need for spaces where Arab audiences can collectively reflect, write, and think through film in their own language and on their own terms.
At a time of increasing political marginalization and shrinking cultural space, the project fills a gap between festival spectatorship and sustained intellectual participation. It transforms the festival from a temporary screening platform into a community-based laboratory for critical dialogue, creative expression, and long-term cultural agency.
Over several weeks, selected participants transition from spectators to active writers through an intensive three-stage journey:
The Virtual Prelude | 20 April 2026: Participants meet with the mentors —Iskandar Abdalla, Abdalrahman Alqalaq, and Hosam Fahmy— to share initial reflections, set expectations, and receive critical frameworks to guide their upcoming festival experience.
The Festival Immersion | 24 - 30 April 2026: Attending screenings during the festival, participants move beyond the screen, actively taking notes and drafting their initial creative-critical reflections.
The "Laboratory" | 07 - 08 May 2026: After the festival, the group gathered for a two-day intensive workshop at the NAAS office in Berlin. Guided by mentors Iskandar Abdalla and Abdalrahman Alqalaq, participants engaged in collective film analysis, exploring film as a historical document and delving into the methodology of "writing the self." Through peer discussions and direct feedback loops, they refined their first drafts.
Equipped with collaborative theoretical tools and deep-dive analysis, participants finalize their original texts independently. More than a temporary festival event, this workshop marks a lasting contribution to the Arabic critical landscape. The final essays will be published on Malaffat, offering fresh, diaspora-centered perspectives on contemporary Arab cinema.
Malaffat is a platform by the Network of Arab Alternative Screens (NAAS, Germany), dedicated to publishing, preserving, and documenting narratives and lived experiences around cinema culture. Malaffat Dossiers is a series of curated collections of contributions that aims to explore the histories, challenges, and practices shaping cinema in our region and regions of affinity.
This call was open to emerging critics, writers, film students, cultural journalists, and artists interested in writing about cinema. See the details here.
The participants were granted free entry to ALFILM Screenings and Panels.
© NAAS
The workshop is a collaboration between NAAS, ALFILM and the Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung.
