Despite promises and hopes, Gaza's cinemas remain closed
The Red Carpet Human Rights Film Festival in Gaza City aims to revive closed film theaters, but there is little progress on the ground.
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — “Shhhh guys, the film has started!”
The voice of one of the organizers of the Red Carpet Human Rights Film Festival announced the start of a film at the festival that took place on Dec. 4-11. But it was the film theater, Amer Cinema, that stole the spotlight, rather than the films shown. The cinema was supposed to open for the first time since 1996, when a group of young men set it on fire because they claimed it showed indecent films.
Days before the festival started volunteers worked hard to get the film theater ready. The initial plan was to hold the screenings at the theater, but the owners reversed the decision and insisted on holding the opening in front of the theater instead.
"They told us that they had security concerns," Muntaser al-Sabaa, executive director of the Red Carpet film festival, told Al-Monitor. He said that the fact the theater decided to show films outside the building drew just as much attention to Gaza's closed cinemas as the anticipated reopening of Amer Cinema after 23 years.
