ReFocus: The Films of Annemarie Jacir nominated for MeCCSA Monograph of the Year

We are delighted to share the news that ReFocus: The Films of Annemarie Jacir has been shortlisted for the MeCCSA Monograph of the Year Award.

The MeCCSA (Media, Communication and Cultural Studies Association) Awards recognise outstanding research in the fields of media, communication, and cultural studies.

Their book takes a transnational, feminist approach to the oeuvre of Palestinian director, Annemarie Jacir, critically analysing Annemarie Jacir’s development as an artist, filmmaker, and curator of film.

Here's what the judges had to say about the title:

"This is an important book that offers an in-depth analysis of the films of Palestinian film maker Annemarie Jacir, whose oeuvre explores the politics of space through experimental modes of film making. The authors provide a rich discussion of the place of Jacir’s work in Palestinian cinema – a cinema necessarily of exile and diaspora. They offer a powerful theorisation of the experiences and meanings of being displaced both outside of Palestine and inside the Palestinian territories, which are central themes in Jacir’s work. From the spatial limitations of Jacir’s ‘roadblock’ movies, where immobility caused by check points and uncrossable borders find expression in fragmented aesthetics, to Jacir’s experimentation with ‘heterotopia’ in films contrasting the hopelessness and inability to live fully in the refugee camp with individual and collective experiences of marginal but vital ‘third spaces’ of hope, the authors of this book offer a theoretically impressive and beautifully written study of the work of this celebrated film maker."

Here's what the authors had to say:

"We are heartened by the news that our book on a celebrated Palestinian filmmaker, Annemarie Jacir, has been shortlisted for the MeCCSA award. Gaza academics, in a recent open letter, written from “beneath the bombs,” called upon their international colleagues to resist the ongoing scholasticide. This book, as a work about Palestinian political and cultural life, is a small part of that resistance and we’re glad to see it recognized."

The winner will be announced at the MeCCSA Annual Conference 2024, hosted by Manchester Metropolitan University, between 4-6th September 2024.

We have our fingers crossed for their success!

• Read more about the MeCCSA Awards
• Get 30% off your copy of ReFocus: The Films of Annemarie Jacir with code NEW30