Shashat's Women's Film Festival in Palestine" is not a traditional film festival. Its objectives and the presence of films and guests are seen as an impetus to public awareness of women's creativity and the implications of representations of women. The festival will take place from September 22 to September 29, 2005 in three cities – Ramallah, Nablus and Bethlehem. The festival will focus its outreach to the public especially students and youth, Palestinian filmmakers and the women's community.

In Ramallah the main festival screening site will be Al-Kasaba Theatre. The opening and closing ceremonies will take place at the Cultural Palace. Lectures and workshops will be held at Shashat's offices, the British Council and the Franco-German Cultural Centre. Additional screenings and lectures will also be held at Birzeit University. Special day-time screenings at Al-Kasaba will be arranged especially for high school students. In.

Bethlehem Shashat's festival venue is the Bethlehem Peace Centre with the opening and closing ceremonies taking place there, in addition to screenings and workshops. Special daytime screenings will also be arranged for high school students. Additional screenings and lectures will take place at Bethlehem University and Ibda` Centre at the Dheisheh Refugee Camp. In Nablus, the screenings, lectures and workshops will take place at the festival's venue at An-Najah National University, the largest Palestinian University, and will be directed at its significant student body.

Shashat is a formally registered NGO in Palestine whose focus is on women's cinema and the social and cultural implications of women's representations. Its Board of Directors is made up of women and men active in the field of culture, academia and development. Shashat is based in Ramallah but in its commitment to reach under-represented areas it has established partnerships in Nablus with An-Najah National University and in Bethlehem with the Bethlehem Peace Centre. The organization hopes to establish partnerships in Gaza in the future.

Gender inequity in Palestine is grounded in popular cultural perceptions of women held by the public, policy-makers and most of the institutions whose decisions have a profound impact on Palestinian life. Showcasing and creating alternative gender portrayals as well as critiquing existing ones is one step to challenging the social perceptions of the role of men and women in society and the respective far-reaching values attached to these roles which impact all areas of Palestinian life.

In order to intervene in gender representations Shashat focuses its work on four areas: 1) Shashat's Women's Film Festival in Palestine, 2) capacity building of Palestinian women filmmakers through workshops, production support and participation in festivals and symposia, 3) school gender media literacy programme, 4) cultural outreach through its book and video libraries in Ramallah, Nablus and Bethlehem, its research and publications departments, and its cinema club.
Learn more about Shashat and its work at www.shashat.org.