Recent Grad, Adam Abel (MFA Photo 2012), has turned his thesis work into a documentary film. He’s created a Kickstarter campaign to help with the funding. The film is about Sajed, a 29 year-old Palestinian skater, who mentors a group of youth who skate, do parkour, perform beatbox and hip-hop in Qalqilya, a city surrounded by Israel’s wall. They call themselves the X Games. Their response to living in confinement is to express themselves through movement.

Practicing mostly at night in the back alleys and streets, Sajed and his crew are outsiders in the city and do not have any proper facilities. Their dream is to perform and find a safe space to train where more young Palestinians can experience the freedom they have discovered. To do this they must overcome the physical and cultural walls surrounding them.

The goal of the film is to generate support and funding for the first skate/parkour-park in Palestine. For a summary of the film, scroll to the bottom of the page.

Abel is the producer, director and cinematographer. In addition to and in conjunction with this project, he has also developed a nine channel video installation called Palestine Interrupted, which was created using footage from our production last fall. This work will be installed this month at the Siskind Gallery in Rochester, NY. In March, Abel will present Palestine Interrupted at the Society for Photographic Educators (SPE) Annual National Conference.

Kickstarter Link:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1714690591/qalqilya-film-production-2-0