A Word from our Sponsors

A message from the Mayor of Paris, Bertrand Delanoë, and the President of the Centre National du cinéma et de l'image animée (CNC), Véronique Cayla

The Mayor of Paris

As is now its tradition, Paris is once again offering its support to a most significant festival: Middle East, What can Cinema Do?. Through festivals such as these, where cinematographic exchanges are accompanied by lectures, debates and discussions, mutual understanding and awareness are increased.
Cinema has the power to widen horizons and broaden understanding. It is certainly my wish that the message of fraternity that we experience here, thanks to the organizers and participants in the festival, should be heard and received by all. It is with great pride that Paris, our capital city, welcomes such positive events that bring together women and men of all cultures.

Bertrand Delanoë

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President of the CNC

Following the policy established for its first edition in 2003, now in this the fourth Middle East: What Can Cinema Do? offers the public twelve days of debates and stimulating films concentrating on the Israel-Palestine conflict and its repercussions on life as it is lived in the region.

The event targets all members of society; it becomes a meeting-place, people who love cinema, ordinary film-goers, activists, artists, curious bystanders; an agora that lends itself, through the films shown, to important discussions, to exchanges of opinion, to creative concepts.

To that extent, the Festival meets one of the goals of the "Centre National de la Cinématographie", known for its policy of cooperation, through the "Fonds Sud", which leads it to defend and promote cultural diversity, including the development and promotion of films that would not otherwise have seen the light of day, in particular in the Near and Middle East. The CNC is therefore pleased to support a festival whose very purpose lies in the encouragement of artistic creation in all its forms, with a view to improving the dialogue between nations, the affirmation of different cultures, with a view also of contributing to new ways of apprehending the world and its humanity, ways in which intolerance and ignorance can play no part.

I offer all those who attend my very best wishes for a most pleasurable event. I also offer my grateful thanks to Janine Halbreich-Euvrard who initiated this series of festivals, as well as to her team who inject so much passion into the Seventh Art as we define it, an open door to the rest of the world.

Véronique Cayla



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