QALQILYA TEASER TRAILER
Qalqilya is a feature-length documentary film about Sajed, a visionary skater determined to build a club for the “X-Games,” an avant-garde group of misfits from Qalqilya, Palestine. Living in a conservative city surrounded by a wall and struggling to bring his community out of the margins, Sajed realizes he may have to risk everything in order to keep his dream alive.
It’s easy to react to any project about the Middle East with a feeling of dread and ennui, but I urge anyone with that reaction to watch even a few minutes of Adam’s footage. If you’re anything like me, you’ll lean forward in your chair, and find yourself caught up in the heartfelt desires of a group of young Palestinians who simply want to express themselves through movement and music.
– Jack Lechner, executive producer of the Oscar-winning documentary The Fog of War and the Oscar-nominated film Blue Valentine.
MOHAMMED OTHMAN AND ADAM ABEL
STATUS
Qalqilya began in April, 2011, when Adam was visiting Qalqilya conducting research for his multimedia project Terra Infirma. There he met Mohammed Othman, an internationally known human rights activist, who was giving Adam a tour of the city. Together they serendipitously met Sajed, the leader of the X-Games and instantly envisioned a film as the best medium to advocate for the kind of space the team was seeking. A partnership was formed and a documentary was born.
After several years following the X-Games, embedding into their community, and filming their story, we are now in the editing room. Our goal is to produce a fine-cut this winter and release the film in 2020. We have been fortunate to gain interest from festivals around the world and get media coverage prior to the film being released. Notable examples include The Daily Beast, Variety Arabia, Aljazeera, and Tony Hawk, who posted one of Adam’s photographs on his Instagram page.
IMPACT
The production of Qalqilya has already created impact on the ground in Palestine, and the film has yet to be released! In 2013, our story inspired the construction of a state-of-the-art skate ramp in Qalqilya. And in 2016, we partnered with US pro skater Kenny Reed to create SkateQilya: a youth empowerment program using skateboarding to teach art, community building, and leadership skills to girls and boys in Qalqilya, Palestine. Our 2016 skate camp was the first co-ed athletic program in the North of the West Bank.
