Tomorrow evening in Christchurch, and the evening after in Wellington, the lights will go down and Palestinian films will fill the screen. The first dawn of Global Artivism Month has arrived, and it begins with cinema.
Welcome to Global Artivism Month
From 1 November to 10 December, artists, activists, cultural practitioners, schools, community groups and social movements will use arts and culture for social, economic and environmental justice. The Month is led by the Global Majority and shaped by the communities taking part. Participation is free and open, and every activity stays rooted in its own language and local reality. The Sunrise Relay follows the Earth's rotation and moves the spotlight from region to region. Over forty days, screenings, exhibitions, performances, workshops and conversations will build a shared Global Artivism Mosaic. The idea is simple: culture is a form of power. It shapes how we understand the world and how we act in it.
Spotlight: Palestine Cinema Days Around the World 2026
This is the fourth edition, coordinated by Filmlab Palestine under the theme Cinema Across Borders. Stories Beyond Erasure. Cinemas, universities, cultural centres, collectives and individuals in more than 80 countries host screenings, and each adapts the programme to its own community. The main day is 2 November.
Why 2 November? The initiative takes place on the anniversary of the Balfour Declaration of 1917, whose historical and political consequences remain closely tied to the present. The date gives the screenings added meaning: an opportunity to bring Palestinian histories, experiences and voices into public spaces and conversations across borders, alongside a call for urgent and sustained solidarity with Palestine.
In Aotearoa New Zealand
- Christchurch: Bromley Community Centre, 45 Bromley Road. Monday 2 November, 6:30–9:30 pm NZDT. Learn more →
- Wellington (Pōneke): two/fiftyseven, a collaborative workspace and community centre focused on social impact, sustainability and collective wellbeing. Tuesday 3 November, 6:30 pm. Learn more →
Wellington will screen two films. Foragers (Jumana Manna, 2022, 65 minutes) mixes documentary and fiction to show how Israeli nature-protection laws criminalise the gathering of 'akkoub and za'atar, wild plants that are central to Palestinian food, memory and knowledge of the land. Palestinian families, many of them elders, keep these traditions alive despite fines and trials. The film asks who decides what is made extinct and what is allowed to live on.
The Flowers Stand Silently, Witnessing (Theo Panagopoulos, 2024, 17 minutes) is a short film essay built from silent botanical films shot in Palestine by a Scottish missionary in the 1930s and 1940s. It asks what happens when image-making is used both as testimony and as a tool of violence. It won the Best Documentary Short award at IDFA 2024.
Palestine by a Scottish missionary in the 1930s and 1940s. It asks what happens when image-making is used both as testimony and as a tool of violence. It won the Best Documentary Short award at IDFA 2024.
Palestinian cinema offers a meeting with the richness of Palestinian life. Through fiction, documentary, humour, memory and everyday gestures, filmmakers show Palestine on their own terms. Audiences meet Palestinian people as storytellers, artists and makers of culture.
Global Artivism Month believes in the power of culture to bring people together, build links across territories and turn shared concerns into collective action. A screening in Christchurch or Wellington is connected to others in more than 80 countries.
You can join in too
Put yourself on the map, share your art, or list your November event. Free practical guides are on the Global Artivism website. Tomorrow the relay moves to Micronesia, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. From 3 to 7 November, the Global Artivism Convening begins.
Hosting something this November? Put it on the map.