British Artist Phil Collins (Not the Singer) Rooftop Drive-In Movie Theater On View Now In Ramallah, Palestine
You are sitting in a car. Not your own car. You actually have no idea whose car this is. All you know is that it was lovingly placed on the rooftop of a historic building, here in downtown Ramallah, Palestine. And that you’ve been watching a 1970s Egyptian Western. A French political musical. An experimental program of artists’ film and video. The smell of popcorn fills the air, and the radio dial is a little buttery with your greasy fingerprints. Cinema Sayyara! is a rooftop drive-in cinema by the artist Phil Collins, commissioned by the 5th Riwaq Biennale. It is the latest rendition of Collins’s Auto-Kino!, which was rolled out in Berlin five years ago. The new film program for Ramallah has been collectively selected by artists, and filmmakers whom Collins invited as guest programmers, as well as by residents of the Beit Saa neighborhood. The project runs only for four weeks and offers a maximum of 21 seats per night. But if you live nearby, you can watch the program from the street, your balcony or your favorite cafe by using a standard 98.9 FM frequency to tune into the soundtrack on the radio.