SHASHAT promotes women’s cinema as an agent of social transformation in the Palestinian society, and women as creative directors of the Palestinian popular culture. The successful practice applied the following methodology:

1. Multi-year video training for young women; 2. Mentoring them in the production process so that they can better express the stories they want to tell; 3. National media blitz campaign about the films at national level and two launches, in Ramallah and Gaza, attended by the Minister of Culture and dignitaries to promote the films and the filmmakers; 4. A touring national screening and a discussion program in universities, refugee camps, cities, villages and towns, accompanied by audience surveys, discussant reports and site evaluations after each screening; 5. Annual compilation of thousands of audience, discussant and screening site evaluations to monitor the activities; 6. Select discussions filmed and edited and broadcast on the national satellite TV for national audiences.

This practice has been identified in the framework of the CSO WINS project (Capacity-building in the Southern Mediterranean to Open policy dialogue and monitoring for Women IN Society), with the support of the European Union’s Neighbourhood Civil Society Facility.