cinema antiplastique
cinema antiplastique is a unique healing movement practice
and movement studio by the same name,
in the stolen lands known as dumbo, brooklyn, ny.
we share techniques
which assist in opening the innate capacity
for intuitive movement within us all.
these skills are gentle and self directed
and practiced with our original
moving images of nature.
“the purpose of cinema antiplastique is
to bring us to the point where our bodies move
harmoniously of their own nature
the purpose of cinema antiplastique’s video art
is to remind us that we are nature.
-rania lee khalil , founder and director of cinema antiplastique
calendar
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CINEMA ANTIPLASTIQUE CALENDAR
fall 2026 is here! join us for a new season
of sensory movement and instinctual fun
cinema antiplastique : movement for the movement
published by L Nour Editions
Sunday October 18, 3-5 pm
Nature Walk for families with Eman Rashid!
Suggested Donation sliding scale, $30 - $90
Join us for this nature walk in the native plant gardens
of Brooklyn Bridge Park with Palestinian activist and
plant expert Eman Rashid. Many of you know Eman without
knowing her from her beautiful yellow FREE PALESTINE
signs in the windows of thousands of Brooklyn homes!
On Sunday morning she graces us with a walk through
the park to learn about our pollinator relatives, interspersed
with fascinating stories about her work towards Palestinian liberation.
From her village to US television newsrooms, to native plant
parks and gardens, Eman’s stories will delight and astonish.
OCTOBER 24TH & 25TH
FREQUENCY // FUN RAISING WEEKEND
FULL WEEKEND EVENTS
Saturday October 24th
film : America Di Notte, 1961
7- 9pm screening
film screening America Di Notte with our own Gisella Sorentino,
grandaughter of filmmaker!
Italian 'mondo' documentary featuring scenes of night lifein North and South America, including Las Vegas, New Orleans, San Francisco, Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro. Come enjoy cinema antiplastique's Haptic Film Series, with this rare film classic brought to us by our own Gisella Sorrentino, granddaughter of the filmmaker! She will be with us for conversation and more in the screening.
Saturday October 24th
9pm Listening Party!
Sunday October 25th
Intro to Movement with Moving Images of Nature : for Children 1p
Sound Bath with Caroll Tavares
5 pm
Thursday, November 5th. 6-9p
Gathering for bipoc healers
free
a space for healers of color to come together, breathe, release, and resource ourselves for the work we do. Ginhawa, a Filipino word for the ease and relief that returns to the body after a weight lifts, captures what we hope this time
offers: a chance to meet as healers seeking to do things differently,
to acknowledge how challenging that can be in this world, how the politics of our times are impacting us, how we can shift and transform our energies to meet them, hold and lift each other up in the process.
We'll share a meal, move and create together, reflect through poetry and readings, and connect through conversation designed to help us gently see one other. Come as you are. We hope you'll leave feeling a little less alone in this work, and maybe with a new friend or two.
Sunday November 15th,
3-5 pm
Family friendly Dabke with Basma Eid!
February 2027
Brooklyn lovers : Matchmaking event !
Coming : Wilhelm Reich Festival
A peer of Sigmund Freud, ground breaking pyschotherapist Wilhelm Reich pioneered much of what today constitutes somatic therapy. Beyond this,
Reich profoundly understood relationships between embodiment, politics and the masses, as in The Mass Psychologyof Fascism, connecting sexual repression with the rise of Hitler in the third Reich. A vocal defender of Palestine since 1948, Reich's legacy is as unique as it is profound. This fall, cinema antiplastique begins our introduction of his important work to new audiences.
fall 2026 is here! join us for a new season
of sensory movement and instinctual fun
cinema antiplastique : movement for the movement
published by L Nour Editions
Sunday October 18, 3-5 pm
Nature Walk for families with Eman Rashid!
Suggested Donation sliding scale, $30 - $90
Join us for this nature walk in the native plant gardens
of Brooklyn Bridge Park with Palestinian activist and
plant expert Eman Rashid. Many of you know Eman without
knowing her from her beautiful yellow FREE PALESTINE
signs in the windows of thousands of Brooklyn homes!
On Sunday morning she graces us with a walk through
the park to learn about our pollinator relatives, interspersed
with fascinating stories about her work towards Palestinian liberation.
From her village to US television newsrooms, to native plant
parks and gardens, Eman’s stories will delight and astonish.
OCTOBER 24TH & 25TH
FREQUENCY // FUN RAISING WEEKEND
FULL WEEKEND EVENTS
Saturday October 24th
film : America Di Notte, 1961
7- 9pm screening
film screening America Di Notte with our own Gisella Sorentino,
grandaughter of filmmaker!
Italian 'mondo' documentary featuring scenes of night lifein North and South America, including Las Vegas, New Orleans, San Francisco, Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro. Come enjoy cinema antiplastique's Haptic Film Series, with this rare film classic brought to us by our own Gisella Sorrentino, granddaughter of the filmmaker! She will be with us for conversation and more in the screening.
Saturday October 24th
9pm Listening Party!
Sunday October 25th
Intro to Movement with Moving Images of Nature : for Children 1p
Sound Bath with Caroll Tavares
5 pm
Thursday, November 5th. 6-9p
Gathering for bipoc healers
free
a space for healers of color to come together, breathe, release, and resource ourselves for the work we do. Ginhawa, a Filipino word for the ease and relief that returns to the body after a weight lifts, captures what we hope this time
offers: a chance to meet as healers seeking to do things differently,
to acknowledge how challenging that can be in this world, how the politics of our times are impacting us, how we can shift and transform our energies to meet them, hold and lift each other up in the process.
We'll share a meal, move and create together, reflect through poetry and readings, and connect through conversation designed to help us gently see one other. Come as you are. We hope you'll leave feeling a little less alone in this work, and maybe with a new friend or two.
Sunday November 15th,
3-5 pm
Family friendly Dabke with Basma Eid!
February 2027
Brooklyn lovers : Matchmaking event !
Coming : Wilhelm Reich Festival
A peer of Sigmund Freud, ground breaking pyschotherapist Wilhelm Reich pioneered much of what today constitutes somatic therapy. Beyond this,
Reich profoundly understood relationships between embodiment, politics and the masses, as in The Mass Psychologyof Fascism, connecting sexual repression with the rise of Hitler in the third Reich. A vocal defender of Palestine since 1948, Reich's legacy is as unique as it is profound. This fall, cinema antiplastique begins our introduction of his important work to new audiences.
Upcoming!
Shy Dance Party (online)
$30
are you shy on the dance floor? worry you “don’t
know how to dance”?
good news! everyone can dance beautifully in
their very own way. in this synchronous online workshop,
we explore techniques to dance from within, in public
and private space. we rebuild confidence in our
joyful responses to music and others,
exploring the pleaure of our bodies moving in space,
from the privacy and comfort of our own homes.
we’ll also consider how various types of clothes,
fabrics and shoes make us feel and move on the dance floor,
so after this workshop we feel ready to set sail
for parties & the club
or simply feel wonderful having a healing dance party
alone in our room.
Shy Dance Party (online)
$30
are you shy on the dance floor? worry you “don’t
know how to dance”?
good news! everyone can dance beautifully in
their very own way. in this synchronous online workshop,
we explore techniques to dance from within, in public
and private space. we rebuild confidence in our
joyful responses to music and others,
exploring the pleaure of our bodies moving in space,
from the privacy and comfort of our own homes.
we’ll also consider how various types of clothes,
fabrics and shoes make us feel and move on the dance floor,
so after this workshop we feel ready to set sail
for parties & the club
or simply feel wonderful having a healing dance party
alone in our room.
we are not on social media. to learn more about our events,
please join our mailing list
PAST EVENTS Spring 2026
Palestine, Ecocide and Interspecies Liberation Symposium
Haptic Cinema Series
Community Dabke!
Film Screening: LSD : Delirio di Sensei
Rent Party
Opening Like a Flower
Palestine, Ecocide and Interspecies Liberation Symposium
Haptic Cinema Series
Community Dabke!
Film Screening: LSD : Delirio di Sensei
Rent Party
Opening Like a Flower
rania lee khalildfa/ doctorate of fine arts, ma, msw, ba, artist site
cinema antiplastique is the culmination of rania’s creative interdisciplinary practices within dance, video, post colonial ecology and community healing over the past twenty five years.
rania is the daughter of egyptian immigrants to the u.s. who returned to egypt, where she lived between 2007-2016, years of revolution and counter revolution. inspired by her studies of revolutions of the 1950’s - 1970’s (and their systematic dismantling), rania created cinema antiplastique to carry on the work of her ancestors creatively, resourcing communities and individuals with deep fun, thought and embodied healing. rania is the grandaughter of three generations of pan african-asian egyptian feminists, and the mother of one daughter,
education
(formal)
phd: artistic research. dance, video, postcolonial ecologies, university of arts helsinki, finland
masters of arts: practice based research in performance art, university of warwick, england
masters of social work: hunter college school of social work, new york city
(transferred from performance studies ma, nyu)
postgraduate studies: live clinical, diversity fellowship, ackerman insitute for the family, nyc
bachelors of arts: dance and video, hampshire college, amherst ma
simons rock college of bard, great barrington, ma
teachers
(including, yet not limited to)
atsushi takenouchi (butoh dance)
susan waltner (experiential anatomy)
felice wolfzahn (contact improvisation)
nancy stark smith (contact improvisation)
susan klein (klein technique, release technique)
daphne lowell (authentic movement, undergrad advisor)
richard foreman (experimental theatre and performance)
josé esteban muñoz (performance studies, graduate advisor)
sippio small (systems and post structural family therapy, ackerman advisor)
laurie kaplan and david kezur (the above and narrative therapy, ackerman advisors)
annette arlander (video, phd supervisor)
taru elving and ros gray (art, ecology and artistic research, phd supervisors)
past professorships
new york university, bfa program, interdisciplinary visual arts
parsons school of art and design, the new school, mfa program in visual art
university of arts helsinki, finland
jesuit institute, alexandria, egypt
faq
offerings
home
return all the land , reparations now
cinema antiplastique is located in stolen lands of the Lenapehoking, colonially known as brooklyn, new york city. as we work collectively to address and repair these histories of crime against the earth and interspecies relations, we invite indigenous peoples of this land to reach out here re collaboration, land back efforts and events.
looking forward to hearing from you.
due to the embodied, in person & community nature of our work
we are not presently on social media.
we find this aligned with
other ‘antisocial’ positions like ...
supporting our earth and indigenous beings
and feeling confident in the victory of good over evil
support our work
cinema antiplastique is an autonomous institution. our commitment to a free Palestine, reparations and indigenous led resistance / earth liberation leads us to sustain our work through ticket sales, commissions and community support.
please click here to support our scholarship fund and community programming,
we appreciate you!