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06/24/2009
Voices of Palestine Summer 2009 Film Series
“Voices of Palestine” is an annual film series hosted jointly by The Jerusalem Fund for Education and Community Development and The Center for Contemporary Arab Studies, Georgetown University. Films begin promptly at 6:30 p.m. All films are in English or have English subtitles. Attendance is free and open to the public. No RSVP required. Films are screened at The Jerusalem Fund, 2425 Virginia Ave, NW, Washington, D.C. 20037. For more information, call The Jerusalem Fund at 202-338-1958 or email info@thejerusalemfund.org.
Wednesday, July 1, 2009, 6:30 pm
Pomegranates and Myrrh (Al Mor wa al Rumman)
Director: Najwa Najjar / 95 minutes / 2009
The director will be present at the screening.
View trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NgofDQxSGRQ
Kamar, a free spirited dancer, finds herself as the wife of a prisoner, Zaid, and away from everything she loves until she returns to the dance, defying society’s taboos. When she returns to dance, Kamar is confronted with Kais, a Palestinian returnee, who has taken Kamar's role as the head choreographer. Sparks fly between Kamar and Kais, creating more than a passionate, emotional dance for the both of them. Matters become even more complicated when Zaid's sentence is extended. At the same time, the family's legal case against land confiscation faces one obstacle after another, and the villagers from the nearby villages are unable to reach the family's olive groves, placing the annual harvest and consequently the family's livelihood in danger. Kamar's life is thrown into turmoil as she becomes increasingly attached to Kais and is caught in the midst of her desire to dance while breaking the family and societal taboos of the prisoner's wife's role as life under occupation rages on. There will be a Q&A with Director Najwa Najjar after the screening.
Wednesday, July 8, 2009, 6:30 pm
Director: PeA Holmquist and Suzanne Khardalian / 58 minutes / 2009
http://www.icarusfilms.com/new2009/yf.html
Young Freud in Gaza profiles Ayed, a young psychotherapist for the Palestinian Authority's Clinic for Mental Health. Filmed during 2006-2008, against the violent backdrop of armed clashes between Hamas and Fateh factions, Israeli missile attacks and the constant overhead presence of a surveillance dirigible, the film shows Ayed training young wives and mothers in deep-breathing exercises to calm anxiety, counseling maimed Hamas and Fateh militants in meditation techniques, and leading children in group therapy sessions in which they discuss their reaction to the death of siblings and draw pictures to cope with their emotions. The film also shows Ayed at home, relating to his parents and other family members and friends, in the process revealing that this young mental-health doctor is struggling with some personal issues of his own, including serious doubts that he is able to help his patients.
Wednesday, July 15, 2009, 6:30 pm
Director: Jackie Reem Salloum / 94 minutes / 2008
The director and one of the featured hip hop artists will be present at the screening.
Slingshot Hip Hop braids together the stories of young Palestinians living in Israel, Gaza, and the West Bank as they discover Hip Hop and employ it as a tool to surmount divisions imposed by occupation and poverty. From internal checkpoints and Separation Walls to gender norms and generational differences, this is the story of young people crossing the borders that separate them. (There will be a Q&A with Director Jackie Reem Salloum and Hip Hop Artist Abeer Alzinaty, who was featured in the film, after the screening.
Wednesday, July 22, 2009, 6:30 pm
Salt of this Sea (Milh Hadha al-Bahr)
Director: Annemarie Jacir / 109 minutes / 2008
View trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pniYIgMTPhI
Soraya, born in Brooklyn in a working class community of Palestinian refugees, discovers that her grandfather’s savings were frozen in a bank account in Jaffa when he was exiled in 1948. Stubborn, passionate and determined to reclaim what is hers, she fulfills her life-long dream of “returning” to Palestine. Slowly she is taken apart by the reality around her and is forced to confront her own internal anger. She meets Emad, a young Palestinian whose ambition, contrary to hers, is to leave forever. Tired of the constraints that dictate their lives, they know in order to be free, they must take things into their own hands, even if it’s illegal.
Wednesday, July 29, 2009, 6:30 pm
Chronicles of a Refugee: Identity Without a Homeland
Director: Perla Issa, Aseel Mansour and Adam Shapiro / 78 minutes / 2008
Please note: Directors Perla Issa and Adam Shapiro are MAAS alums.
http://www.chroniclesofarefugee.org/
Chronicles of a Refugee: Identity Without a Homeland, the fourth part of the series, starts to unpack the meaning and attributes of Palestinian identity today, given the experience of 60 years of dispossession and refugee status around the world. Taboo subjects, such as the role of refugee camps and the usefulness of citizenship, are debated by those who live with the consequences of decisions taken about these matters. Chronicles of a Refugee is a six-part documentary series looking at the global Palestinian refugee experience over the last 60 years.(The series will be available for purchase at the screening.
Wednesday, August 5, 2009, 6:30 pm
Wounds of the Heart: An Artist and Her Nation
Director: John Halaka / 52 minutes / 2009
http://www.sittingcrowproductions.com/WoundsOfTheHeart.html
Born and raised in the village of Tarsheha in the Galilee, Rana Bishara is a Palestinian visual artist whose creative practice includes sculpture, installation work and performance art. Her artwork functions simultaneously as an elegy to the Palestinian Nakba (the Arabic term for "The Great Disaster" that began in 1948), an unmasking of the brutality of the Israeli occupation of Palestine and a critique of the biased Western media’s depiction of the Palestinians’ struggle against their occupiers. The objects employed in her artwork perform as surrogates for the body and spirit of Palestine and its people. Her work, in both its physical and conceptual manifestations, is an expression of the inseparable blending of the personal and political experiences that define the identity of every Palestinian.
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