INTRODUCTION TO THE END OF AN ARGUMENT, dir. Elia Suleiman & Jayce Salloum. 45’. Video (US, 1990).
Using clips from feature films, cartoons and network TV, this unique video provides a rare critique of the portrayal of Arabs in American and European media. Collaborating images of Valentino, Barbara Eden, Golda Meir, Elvis Presley and Mr. Magoo, lead a barrage of found footage that is juxtaposed with text and location-footage shot on the West Bank. It also points to the negative influence of Arab stereotypes on U.S. views and foreign policy


IN SEARCH OF PALESTINE, dir. Charles Bruce, 52'. Video (UK,1998)
Although made for public television in 1998 and narrated by the internationally-renowned critic and author, Edward Said, this documentary still has not been shown nationally on American television. The film examines the painful history of Palestinians, as well as contemporary realities on the ground at the end of the Oslo process, through Said’s reflections on traveling to Israel and Palestine. The experience leads to his articulation of a prescient view of the limitations and insufficiencies of Oslo, shortly before the re-ignition of the intifada.

PALESTINE, A PEOPLE’S RECORD, dir. Kais al-Zobaidi, Documentary, 110’. Beta SP (Palestine/Syria, 1984).
This extraordinary record of Palestine from 1917 to 1974, with its compelling archival footage, still stands as a major filmic testament to the modern history of Palestine. (U.S. Premiere)


GOING HOME (Al-'Aouda), dir. Omar Al-Qattan. Documentary, 50’. Beta SP (Palestine/UK, 1996).
Major Derek Cooper witnessed the final days of the British Mandate as an officer in the British army responsible for the protection of the Arab city of Jaffa. His experiences there in 1948 affected him so deeply that he continued to work on behalf of Palestine's refugees for most of his life. The film tells the story of his return to Palestine/Israel in the summer of 1995.

HANAN ASHRAWI: A WOMAN OF HER TIME, dir. Mai Masri. Documentary, 50’. Beta SP (UK/Lebanon, 1995).
In the stormy aftermath of the Oslo Accords signed between Israel and the PLO in 1993, former Palestinian spokeswoman Hanan Ashrawi emerged as a formidable negotiator and a persuasive voice on the international stage. But - beyond the rhetoric and the polished public appearances - what drives Ashrawi? In a very personal account, Palestinian director Mai Masri profiles Ashrawi, exploring the challenges facing the Palestinians in their struggle to build an independent state. “ A passionate film that unveils a long hidden reality.”– Le Monde.
(Best Documentary Prize, Palermo Film Festival 1997)
DEBRIS (Radm), dir. Abdel Salam Shehadeh, Fiction, 18’, Beta SP (Palestine, 2001).
Debris is not simply the story of a farmer whose house is bulldozed and whose farm is destroyed. Debris is a fantasy… of dreams to fly far away in order to touch the sky, to break out of the despair of reality. Debris is the story of an entire generation who inherited humiliation and ignominy. It is a story of men crying…

CHRONICLE OF A DISAPPEARANCE (Sijl al-Ikhtifa’) dir. Elia Suleiman. Fiction, 88’, 35mm (France/Palestine, 1996).
What does it mean to be Palestinian in the second half of the twentieth century? Filmmaker Elia Suleiman returned to the land of his birth to answer that question. Born in Nazareth in 1960, well after the establishment in 1948 of the State of Israel in historic Palestine, Suleiman lived for twelve years in self-imposed exile in New York. He returned to find his roots in a culture that had been uprooted. Chronicle of a Disappearance is a personal meditation on the spiritual effect of political instability on the Palestinian psyche and identity.
"An exceptionally subtle and intelligent film."- The Village Voice (Best First Feature Award: 1996 Venice Film Festival)
NEWSTIME (Zaman Al-Akhbar), dir. Azza El-Hassan. Documentary, 54’, Beta SP (Palestine, 2001).
This film celebrates life's little details, and at the same time reveals the complexity with which we view death and life. The film is a diary of the director's life and that of four boys who live in her neighborhood. As the political reality in their surroundings worsens, the five
characters find that their lives' small details are taken over by political events. (Jury Prize Arab Screen Festival) (U.S Premiere)

CROSSING KALANDIA, dir. Sobhi al-Zobaidi. Documentary, 52’, Beta SP (Palestine, 2002).
A video journal reflecting the life of a Palestinian family and a Palestinian town during one year of the intifada. Kalandia is the name of a refugee camp between Ramallah and Jerusalem, but more recently it has become the location of one of the most heavily-traveled Israeli checkpoints in the Palestinian territories. Shot between May 2001 and August 2002, Crossing Kalandia offers a unique perspective on recent events in Palestine. (New York Premiere)

FOUR SONGS FOR PALESTINE (Arba'a Aghani Li Filasteen) dir. Nada El-Yassir, Fiction, 13’, Beta SP (Palestine, 2001).
Every day is a bad-news day in a tiny place in this world called Palestine. Death has become very much part of daily life on the West Bank and Gaza. A Palestinian woman goes through the daily routines of eating, drinking, and feeding her son while the news of the conflict permeates her mundane chores. (Competition Selection: 2001 Winterthur Short Film Festival) (U.S. Premiere)

TALE OF THREE JEWELS (Hikayatul Jawahiri Thalath), dir. Michel Khleifi. Fiction, 107’, 35mm (Belgium/Palestine, 1995).
A mixture of realism and allegory set against the backdrop of the Palestinian uprising in Gaza. Youssef, a 12 year-old boy, tries to win the love of Aida, a gypsy girl. Aida offers her heart, on the condition that he finds her grandmother’s lost jewels. Youssef is so smitten with Aida that he embarks on a mystical pursuit, leading him to a wise old man, a mysterious scroll, death and resurrection. (Director’s Fortnight: Cannes 1995).

BREAD (Le Pain). dir. Hiam Abbas. Fiction, 18’. 35mm (France, 2002).
In rural France, a couple and their son are about to have lunch. There's no bread left. The father goes to buy some. Time passes and the mother goes off in turn to buy bread… This is the first film by noted Palestinian actress Hiam Abbas, most recently seen starring in Satin Rouge. (U.S. Premiere). (Grand Prize: 2002 Montpellier Mediterranian Festival)

SHATTER HASSAN,dir. Mahmoud Al Massad, Fiction/Documentary, 40’, Beta SP (Jordan/Netherlands, 2001).
An Arab fairy tale goes awry in the Netherlands when the invincible hero “Hassan-the-Smart” becomes a nameless junkie. The director (in a voice-over and through the nostalgic images of Amsterdam) projects his feelings of being lost in this fairy tale character. Eventually, the narrative becomes the story of the director trying to retrieve his lost childhood by attempting to come to terms with the sense of belonging nowhere. It is a story about being homeless, being far away from home, having lost your own country, your culture, your identity... (NY Premiere)

THE MOUNTAIN (Al Jebel), dir. Hanna Elias. Fiction, 35', 16mm (Palestine/USA, 2002)
A girl from a small village is betrothed by her father to a well-to-do lawyer. She loves a younger man, but would risk death if she ran away to marry him. Her grandmother and mother agree to assist her attempt to climb the mountain and escape. (Grand Prix Award Henry Longlois Film Festival)


STAYING ALIVE (Bidna Na’ish), dir. Ghada Terawi. Documentary, 28’, Beta SP (Switzerland/Palestine, 2001).
An examination of the motives of Palestinian youths who risk their lives to throw stones at Israeli soldiers. Why don't they fear death or injury? How aware are they of what is happening around them? What political thoughts drive them to go and possibly fight to their deaths? (U.S. Premiere).

NAIM & WADEE’A (Na’im wa Wadee’a), dir. Najwa Najjar. Documentary, 20’. Beta SP (Palestine, 1999).
A documentary exploring social life in Jaffa before 1948 through a portrait of a Palestinian couple, Wadee’a Aghabi and Naim Azar, constructed through oral histories presented by their daughters and relatives. (Prize Winner, 2000 Hamptons Internat'l Film Festival).

JENIN, JENIN, dir. Muhammad Bakri. Documentary, 54’, Beta SP (Palestine, 2002).
A few days after the April 2001 invasion of the Jenin refugee camp by the Israeli military, a camera crew shoots at the site: it captures the camp at a time when the people still have not fully understood what happened. The film is not an informational report about these events, but a description of the traces left by the events on the inhabitants. It depicts resistance, heroism and victory despite death, disasters, and destruction. (U.S. Premiere)

BLANCHE’S HOMELAND (Watan Blanche) dir. Maryse Gargour. Documentary, 28’. Beta SP (France, 2001)
This intimate film, evocative and poetic, follows the steps of an elderly woman named Blanche, born in Jaffa, Palestine, where her parents were landowners, and who was exiled in the 1948 war. Her life became a series of exiles, from Jaffa to Beirut to the U.S. Reflecting on her history, Blanche rebels against the amnesia of the world concerning the fate of the Palestinians, and through dialogues between her and the younger generations of exiled Palestinians, bears witness to the tenacity and permanence of their identity. (U.S. Premiere)

HAIFA,dir. Rashid Masharawi. Fiction, 75’, 35mm (Palestine/Netherlands, 1995).
Though he lives in Gaza, his name is Haifa and he dreams of returning to the city of the same name. He may be the local fool, but he sees and understands much about the hopes and aspirations of his refugee-camp neighbors: Abu Said hopes for an improvement in the political situation, since it means the release of his eldest son from prison. His wife already has her eye on a bride for the boy. A younger son, cynical and rebellious, believes in nothing, while their 12-year-old daughter is a romantic, dreaming of the future. (1995 Cannes Film Festival)

THIS IS NOT LIVING (Hay Mish Eishi), dir. Alia Arasoughly. Documentary, 42’Beta Sp (Palestine, 2001).
A film portrait of 8 Palestinian women from different social and religious backgrounds exploring how they live war and imagine peace. These are the ordinary lives which make up the news and which the news makes invisible. They speak with passion, bewilderment, anger, rage and outrage….they situate themselves in a life of dignity and productivity, where their lives and actions are not reduced to a bundle of fear.
(9th Festival Internazionale Cinema delle Donne, Prize & Jury Honorable Mention.)

JEREMY HARDY VS. THE ISRAELI ARMY, dir. Leila Sansour. Documentary, 52’. Beta SP (U.K./Palestine, 2002).
British comedian Jeremy Hardy makes a rash decision to travel to Palestine in March 2002 just before the invasion of Bethlehem and the siege of the Nativity Church. He joins a campaign to protect Palestinian farmers against the hostility of settlers but finds himself caught up in the events of the invasion. He decides to return later, but this time - in a manner of speaking - to take on the Israeli army. (World Premiere)

OUR NIGHTS AND OUR MORNINGS, dirs. Ibdaa Video Workshop, 4’, Beta SP (Palestine, 2001).
During the summer of 2001, a three week intensive video workshop was conducted with youth ages 11-13, at Ibdaa Cultural Center in Dheisheh refugee camp in Bethlehem. The youth were involved in every step of the process from developing an idea to storyboarding, shooting and editing. They made 3 short videos including Our Nights and Our Mornings, which is an experimental piece exploring the young people’s dreams and morning thoughts. (World Premiere)

THE MOON SINKING (Ofol al Qamar), dir. Ahmad Habash. Fiction, 50’, Beta SP (Palestine, 2001).
This is a story about the final days in the lives of seven people before the collision of the moon into the Earth. It is about the daydreams of a young man, the silence of a lonely widow, the ramblings of a village idiot, the anxiety of a boy with a toothache, the cravings for freedom of a prisoner on a hunger strike, the fantasies of a young woman in love and the plans for a better future of a couple about to immigrate. (U.S. Premiere)

JERUSALEM’S HIGH COST OF LIVING, dir. Hazim Bitar. Documentary, 52’, Beta SP (Palestine/U.S.A., 2001).
A few weeks after the beginning of the final stage in the Palestinian-Israeli peace process, a Palestinian-American filmmaker embarks on a journey back to his city of ancestry, Jerusalem. Instead of finding his Israeli neighbors mobilizing for peace, he encounters unexpected hostility. Days later, an uprising breaks out after Sharon's incursion into the Noble Sanctuary mosque. The filmmaker finds himself a witness to the tragedy of Palestinian Jerusalemites who are gunned down by Israeli soldiers before his very eyes.

FERTILE MEMORY (Adhakira Al-Khasba) dir. Michel Khleifi. Fiction/Documentary, 99’, 16mm , (Belgium/Palestine, 1980).
Written in 1978, Fertile Memory was the first film to be made by a Palestinian director inside Israel's pre-1967 borders. Fertile Memory recounts the lives of two very different Palestinian women: Farah, a widow living with her children, and Sahar, a West Bank novelist. Their differing lives belie their shared status as Palestinians under Israeli rule, and as women. Yet despite these contrasts, both mother and intellectual share the same struggle for freedom and dignity. (NY Premiere) (Official selection, finalist for the Prix de la Camera d'Or, Cannes 1981)

THE MILKY WAY (Darb al Tabanat), dir. Ali Nassar, Fiction, 104' , 35mm (Palestine, 1997).
The film deals with Palestinian villagers during 1964, the final year of Israeli military occupation in the Galilee, and their struggle to survive under military rule. This is a rich, knowing portrait of a world filled with humor and cruelty, derailed dreams and small sensual pleasures.

TRAVEL AGENCY, dir. Nabila Irshaid. Experimental/Documentary, 8’. Beta SP (Austria, 2001).
This short film – made up of Super-8 footage of a family visit to Palestine, shot by the director’s father in the 70´s – looks at a world already lost. By revisiting and reformulating these images as a tourist advertisement, an a image of Palestine emerges – one that may be the fiction of nostalgia, or one which tells the truth of loss through the absurdities of commercial language. (U.S. Premiere)

SONG ON A NARROW PATH: STORIES FROM JERUSALEM.dir. Akram Safadi. Documentary, 52’. Beta SP (Italy/Belgium/France, 2001).
A portrait of Jerusalem, through the lives of three people who embody the city: Reem, an artist, Ali, an African-palestinian political prisoner, and Farouq, who lives on the memories of a glorious past. For them, Jerusalem is a dream that troubles the mind and spirit, between the recurring violence and simple survival. (NY Premiere) (Awards: Torino 2001, Lussas 2001, Nyon 2001)

THE SATELLITE SHOOTERS, dir. Annemarie Jacir. Fiction, 16’, 16mm (USA/Palestine, 2001).
Using the conventions of the Western genre, The Satellite Shooters satirically tells the story of Tawfiq, a young Palestinian boy in Texas trying to find his place in America, and The Kid, a local gunslinger. Tawfiq and The Kid embark upon a mission to change the world. But things don't turn out like they do in the movies.... (Official Selection: 2002 Tous Courts International Film Festival)

FORD TRANSIT,dir. Hany Abu-Assad. Fiction, 80', 35mm (Palestine, 2002)
An often-humorous portrait of the day-to-day reality of a Palestinian taxi driver caught between checkpoints and political discussions. In his circumambulation of roadblocks and innovation of short cuts, his passengers make up a heterogeneous company – ranging from ordinary people to local celebrities such as politician Hanan Ashrawi and filmmaker B.Z. Goldberg (Promises). (US Premiere)

DIARY OF A MALE WHORE (Yawmiyat Ahir), dir. Tawfik Abu Wael. Fiction, 14’, Beta SP (Palestine, 2001).
A young Arab refugee who lives in Tel Aviv makes his living as a male prostitute. His physical pleasures, which make him forget his hunger, constantly bring back memories of his childhood and home village.



RANA’S WEDDING: JERUSALEM, ANOTHER DAY, dir. Hany Abu-Assad. Fiction, 87’, 35mm (Palestine, 2002).
Rana, a young Palestinian woman sneaks out of her father's house at daybreak. She is supposed to go with her father to Egypt, but she doesn't want to leave. She wanders through East Jerusalem and Ramallah, looking for her true love. Upon finding him, she decides to try to marry him that very day. While abnormal things like roadblocks and barriers, soldiers and guns have become the reality of Palestinian life, normal things like love or a wedding become fiction. A Palestinian Run Lola Run. (NY Premiere) (Official Selection: Cannes Film Festival, 2002)

NIGHT OF SOLDIERS (Layl al-Junud), dir. Muhammad al-Sawalmeh. Documentary, 15’, Beta SP (Palestine, 2002).
A short film offering an impressionistic glimpse into the experience of Palestinians in Ramallah living under military siege. (U.S. Premiere)

credit for photo still: Kevin Neish
A NUMBER ZERO (Ala Sefer), dir. Saed Andoni. Documentary, 27’, Beta SP (Palestine, 2002).
The filmmaker returns to his hometown of Bethlehem during the Israeli army invasion of the city in April 2001. He goes to a barber to cut his hair and finds that the barbershop represents a microcosm of the community, which comes to the shop in order to seek refuge from the warring world outside. The shop’s regular patrons strive for a measure of normalcy in their conversations and the enactment of their usual rhythms of life. (U.S. Premiere)

LOCAL (Mahali), dirs Imad Ahmed, Ismail Habash, Raed Al Helou, Documentary, 52’, Beta SP (Palestine, 2002).
The three filmmakers, who work as TV news cameramen in Ramallah, are caught in their offices when the Israeli military occupies the city in March 2002. This film is a chronicle of the days they spent inside, under curfew, as the siege of Arafat’s compound dragged on. It follows the mundane realities of trying to live under a military curfew with humor and dignity, and ends with their escape from the office. (World Premiere)



DIVINE INTERVENTION (Yad Elahiyya) dir.Elia Suleiman. Fiction, 92’, 35mm (France/Palestine, 2002).
A love story takes place between two Palestinians: a man living in Jerusalem and a woman living in Ramallah. The man shifts between his ailing father and his love life, trying to keep both alive. The woman's freedom of movement ends at the Israeli army checkpoint between the two cities. Barred from crossing, the lovers' intimate encounters take place on a deserted lot right beside the checkpoint. But they are unable to preserve their intimacy in the face of a siege. A complicity of solemn desire begins to generate violent repercussions and, against the odds, their angry hearts counter-attack with spasms of spectacular fantasy. (WINNER Jury Prize - Cannes International Film Festival, 2002 and FIPRESCI Prize - Cannes International Film Festival, 2002)