SIFF: Stress Positions
2024-05-11 19:30 - 21:30, 2024-05-12 15:00 - 17:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | SIFF Cinema Uptown, 511 Queen Anne Ave N,, Seattle, WA, 98109, United States
Alt comic John Early (“Search Party”), Amy Zimmer (Problemista), writer/director Theda Hammel (“My Trip to Spain”), and newcomer Qaher Harhash star is this frantic, coarse, and bitterly funny ensemble comedy set at a pandemic-era Brooklyn brownstone.

SIFF: Voy! Voy! Voy! [Egypt]
2024-05-11 21:15 - 23:15 | AMC Pacific Place, 600 Pine St suite 400, Seattle, WA, 98101, United States
How far would you go to change your life? In Egypt’s official Oscar® submission, Hassan is desperate to leave his home country. With few options left, he pretends to be blind so he can join a disabled soccer team headed to Poland. Inspired by an unbelievable true story.

Movie: The Old Oak
2024-05-12 17:00 - 19:00, 2024-05-13 19:30 - 21:30, 2024-05-14 19:30 - 21:30, 2024-05-15 19:30 - 21:30, 2024-05-16 16:30 - 18:30, 2024-05-17 16:00 - 18:00, 2024-05-18 13:00 - 15:00, 2024-05-20 16:30 - 18:30 and 3 more dates | The Beacon, 4405 Rainier Ave S, Seattle, WA, 98118, United States
The Old Oak is a special place. Not only is it the last pub standing in its small northern town, but it’s also the only remaining public space where people can meet in a once thriving mining community that has now fallen on hard times after 30 years of decline. Its owner TJ Ballantyne (Dave Turner) hangs on to The Old Oak by his fingertips, and his predicament is endangered even more when the pub becomes contested territory after the arrival of Syrian refugees who are placed in the village without any notice. In an unlikely friendship, TJ meets a curious young Syrian photographer named Yara (Ebla Mari). Together can they find a way for the two communities to understand each other? So unfolds a deeply moving drama about their fragilities and hopes.

SIFF: The Burdened (Yemen)
2024-05-13 20:00 - 21:00 | SIFF Cinema Uptown, 511 Queen Anne Ave N,, Seattle, WA, 98109, United States
Films from Yemen are rare, in part because of the country’s long-running civil war, now in its tenth year. Indeed, the impact of the war on the country and its citizens—there’s no running water; electricity is erratic; warring factions struggle for control—is one of the burdens faced by middle-class couple Isra’a and Ahmed. Ahmed works for Aden Television, but as a result of the country’s economic crisis, his salary has been suspended for several months. Meanwhile, he’s taken a second job as a taxi driver, but it isn’t enough to keep them and their three children in their comfortable apartment. Isra’a, who has also lost her job, sells her jewelry to make ends meet. This is the context in which Isra’a realizes that she is pregnant. Keenly aware that they cannot afford a fourth child, she is also worried about whether abortion is permitted under Islam. Religious and public opinion on the issue vary, which means that Isra’a’s personal misgivings are only the beginning. Clear-eyed, understated, and compelling,
The Burdened tells a story that is at once specific to Yemen’s particular context, and relatable in any country where religion and politics threaten people’s ability to access the healthcare they need, and take care of themselves and their families.

SIFF: Hajjan [Saudi Arabia]
2024-05-13 20:30 - 22:30 | SIFF Cinema Uptown, 511 Queen Anne Ave N,, Seattle, WA, 98109, United States
Two young Bedouin brothers Matar (first-time actor Omar AlAtawi) and Ghanim have grown up listening to stories about their legendary grandfather, referred to only as “Hajjan,” the Arabic word for jockey. Determined to carry on the family tradition, Ghanim is preparing for the Great Safwa Race, where both jockeys and camel owners vie for glory. After Ghanim is killed during the race, it appears that Jasser Al Saqqar, the scheming owner of another team, is responsible. But Matar wants to follow in his brother’s footsteps and volunteers himself and his beloved camel, Hofira, for the next race. When he comes in second, his family sells Hofira to the rival team—which happens to be owned by Jasser. Refusing to be separated from her, Matar is forced to ride for Jasser. In the races that follow, the stakes become higher and higher. Set against the backdrop of the Arabian desert, Hajjan, the second film from Abu Bakr Shawky (Yommedine, SIFF 2019) offers a fascinating glimpse into the world of camel racing, one of the region’s oldest and most popular sports. “Camels are adored by their jockeys,” a Bedouin camel herder sings at the beginning of the film, which is, at its heart, a moving account of the bond that can develop between human and animal.

SIFF: Dancing on the Edge of a Volcano [Lebanon]
2024-05-13 21:00 - 22:30 | AMC Pacific Place, 600 Pine St suite 400, Seattle, WA, 98101, United States
While shooting Costa Brava, Lebanon (SIFF 2022), the film crew’s world stopped when Lebanon’s Port of Beirut suddenly exploded, killing over 200 people and injuring thousands more. What does it mean to strive for human dignity and make art amid a country’s continuing turmoil?

SIFF: The Burdened (Yemen)
2024-05-14 13:30 - 15:30 | SIFF Egyptian, 805 E Pine St, Seattle, WA, 98122

SIFF: Voy! Voy! Voy! [Egypt]
2024-05-14 13:30 - 15:30 | SIFF Cinema Uptown, 511 Queen Anne Ave N,, Seattle, WA, 98109, United States

SIFF: The Mother of All Lies (Morocco)
2024-05-14 21:00 - 23:00 | AMC Pacific Place, 600 Pine St suite 400, Seattle, WA, 98101, United States
How do you reconstruct the past when all traces of that past have been erased? This is the dilemma that confronts filmmaker Asmae El Moudir, in terms of both her personal history and the history of her country. In terms of her personal history, her tyrannical grandmother has forbidden the taking of photographs in the family, seemingly as part of a larger obfuscation of the past. In the absence of photographs, El Moudir enlists her father, a successful builder, to help her construct an elaborate diorama of the street where the family lived during her childhood, in the Sebata district of Casablanca. She populates the diorama with miniature clay figurines of her family, friends, and neighbors. Their real-life counterparts are then invited to revisit their memories of that time and place—in particular the 1981 Casablanca Bread Riots, protests over the price of bread that were brutally suppressed by the police and military. On El Moudir’s street alone, a girl her age named Fatima was killed in the street; neighbors Saïd and Abdallah were seized and tortured. These events have been suppressed in El Moudir’s family history, as well as in the national history. But El Moudir recreates them, retrieving what might otherwise be lost; bringing family secrets and memories to light, and achieving some measure of justice, if only in miniature.

AANM: Arab Film Festival
2024-05-15 - 2024-05-19 | Virtual
SAVE THE DATE : AANM’s Arab Film Festival is just around the corner!
May 15-19, 2024
AANM proudly hosts the annual Arab Film Festival (AFF) featuring the best of critically acclaimed and award-winning Arab American and Arab world films, many of which are unlikely to reach traditional American commercial theaters.
This year’s festival will include special events like an artist workshop, a filmmakers mixer and a concert with special guests! Stay tuned for more info…

SIFF: The Mother of All Lies [Morocco]
2024-05-16 12:30 - 14:30 | SIFF Cinema Uptown, 511 Queen Anne Ave N,, Seattle, WA, 98109, United States

SIFF: After the Fire (North African in France)
2024-05-16 12:45 - 14:45 | SIFF Cinema Downtown, 2100 4th Ave, Seattle, WA, 98121
As an immigrant family mourns the death of one of their own at the hands of Strasbourg’s brutal police force, they decide to take on the justice system that helped to cover it up in this rousing political thriller from Mehdi Fikri.

SIFF: Three Promises [Palestine]
2024-05-17 14:30 - 16:30, 2024-05-18 17:30 - 19:30 | SIFF Film Center, 305 Harrison St, Seattle, 98109
In the early 2000s, when the Israeli army was retaliating against the Second Intifada in the West Bank in Palestine, Suha filmed the experience from the hillside town of Beit Jala, where she lived with her family. Two decades later, her son has edited that footage and interwoven it with present-day conversations with his mother about what that period was like. The result provides a remarkable insight into daily life during wartime—the uncertainty, the upheaval, the terror—which families in Gaza are experiencing today. Suha and her husband try to gauge the distance of the attacks in order to calculate the degree of threat. Is it time to go down to the basement, or is it still okay to remain upstairs? Will the children be safer against the wall or in the corner? At the moments of greatest danger, Suha promises God that, if they survive, they will leave—they are fortunate enough to be able to do so. But leaving feels almost as impossible as staying, a choice between emotional anguish (not to mention the logistical ordeal) and physical jeopardy. In this way, the film is also an exploration of the topic of forced migration, another aspect of the Palestinian experience that is still with us in the present.

SIFF: Dancing on the Edge of a Volcano [Lebanon]
2024-05-20 - 2024-05-27 | Virtual

SIFF: The Mother of All Lies [Morocco]
2024-05-20 - 2024-05-27 | Virtual

Spaces of Exception (Film & Discussion)
2024-05-28 19:30 - 21:00 | The Beacon, 4405 Rainier Ave S, Seattle, WA, 98118, United States
With filmmaker Matt Peterson in attendance for an introduction and Q&A following the screening.

Shot between 2014 to 2017, SPACES OF EXCEPTION observes and juxtaposes the communities and struggles of the American Indian reservation and the Palestinian refugee camp. It visits reservations in Arizona, New Mexico, New York, and South Dakota, as well camps in Lebanon and the West Bank, “places defined by their historical and spiritual resistance” in order to “understand the conditions for life, community, and sovereignty.”

More info and buy tickets (for profit to the theater): https://thebeacon.film/calendar/movie/spaces-of-exception
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Virtual Movie Screenings: Every Saturday with Palestine Museum US
2024-06-01 09:00 - 11:00 | Virtual
Check website: https://www.palestinemuseum.us/events for current showings and for registration links!
Often the screening ends with a Q&A with the director!
Free virtual screening of the documentary film “Children’s Cries,” directed by Iyad AbuRok

Saturday, June 1, 2024
12:00 PM 1:30 PM

Click here to register for this event.
Screening will start at 12:00 Noon US EDT; 19:00 Palestine, 18:00 Europe, 17:00 London; Running Time 32 minutes, 2024, English with Arabic subtitles. The film screening will be followed by discussions with film director Iyad AbuRok.
About the Film
The film is a poignant work that sheds light on the ongoing suffering of the Palestinian people from the Nakba of 1948 to the present day. It provides a realistic and vivid depiction of the massacres and crimes committed against children and civilians in the Palestinian territories, including Gaza and the West Bank.

Free Film Screening: Israelism
2024-06-03 19:00 - 21:00 | Edmonds Theater, 415 Main St, Edmonds, WA, 98020
Two young American Jews travel to Israel seeking a deeper understanding of the country they were raised to love. What they encounter profoundly impacts them, leading them to join a growing movement to redefine their community’s relationship with Israel in this challenging and emotional journey. Join us for the free screening of this film.
About the film
Two young American Jews – Simone Zimmerman and Eitan – are raised to defend the state of Israel at all costs. Eitan joins the Israeli military. Simone supports Israel on ‘the other battlefield:’ America’s college campuses. When they witness Israel‘s mistreatment of the Palestinian people with their own eyes, they are horrified and heartbroken.
They join the movement of young American Jews battling the old guard over Israel’s centrality in American Judaism, and demanding freedom for the Palestinian people. Their stories reveal a generational divide in the American Jewish community as more young Jews question the narratives their synagogues and Hebrew school teachers fed them as children.
The film also features voices like Jacqui, a Jewish educator who says “Judaism is Israel and Israel is Judaism”, and former Anti-Defamation League President Abe Foxman, who claims voices like Simone and Eitan’s represent a small minority. Thought leaders like Peter Beinart, Jeremy Ben-Ami, Noura Erakat, Cornel West, and Noam Chomsky also weigh in.
Directed by two first-time Jewish filmmakers who share a similar story to the film’s protagonists, Israelism is produced by Peabody-winner and 4-time Emmy-nominee Daniel J. Chalfen (Loudmouth, Boycott), executive produced by two-time Emmy-winner Brian A. Kates (Marvelous Ms. Maisel, Succession) and edited by Emmy-winner Tony Hale (The Story of Plastic), Israelism uniquely explores how Jewish attitudes towards Israel are changing dramatically, with massive consequences for the region and for Judaism itself.
