Other People’s Children (Moroccan-French actor)
2023-05-27 13:45 - 15:30, 2023-05-27 16:30 - 18:30, 2023-05-27 19:15 - 21:30, 2023-05-28 13:15 - 15:30, 2023-05-28 16:30 - 18:30, 2023-05-28 19:15 - 21:15 (America/Los_Angeles) | SIFF Cinema Uptown, 511 Queen Anne Ave N,, Seattle, WA, 98109, United States
What does it mean to care for another person’s child? A single 40-year-old high school teacher must ask herself this question when she falls in love with Ali and especially his four-year-old daughter in the latest from Rebecca Zlotowski (An Easy Girl).

Tinariwen at the Showbox
2023-05-31 20:30 - 22:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | The Showbox, 1426 1st Avenue, Seattle, WA, 98101, United States
The new album by Tinariwen could well have been called Exile on Main Street. But other people have already thought of that. It also could have been called A la recherché du pays perdu (‘Remembrance of a lost country’). Except that would have been a tad Proustian for musicians who grew up pretty much between a rock and a sand dune, in the midst of their goat herds and camel caravans. But the idea is apt. As is the painful paradox, if you consider that while Tinariwen were busy criss-crossing the globe on their recent triumphant tours (160 concerts played in the past three years), expanding their audience on all five continents, becoming one of the latest musical phenomena of truly universal calibre, the frontiers that encircle their desert home were closing down and double-locking, forcing them into exile to record this their 8th album.

Screening online now on Unpacking the ArteArchive: VOICES OF IRAQ
2023-06-09 - 2023-06-18
Screening Online: June 9-18, 2023
RSVP at artearchive.org
Free / $5 suggested donation
Available worldwide

The online program includes a selection of films produced by Sada and the Independent Film & Television College, and a recorded conversation between Rijin Sahakian and Dina Ramadan.

Native Sons: Palestinians in Exile: Streaming Movie
2023-06-17 09:00 - 11:00 (America/Los_Angeles)
Saturday June 17, 2023, 12:00 Noon US EDT; 19:00 Palestine; 18:00 Europe
Documentary film: “Native Sons: Palestinians in Exile,” directed by Tom Hayes. 57 Minutes, 1985, English language. The film screening will be followed by a discussion with film director.
Martin Sheen narrates this examination of the lives of three Palestinian families who fled their homes in 1948 and have lived as refugees in Lebanon ever since. Utilizing archive footage dating from as early as 1935, Native Sons probes the roots of the Palestine/Israel conflict through lives of individual people.country’s official policy, the documentary provides a portrait of the ongoing conflict not often depicted in mainstream media.
Please click here to register for this event.

Who We Are - Queer Arab Shorts (online)
2023-06-22 - 2023-06-25 | Virtual
In honor of Pride Month, the Arab Film Series presents: Who We Are a collection of award-winning short films that highlight the experiences of Queer Arabs around the globe. Each film tells the story of a character whose desire to live authentically comes in conflict with the people and society around them.
This a program dedicated to the freedom and joy that can come from taking the risk and being honest with both oneself and those who love us
Presented by Arab American National Museum (AANM), Arab Film and Media Institute (AFMI), and ArteEast.

Celebrating June Pride online Arab Film Series
2023-06-22 - 2023-06-25 | Virtual
In honor of Pride Month, ArteEast is proud to present WHO WE ARE, a collection of award-winning short films that highlight the experiences of queer Arabs around the globe. Each film tells the story of a character whose desire to live authentically comes in conflict with the people and society around them.
This program is presented as part of the Arab Film Series online, and is dedicated to the freedom and joy that comes from taking risks and being honest with ourselves and those around us.
Online Screening: June 22-25, 2023
Free / $5 suggested donation
RSVP at arabfilmseries.org
Available in the United States

Movie: The Scars of Ali Boulala
2023-06-22 19:30 (America/Los_Angeles) | The Beacon, 4405 Rainier Ave S, Seattle, WA, 98118, United States
At 16 years old, Ali Boulala was on top of the world: the Algerian-Finnish skateboarding prodigy from Sweden snagged a sponsorship from Flip Skateboards, who flew him out to LA at the height of the 90s skating craze. Boulala spent his days trying to nail new tricks for DIY videos and hanging out with a global cohort of other precocious pros, who loved Boulala for his charisma and punk-inflected style. But the indulgences of life on tour – especially for a group of death-defying teenagers – took its toll, building to a tragic accident that changed Boulala’s life forever.
In his debut feature, Max Eriksson tells Boulala’s story through an audaciously atmospheric blend of sources: we see Boulala in his prime in skate videos from the 90s and 00s, while fellow pro skaters – Rune Glifberg, Arto Saari, and Kevin “Spanky” Long – tell us who he was off the halfpipe. As Boulala revisits his youth with fresh eyes, he takes a clear-eyed look at the unexpected lifestyle that was inextricable from his childhood talent. As he puts it, a person’s inner scars will always outlast their physical injuries.

Runtime: 100 minutes

Arab Film Series Online: Prayer of the Wanderer
2023-07-27 - 2023-07-30 | Virtual
Films available 12 a.m. ET Thursday, July 27 to 11:59 p.m. ET Sunday, July 30
Arab Film Series Online: Prayer of the Wanderer
Free Online Stream | Suggested $5 Donation – Register
Prayer of the Wanderer is a short film program that explores the complex and multifaceted experiences of Arab American immigrants in their pursuit of identity within the context of living in the United States. By delving into their narratives, this event seeks to shed light on the richness and diversity of Arab American cultural heritage while confronting the challenges faced by individuals in navigating their dual identities. Through a carefully curated selection of films, we aim to foster a deeper understanding of the Arab American community’s varied contributions to society while inviting audiences to contemplate the universal themes of belonging, adaptation, and self-discovery.
Featuring works by Ahmed Ragheb & Lily Ekimian, Darine Hotait, Jenna Bosco, Randa Ali, Reem Jubran, Shayma Aziz and Zayn Alexandre.
For questions, e-mail Dave Serio at dserio@accesscommunity.org.

Free virtual screening of the documentary film "Checkpoint"
2023-07-29 09:00 - 11:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Virtual
Please click here to register for this event.
Please click here to view trailer.
Screening will start at 12:00 Noon US EDT; 19:00 Palestine, 18:00 Europe
Released 2003, Running Time 93 minutes, English subtitles. The film screening will be followed by a discussion and Q&As with film director Yoav Shamir.

Rare Film Screening: Marking the Anniversary of Tall El-Zaatar
2023-08-24 - 2023-08-27 | Virtual
The 2023 Mizna Film Series highlights archival works and initiatives that document Palestine’s struggle for liberation.
Marking the 47th anniversary of the Tall el-Zaatar Massacre, this August, Mizna Film Series presents Tall el-Zaatar, the recently recovered and restored documentary directed by Mustafa Abu Ali, Pino Adriano, and Jean Chamoun.
The film documents the August 12, 1976 massacre of Palestinian and Lebanese refugees at Tall el-Zaatar, a UN-administered refugee camp in northeast Beirut. Produced after the massacre, but featuring footage shot before and during the siege leading up to it, Tall el-Zaatar reconstructs the history of the camp and recounts the long months of assault and resistance through the voices of the many survivors.

Lost, Covered and Restored:
Tall el-Zaatar was produced in two versions: one in Arabic for the Palestinian Cinema Institution of the PLO in Beirut, and the other dubbed into Italian for TV broadcast. Arabic film prints were damaged and lost following the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon and the subsequent plundering of PLO archives. Between 2012 and 2014, filmmaker Monica Maurer and artist Emily Jacir rediscovered the rushes of the film, including the original soundtrack in Arabic, which were kept at the Audiovisual Archive of the Democratic and Labour Movement (AAMOD) in Rome. Maurer and Jacir dedicated themselves to salvaging the rushes, restoring and digitizing them in order to make the film available to the public and safeguard these images as part of Palestinian collective memory.
Watch WORLDWIDE VIRTUALLY August 24–27, 2023.

Lebanese-American Actress Kathy Najimy in Hocus Pocus at Crossroads Movie in the Park
2023-08-24 19:30 - 21:30 UTC | Crossroads Park, 16140 NE 8th St, Bellevue, WA, 98008, United States
After three centuries, three witch sisters are resurrected in Salem Massachusetts on Halloween night, and it is up to two teenagers, a young girl, and an immortal cat to put an end to the witches’ reign of terror once and for all.
Starring Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, and the actress of Lebanese descent Kathy Najimy!

Film : Genre: Action,Comedy,Sci-Fi, 1993

Virtual Movie Screenings: Every Saturday with Palestine Museum US
2023-08-26 09:00 - 11:00, 2023-09-09 09:00 - 11:00, 2023-10-07 09:00 - 11:00, 2023-11-04 09:00 - 11:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | 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 "Return to Lifta," a Zochrot film narrated by Umar al-Ghubari.
2023-09-02 09:00 - 11:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Virtual
Please click here to register for this event.

Screening will start at 12:00 Noon US EDT; 19:00 Palestine, 18:00 Europe, Running Time 26 minutes, English with English subtitles as applicable. The film screening will be followed by discussions with the audience.
This educational video (tour) is a message of refusal to accept the current situation in Lifta, and an act of resistance to the destructive plan that seeks to finally erase the Palestinian village.
—

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!

Mizna’s Twin Cities Arab Film Festival
2023-09-27 - 2023-10-01
The seventeenth edition of Mizna’s Twin Cities Arab Film Festival takes place September 27–October 1, 2023. This year’s festival is in-person at The Main Cinema with a special opening night screening and celebration at the Walker Art Center.
Bad news for us, we do not live in the Twin Cities.
The GOOD NEWS is some of the films are virtual!
https://watch.eventive.org/tcaff23

Arte East Film Series: Exploring Political and Cultural Narratives through Food (virtual)
2023-09-28 - 2023-10-01
THERE IS SALT AND BREAD BETWEEN US

Featuring Larissa Sansour & Youmna Chlala, Marwa Benhalim & Andrea Nones-Kobiakov, and Alia Yunis.

Online Screening: September 28- October 1, 2023
RSVP at arabfilmseries.org
Free / $5 Suggested donation
Available Worldwide

The Golden Harvest, Alia Yunis, Greece/ Italy/Spain/Palestine, 2019, 85 min.

The Golden Harvest is a 6,000-year old love story in which the filmmaker tries to understand the profound, often troubled, relationship between olive trees and the people of Mediterranean, including Palestinian father.

The Devil’s Recipe, Marwa Benhalim & Andrea Nones-Kobiakov, Egypt, 2020, 12 min.

The Devil’s Recipe is a collaboration between Andrea Nones-Kobiakov and Marwa Benhalim – a playful view of the nonsensicality within political discourses. Mundane everyday objects, actions, ingredients, and utterances emphasize the redundant and useless nature of propagandistic speeches. The reality in the spoken words is mixed to create new fictions, proverbs, idioms, and linguistic manipulations highlighting the absurd illusions of power and stability we regularly are made to believe. Based on remarks by Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías at the 61st United Nations General Assembly, 2006 and remarks by Muammar al-Gaddafi at the 64th United Nations General Assembly, 2009.

Trespass the Salt. Larissa Sansour & Youmna Chlala, Lebanon, 2012, 12 min.

Through this intimate and fictionalized dinner, an impossible happening becomes real. The work explores cultural fabrications and similarities in a non-mediated moment outside the Western gaze – even if the space it seeks is invariably conditioned by it. This work was initially a 3-channel video installation.

The Arab Film Series online is a monthly program of films and discussions with artists and filmmakers from the SWANA region and its diasporas, presented by ArteEast in partnership with the Arab American National Museum and Arab Film and Media Institute.

Virtual Movie Screenings: Every Saturday with Palestine Museum US
2023-09-30 09:00 - 11:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Virtual
Saturday, September 30, 2023
12:00 PM 2:00 PM
Palestine Museum US (map)

Start on Sat, Aug 6, 2022 at 12:00pm. End on Sat, Aug 6, 2022 at 2:00pm.
Click here to register for this event.
The film screening will be followed by a discussion with the film director Basela Abou Hamed. Screening will start at 12:00 Noon US EDT; 19:00 PM Palestine, 18:00 europe. Duration: 52 Minutes | Subtitled in English, 2021.
Abou Hamed’s family sought refuge initially in Jenin, then in a village in the Ramallah area, Kufur Ni’mah, and eventually in Damascus, Syria where they ended up in the Yarmouk Refugee Camp.

Social Justice Film Festival: Listed
2023-10-14 20:30 - 22:00 (America/Los_Angeles)
Showings – select to order tickets:
Sat, Oct 14th, 8:30 PM @ Social Justice Film Institute

Social Justice Film Festival: We Dare to Dream
2023-10-15 14:00 - 15:30 (America/Los_Angeles)
We Dare to Dream is the story of refugee athletes from Iran, Syria, South Sudan, and Cameroon who swim, run, and fight their way to opportunity and safety in host nations across the world. Spanning a breadth of backgrounds, personal stories, and Olympic sports, the film reveals the lives and hopes of refugee athletes training to compete on the world stage, showing the fire and the drive of young people forced to leave their families, homes, and countries of birth to build new lives out of nothing.
Directed by Academy Award®-nominated Waad al-Kateab (For Sama), executive produced by Angelina Jolie, and produced by Academy Award® winner Joanna Natasegara (The White Helmets, Virunga, The Edge of Democracy) and Emmy-winning producer Abigail Anketell-Jones (The Edge of Democracy, The Nightcrawlers) of Violet Films, two time Academy Award®-nominated producer, Bryn Mooser (Body Team 12, Lifeboat) and Kathryn Everett of XTR Studios and Joe Gebbia of Gebbia Productions, We Dare to Dream tells the amazing stories of young refugee athletes aiming to compete in the Tokyo Olympics. This is their story of resilience and inspiration, hardship and loss, hope, and home. Culminating in their competition at the summer Olympics, their compatriots back home and their new communities in refugee camps watch as these determined young athletes fight for their place in the world. This is their story of heart in the face of adversity, and most of all, hope for a better life.
AND VIRTUAL SCREENINGS AVAILABLE
https://socialjusticefilmfestival.org/festival#films

Six Films for Palestine: Solidarity Screening + Fu (Online)
2023-10-19 - 2023-11-22 | Virtual
We stand in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank who are facing an escalation of violence by Israel aimed at their displacement, dispossession and destruction. What we are witnessing right now in Gaza are the horrors of genocide. A culmination of violence which has been ongoing for 75 years.
To help raise money to support Palestinians as they deal with this current escalation of violence, we are hosting a month-long online solidarity screening programme featuring a collection of six films by Palestinian filmmakers. In this collection of films, Palestinian filmmakers explore all the ways that the Israeli occupation stifles life and the many more ways that Palestinians find to resist and persist.
Donate what you can and please share widely. All donations will be split evenly between Medical Aid Palestine and Arwa’s relatives in Gaza. The films will be available to view online till 22nd November.

Once you have signed up you will see a link to the films in your order receipt and at the bottom of your confirmation email, under ‘additional information’. Look for an app.curate-it.co.uk link.

Films:
We No Longer Prefer Mountains (2023) dir, Inas Halabi
WE NO LONGER PREFER MOUNTAINS takes place in the Druze town of Dalyet el Carmel, in northern Palestine, pulling the viewer into a surreal world of geographic isolation, shrouded mysticism and a locale shaped by co-optation, coercion, and control. Weaving together intimate engagements with members of the community, in shared domestic spaces and outdoor environments, the film sets out to explore how the inner politics of the Druze have been controlled and reshaped as a result of the establishment of Israel in 1948. The film is informed by the landscape theory (fûkeiron), a Japanese Avant Garde film movement in the 60s whereby the filmmakers posited that filming the everyday surroundings reveal the oppressive and repressively isolating landscapes and the powers at play.
This film is only available in the UK, Belgium, Netherlands, Palestine, Canada, USA and Italy.

Foragers (2022) dir, Jumana Manna
Foragers depicts the dramas around the practice of foraging for wild edible plants in Palestine/Israel with wry humor and a meditative pace. Shot in the Golan Heights, the Galilee and Jerusalem, it employs fiction, documentary and archival footage to portray the impact of Israeli nature protection laws on these customs. The restrictions prohibit the collection of the artichoke-like ’akkoub and za’atar (thyme), and have resulted in fines and trials for hundreds caught collecting these native plants. For Palestinians, these laws constitute an ecological veil for legislation that further alienates them from their land while Israeli state representatives insist on their scientific expertise and duty to protect. Following the plants from the wild to the kitchen, from the chases between the foragers and the nature patrol, to courtroom defenses, Foragers captures the joy and knowledge embodied in these traditions alongside their resilience to the prohibitive law. By reframing the terms and constraints of preservation, the film raises questions around the politics of extinction, namely who determines what is made extinct and what gets to live on.

Strange Cities Are Familiar (2019) dir, Saeed Taji Farouky
Ashraf has been a political refugee in London for 30 years, content with spending his days in his study or his local social club. One day he receives a call from his friend, telling Ashraf that his son Moataz has been fatally wounded in a protest. His friend pleads with Ashraf to return home. As Ashraf struggles to return to Palestine, he recollects moments from his past – memories that are a heavy burden and a reminder of his failures and mistakes.

Ghost Hunting (2017) dir, Raed Andoni
For more than 25 years, one image has been haunting director Raed Andoni – that of a boy (18), head covered with a bag and handcuffed, sitting inside a prison yard. The same sounds always accompany this image: metal doors opening and footsteps slowly approaching. Through the lower part of the bag, the boy can see a man wearing white sneakers walking away. A survivor of the prison experience himself, Raed has fragmented memories that he can’t distinguish as real or imaginary.
In order to confront the ghost that haunts him, he decides to rebuild the Al-Moscobiya investigation centre in an empty warehouse near Ramallah. A casting call for former prisoners results in an eclectic group of construction workers, a blacksmith, an architect and an artist. As they build a copy of their former jail based on their own memories, Raed digs deep into their memories, triggered by reenactments and roleplaying. For this purpose, he focuses on the story of Mohammad (50), whose resistance to the investigation methods – stoked by laughter and rebellion – made him a hero among Palestinians.

A World Not Ours (2012) dir, Mahdi Fleifel
A World Not Ours is a passionate, bittersweet account of one family’s multi-generational experience living as permanent refugees. Now a Danish resident, director Mahdi Fleifel grew up in the Ain el-Helweh refugee camp in southern Lebanon, established in 1948 as a temporary refuge for exiled Palestinians. Today, the camp houses 70,000 people and is the hometown of generations of Palestinians. The filmmaker’s childhood memories are surprisingly warm and humorous, a testament to the resilience of the community. Yet his yearly visits reveal the increasing desperation of family and friends who remain trapped in psychological as well as political limbo. Official Selection of the 2013 Berlin International Film Festival.

They Do Not Exist (1974) dir, Mustafa Abu Ali
Salvaged from the ruins of Beirut after 1982, Abu Ali’s early film has only recently been made available. Shooting under extraordinary conditions, the director, who worked with Godard on his Ici et Ailleurs (Here and Elsewhere), and founded the PLO’s film division, covers conditions in Lebanon’s refugee camps, the effects of Israeli bombardments, and the lives of guerrillas in training camps. They Do Not Exist is a stylistically unique work which demonstrates the intersection between the political and the aesthetic. Now recognised as a cornerstone in the development of Palestinian cinema, the film only received its Palestine premiere in 2003, when a group of Palestinian artists “smuggled” the director to a makeshift cinema in his hometown of Jerusalem (into which Israel bars his entry).

Bios:
Inas Halabi (b.1988, Palestine) is an Artist/Filmmaker. Her practice is concerned with how social and political forms of power are manifested and the impact that overlooked or suppressed histories have on contemporary life. Recent exhibitions and screenings include Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival (2023), de Appel Amsterdam (2023), Showroom London (2022), Europalia Festival, Brussels (2021), Silent Green Betonhalle, Berlin (2021); Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (2020); and Film at Lincoln Center, USA (2020). She lives and works between Palestine and the Netherlands.
Jumana Manna is a visual artist and filmmaker. Her work explores how power is articulated, focusing on the body, land and materiality in relation to colonial inheritances and histories of place. Through sculpture, filmmaking, and occasional writing, Manna deals with the paradoxes of preservation practices, particularly within the fields of archaeology, agriculture and law. Her practice considers the tension between the modernist traditions of categorisation and conservation and the unruly potential of ruination as an integral part of life and its regeneration. Jumana was raised in Jerusalem and lives in Berlin.
Mahdi Fleifel (1979, United Arab Emirates) is a Danish-Palestinian filmmaker and visual artist who was born in Dubai, grew up in a refugee camp in Lebanon and moved to Denmark in 1988. Fuelled by his own experience, his films frequently deal with refugees. His debut feature, A World Not Ours (2012), received over 30 awards from different festivals and in 2016 he received a Silver Bear Jury Prize for his short, A Man Returned.
Saeed Taji Farouky is a Palestinian-Egyptian-British filmmaker, educator, and curator who has been making work around themes of conflict, human rights, and colonialism since 2004. His work is dedicated to developing a vernacular cinema, liberated from the conventions of the industry and distinct from classical European story structure.His 2021 documentary, A Thousand Fires premiered as the opening film of Locarno’s Critics’ Week where it won the Marco Zucchi Prize for most innovative documentary. His previous feature documentary Tell Spring Not to Come This Year premiered at Berlinale 2015 where it won 2 awards.
Born in 1967 in the West Bank, Raed Andoni is a self-taught filmmaker who has been involved in the development of independent cinema in Palestine since 1997. Producer before becoming a director, he is the co-founder of Dar Films, an independent production company based in Ramallah. Through Dar, he has produced and co-produced several award-winning documentaries, such as The Inner Tour, Live from Palestine and Invasion. Raed Andoni is also the co-founder of the Paris-based production company Les Films de Zayna.
Mustafa Abu Ali, (1940 in Maliha, Palestine – 30 July 2009 in Jerusalem, Palestine) was a Palestinian filmmaker. Abu Ali studied at the University of California-Berkeley in the 1960s before studying cinema in London, graduating in 1967. One of the founders of Palestinian cinema under the auspices of the PLO, and the Palestinian Cinema Association in Beirut in 1973, (re-established in Ramallah in 2004), he wrote four screenplays and directed more than 30 films, for which he won more than 14 awards, the most recent from the 2003 Ismailia Film Festival.

We’d like to thank all the filmmakers for giving us permission to use their films in solidarity with Palestinians and for their generosity and help during this horrendous time. Thank you also to Aya Films/Curate-it for providing the online platform from which to share the films.
……………
Other Cinemas is a project focused on the transformational power of film; whether that is showcasing the work of Black and non-white filmmakers; creating networks for Black and non-white creatives to work, learn and collaborate; or using film to document the stories of Black and non-white communities. Other Cinemas regularly hosts free film screenings in ways and spaces that serve our communities and also runs an informal film school of young Black and non-white filmmakers which seeks to create a real space for conversation and collaboration. Other Cinemas was set up by Arwa Aburawa and Turab Shah, two filmmakers who saw the need for better ways to make and share films.

Follow us on social media for news on more free film events:
https://twitter.com/othercinemas
https://www.facebook.com/0thercinemas
https://www.instagram.com/othercinemas

Movie: Bank of Targets: A Glimpse Into the Devastation Unleashed by Israeli Bombing of Gaza [virtual]
2023-10-28 12:00 - 14:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Virtual
To register for this event please click here.
The screening of the film will be followed by Q&A discussion with fthe audience. Running time is 26 Minutes. English subtitles.

About the Film
Bank of Targets: A Glimpse Into the Devastation Unleashed by Israeli Bombing of Gaza
Introduction
“Bank of Targets,” a powerful documentary film directed by acclaimed Palestinian filmmaker/journalist the late Rushdi Sarraj (he was murdered by Israeli bombings last week), sheds light on the horrifying aftermath of the relentless Israeli bombing campaigns on the Gaza Strip. Released amidst rising concerns over the recurring cycle of violence, the film offers a harrowing examination of the extensive destruction and immense loss of life caused by these devastating attacks. Through its poignant storytelling and compelling visuals, “Bank of Targets” provides a insight into the profound impact of Israeli airstrikes on the lives of Palestinians in Gaza.

The Devastating Reality
The film captures the heart-wrenching scenes that become all too common in Gaza, as families are torn apart and entire neighborhoods reduced to rubble. Through testimonies of survivors, eyewitness accounts, and comprehensive footage, “Bank of Targets” skillfully depicts the indiscriminate nature of the Israeli airstrikes. It showcases the widespread devastation, explicitly highlighting the destruction of essential civilian infrastructure, including hospitals, schools, and residential areas.
The Human Toll
In “Bank of Targets,” the film’s lens focuses on the true victims—the innocent civilians caught in the crossfire. By highlighting personal stories, the documentary humanizes the conflict, revealing that behind the staggering statistics lies a multitude of shattered dreams, irreparable loss, and profound grief. It introduces us to families who have lost loved ones, children who have been robbed of their childhood, and individuals grappling with a future plagued by uncertainty and trauma.
Conclusion
Through its well-crafted narrative and compelling storytelling, “Bank of Targets” serves as a powerful tool for increasing awareness about the extensive destruction and loss of life endured by Palestinians in Gaza following Israeli bombings. By amplifying the voices of survivors and highlighting the urgent need for justice, the documentary prompts viewers to reflect on the profound human cost of violence and reconsider the importance of finding a just and lasting resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian issue. In a world marked by growing calls for empathy and understanding, “Bank of Targets” contributes to a narrative that strives for peace, justice, and the recognition of the inherent dignity and rights of every individual, regardless of their nationality or origin.

Farha: Online Film and Discussion
2023-11-05 09:00 - 11:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Virtual
This Sunday November 5, 2023, 12:00 Noon US EST; 19:00 Palestine; 18:00 Europe.
Film “Farha,” Directed by Darin J. Sallam. 92 minutes, English subtitles.
About the Film
Farha is a 14-year-old girl who lives in a small village in Palestine, 1948. Girls her age are traditionally married off or spoken for yet Farha wants to continue her education despite traditions and the restrictions of schooling in her village to boys only. Inseparable from her best friend Farida, who lives in the city but who spends weekends in the village, Farha dreams of joining her at a school in the city. Life in the village is threatened and aggressively changed by the looming danger. Just when Farha’s father is finally convinced and Farha’s dream is at last coming true, the danger comes closer to their village. As violence escalates, Farha is brutally separated from Farida. Terrorized for his daughter’s safety and fearing for her life, Farha’s father locks her up in a concealed, small food storage space by the house, promising to return. But he never does.

Palestinian Voices: Streaming Movies
2023-11-09 - 2023-11-30 | Virtual
In this dire time, we want to share a selection of films that showcase the history, culture, and people of Palestine. In partnership with the Arab Film and Media Institute (AFMI), we present Palestinian Voices, which can serve as a resource to provide insight into the current situation unfolding in Gaza and the people being affected. We seek to continually change the narrative, share our stories, and foster understanding of our common humanity through art and storytelling.

Online Program:
Closeness to the Land (2022), directed by Mona Gazala
Fadia’s Tree (2021), directed by Sarah Beddington
From Under the Rubble (2017), directed by Anne Tsouli
Gaza Fights for Freedom (2019), directed by Abby Martin
Gaza Surf Club (2017), directed by Mickey Yamine and Philip Gnadt
Mariam (2020), directed by Dana Durr
Something from the There (2020), directed by Rana Nazzal Hamadeh
Under the Lemon Tree (2020), directed by Noor Fawzi Al-Asswad
Wild Plants of Palestine (2018), directed by Alaa Abu Asad

Stay tuned for more films and curated programs to be added throughout the month of November

Palestinian Voices will run through the entire month of November. You can watch most of the films in this series online and from anywhere in the world. A few titles are limited to viewers in the United States.

RSVP for Online Screening
