ArabishWay

Virtual screening of the documentary film "Golden Harvest," directed by Alia Yunis.
2022-08-27 09:00 - 11:00 (America/Los_Angeles)
The Golden Harvest (shorter version) 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 her own Palestinian father. It is a complicated romance, sometimes funny,sometimes tragic, set in a region that includes some of the poorest and most conflicted areas of Europe and the Middle East and .

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Alia Yunis

About the Filmmaker
Alia Yunis, writer/director, has worked on film and writing projects in several countries. Alia spent many years in Los Angeles as a screenwriter and script analyst for companies such as Village Roadshow Pictures and Miramax. Alia is a PEN Emerging Voices Fellow, has been a top ten finalist Zoetrope Screenwriting Awards and the recipient of a comedy-writing award from Warner Bros. Her novel, The Night Counter (Random House 2010), was critically-acclaimed by the Washington Post, Boston Globe, Entertainment Weekly, and several other publications. Her fiction and nonfiction writings have appeared in numerous books, magazines and anthologies and have been translated into eight languages. She has produced several short films, as well as the feature documentary, Man Hunt (2004), which played on the Oxygen Channel as a Valentine’s Day special.

"Madafeh" - Open Discussion About Palestine
2022-08-28 09:00 - 11:00
Event: “Madafeh” – Open Discussion About Palestine
Sunday August 28, 2022 – 12:00 Noon US EDT; 7:00 PM Palestine Time.
Please click here to register for this event.
Our guest for this episode is Peabody Award-winning journalist Jamal Dajani, co-host of the syndicated radio show Arab Talk. He will share the documentary film “Occupied Minds.” The film is the story of two journalists, Jamal Dajani, a Palestinian-American, and David Michaelis, an Israeli citizen, who journey to Jerusalem, their mutual birthplace, to explore new solutions and offer unique insights into the divisive Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The film takes viewers on an emotional and intensely personal odyssey through the streets of one of the world’s most volatile regions.

Director of the movie 1982, Oualid Mouaness on ZOOM
2022-08-28 11:00 - 12:00
Lebanese Americans and Lebanese American Society of Seattle will host the Director 1982 Oualid Mouaness on August 28, 2022, at 11 AM Pacific Time on Zoom.
Mr. Mouaness will be happy to answer your questions live.
https://bit.ly/3Rg69Gl

SIFF

Movie: 1982 at SIFF
2022-08-29 20:00 - 21:30, 2022-08-30 20:00 - 21:30, 2022-08-31 20:00 - 21:30, 2022-09-01 20:00 - 21:30 | SIFF Cinema Uptown, 511 Queen Anne Ave N,, Seattle, WA, 98109, United States
Lebanon | 2019 | 100 min. | Oualid Mouaness

1982 is a life-affirming coming-of-age tale set at an idyllic school in Lebanon’s mountains on the eve of a looming invasion. It unfolds over a single day and follows an 11-year-oldboy’s relentless quest to profess his love to a girl in his class. As the invasion encroaches on Beirut, it upends the day, threatening the entire country and its cohesion. Within the microcosm of the school, the film draws a harrowing portrait of a society torn between its desire for love and peace and the ideological schisms unraveling its seams.
In his debut feature, Oualid Mouaness delivers an ode to innocence in which he revisits one of the most cataclysmic moments in Lebanon’s history through the lens of a child and his vibrant imagination. It demonstrates the complexities of love and war, and the resilience of the human spirit.

Director:Oualid Mouaness
Principal Cast:Nadine Labaki, Mohamad Dalli, Rodrigue Sleiman, Aliya Khalidi
Country:Lebanon, France, Norway, Qatar, USA
Year:2019
Running Time:100 min.
Awards:TIFF19 Netpac Award, Grand Prix Cannes Écrans Juniors 2021, Oscars 2020 Official Selection (International Feature Film)
Language:Arabic, English
Has Subtitles:Yes
US Distributor:Tricycle Logic (theatrical)
International Sales:House Of Film

Movie: Costa Brava at SIFF
2022-09-09 19:00 - 21:00, 2022-09-10 14:30 - 16:30, 2022-09-10 19:00 - 21:00, 2022-09-11 15:00 - 17:00, 2022-09-11 17:30 - 19:00 | SIFF Film Center, 305 Harrison St, Seattle, 98109
Lebanon | 2021 | 107 min. | Mounia Akl
Filmed just a couple of months after the August 2020 Beirut port explosion that claimed more than 200 lives, this film references an earlier crisis of government corruption and ineptitude, the 2015 Beirut garbage crisis, when the streets of the city were congested with uncollected trash. But it functions as both a general-purpose lamentation for Lebanon as well as an allegory for our global climate catastrophe. Soraya (Nadine Labaki) and Walid Badri (Saleh Bakri) long ago fled the pollution and dysfunction of Beirut to live off the grid in an idyllic mountain hideaway. Raising their two young daughters and caring for Walid’s elderly mother, they have abandoned the political action with which they used to face the country’s problems—until the country’s problems come looking for them. One day, representatives of the government arrive in the valley where the Badris live to begin construction of a new landfill. (“Don’t worry,” they assure them, “This will be a ‘green’ landfill.”) The construction gradually encroaches on the family’s property, and the pile of garbage grows bigger. As toxic smoke fills the air and the water in the swimming pool turns blood-red, tensions rise within the family. “Where will we run away to this time?” asks Soraya. A famous singer and activist in her younger years, she is ready to take up the struggle again. Walid is not so sure. — Justine Barda

Director:Mounia Akl
Principal Cast:Nadine Labaki, Saleh Bakri, Nadia Charbel, Ceana Restom, Geana Restom
Country:Lebanon, France, Spain, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Qatar
Year:2021
Running Time:107 min.
Producer:Myriam Sassine, Georges Schoucair
Screenplay:Mounia Akl, Clara Roquet
Cinematographers:Joe Saade
Editors:Carlos Marques-Marcet, Cyril Aris
Music:Nathan Larson
Awards:London Film Festival 2021 (Audience Award: Best Film)
Language:Arabic
Has Subtitles:Yes
US Distributor:Kino Lorber
International Sales:mk2 Films

Freedom Film Series: "Rebuilding Hope: Sudan's Lost Boys Return Home"
2022-09-15 17:00 - 18:30
Join DSP and HOPE For Ariang for the next in our Freedom Film Series, Rebuilding Hope: Sudan’s Lost Boys Return Home, on Thursday, September 15 at 8pm ET/5pm PT.
Rebuilding Hope tells the story of Gabriel Bol Deng, Koor Garang and Garang Mayor. As small children, they fled their villages in South Sudan due to civil war. This is a documentary film of Gabriel Bol, Koor, and Garang’s quest to find surviving family-members and rediscover and contribute to their homeland. This film is Donkeysaddle’s first project, made in 2009, and is as relevant today as when it was made. The screening will be followed by a discussion between Gabriel Bol Deng, one of the protagonists of the film, and filmmaker Jen Marlowe.
Tickets are by donation, and will be split between Donkeysaddle Projects and HOPE for Ariang.

NWFF Movie: Boycott (virtual)
2022-09-28 - 2022-10-02 | Virtual
When a news publisher in Arkansas, an attorney in Arizona, and a speech therapist in Texas are told they must choose between their jobs and their political beliefs, they launch legal battles that expose an attack on freedom of speech across 33 states in America.
Boycott traces the impact of state legislation designed to penalize individuals and companies that choose to boycott Israel due to its human rights record. A legal thriller with “accidental plaintiffs” at the center of the story, Boycott is a bracing look at the far-reaching implications of anti-boycott legislation and an inspiring tale of everyday Americans standing up to protect our rights in an age of shifting politics and threats to freedom of speech.

Mizna: Arab Film Fest (Virtual Screenings)
2022-09-28 - 2022-10-02 | Virtual
The Arab Film Fest opens THIS WEEK! Do you have your tickets yet?
The fest takes place September 28–October 2, 2022 in hybrid format. The theme, Life in Diaspora, engages and interrogates SWANA diaspora as an experience and filmmaking practice.
Check out the in-person screening schedule and the virtual screening line up.

FILMS TO LOOK FORWARD TO

MEMORY BOX (DIR. JOANA HADJITHOMAS, KHALIL JOREIGE, 2021) // LEBANON
Maia, a single mother, lives in Montreal with her teenage daughter, Alex. On Christmas Eve, they receive an unexpected delivery: notebooks, tapes, and photos Maia sent to her best friend from 1980’s Beirut. Maia refuses to open the box or confront its memories, but Alex secretly begins diving into it. Between fantasy and reality, Alex enters the world of her mother’s adolescence during the Lebanese civil war.
Opening Night Tickets: 9/28 at 7pm, Walker Art Center
+ Post-screening discussion w/ director
+ 5:30pm Opening Night Reception
Virtual Tickets
+ Don’t miss the free filmmaking workshop with Khalil Joreige on 9/27

FADIA’S TREE (DIR. SARAH BEDDINGTON, 2021) // LEBANON, PALESTINE, UK
While millions of birds migrate freely in the skies, Fadia, a Palestinian refugee in Lebanon, yearns for the ancestral homeland she is denied. She challenges the director, Sarah, to find an ancient mulberry tree that stands witness to her family’s existence.
This film screens in honor of the memory of Shireen Abu Akleh, made possible by the estate of Dr. Inaam Matar.
Free Screening: 9/29 at 4pm, Trylon Cinema
Virtual Tickets
+ Virtual Conversation w/ Fadia Loubani and Leila Awadallah

YOU RESEMBLE ME (DIR. DINA AMER, 2021) // EGYPT, FRANCE
Produced by Spike Lee, Spike Jonze, and Riz Ahmed, among others, You Resemble Me blends documentary and narrative techniques to tell a harrowing story about loss, displacement, and violence. Cultural and intergenerational trauma erupt in this story about two sisters on the outskirts of Paris.
In-Person Tickets: 9/29 at 9pm, Trylon Cinema
Virtual Tickets
+ Virtual Conversation w/ Dina Amer and Adey Almohsen

MIGUEL’S WAR (DIR. ELIANE RAHEB, 2021) // LEBANON
Miguel’s War is a documentary film portrait of Michel Jleilaty, a gay man from Lebanon who has been living in Spain as an adult under the assumed name Miguel Alonso, as he revisits the childhood traumas that made him want to escape his homeland.
In-Person Tickets: 9/30 at 9pm, Trylon Cinema
Virtual Tickets

MAY GOD BE WITH YOU (DIR. CLÉO COHEN, 2021) // ALGERIA, TUNISIA, FRANCE
Cléo wonders if she has to choose between being a Jewish and an Arab woman. She pays visits, again and again, to her four grandparents, Jews from Algeria and Tunisia, exiled in France in the 1960s. She is determined to confront them with the meaning of these two identities she inherited from them. With humor and self-mockery, she questions the contradictions and the un-thoughts, staging the many different versions of her constantly rewritten family history.
In-Person Tickets: 10/1 at 3pm, Trylon Cinema
+ Post-screening discussion w/ director
Virtual Tickets

MARINER OF THE MOUNTAINS (DIR. KARIM AÏNOUZ, 2021) // ALGERIA, BRAZIL
In January 2019, filmmaker Karim Aïnouz decides to take a boat across the Mediterranean and embark on his first journey to Algeria. Accompanied by his camera and the memory of his mother, Iracema, Aïnouz provides a detailed account of the journey to his father’s homeland. The film follows a winding path through languages, memories, relatives, and histories, all the while interweaving the present, past, and future.
In-Person Tickets: 10/1 at 5pm, Trylon Cinema
Virtual Tickets

NWFF Movie: Boycott (in person)
2022-09-29 18:30 - 2022-10-03 20:00 | Northwest Film Forum, 1515 12th Ave, 2, Seattle, WA, 98122, United States
When a news publisher in Arkansas, an attorney in Arizona, and a speech therapist in Texas are told they must choose between their jobs and their political beliefs, they launch legal battles that expose an attack on freedom of speech across 33 states in America.
Boycott traces the impact of state legislation designed to penalize individuals and companies that choose to boycott Israel due to its human rights record. A legal thriller with “accidental plaintiffs” at the center of the story, Boycott is a bracing look at the far-reaching implications of anti-boycott legislation and an inspiring tale of everyday Americans standing up to protect our rights in an age of shifting politics and threats to freedom of speech.

Watch in person: Sep. 29 at 6:30pm

Virtual screening of the film "Hanna K"
2022-10-01 08:00 - 17:00 | Virtual
Hanna K. is a 1983 American drama film (1H40M) directed by Costa-Gavras, starring Jill Clayburgh and Gabriel Byrne. The film was an attempt to depict the Palestinian-Israeli conflict in human terms.
Hanna K. is the story of Hanna Kaufman, a child of Holocaust survivors and an American-Jewish immigrant to Israel, who is a court-appointed lawyer assigned to defend a Palestinian, Salim Bakri, accused of terrorism and infiltration. Salim claims that he was trying to regain possession of his family house. Hanna saves him from a jail sentence, but he is deported to Jordan. Salim eventually returns, is jailed for illegal immigration, and he again asks for her services. Hanna investigates the story and discovered that Salim’s family home is now a tourist attraction in Kafr Rimon, a settlement built and lived in by Russian Jews. Bakri’s former village of Kufr Rumaneh has disappeared except for a few stones and trees.

Movie: No Simple Way Home
2022-10-07 16:30 - 18:00 | SIFF Cinema Uptown, 511 Queen Anne Ave N,, Seattle, WA, 98109, United States
Born and raised in exile, a daughter returns home to South Sudan to document her mother’s path to becoming vice president and leading the country towards a peaceful future.
VIRTUAL TICKETS AVAILABLE October 6th – 13th: Buy Tickets: Virtual
IN PERSON: Friday, October 7, 2022 at the SIFF Cinema Uptown at 4:30 PM

Movie: Fangs (virtual)
2022-10-27 - 2022-10-31 | Virtual
Films available 12 a.m. ET Thursday, Oct. 27 to 11:59 p.m. ET Monday, Oct. 31
Arab Film Series Online: Fangs (Anyab)
Free Online Stream | Suggested $5 Donation – Register
A girl and her fiancé are on their way to a party on New Year’s Eve when their car has an accident, and they find nowhere to go except a strange castle. They are met there by many vampires, led by count Dracula, who instantly falls in love with the girl and wants her for himself. The two lovers discover that Dracula is in Egypt in many forms (doctor, taxi driver, plumber, etc.) not to suck people’s blood but to suck their money, as a typical modern profiteer. Combining the genres of horror, fantasy and musical, this film will definitely leave a lasting impression! Directed by Mohammed Shebl.
“A lost gem of Egyptian queer cinema, Anyab is an unfaithful remake of the musical cult classic The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Although the story is apparently the same, Shebl’s film is almost too homoerotic to handle. Weaved into its camp aesthetics, horror genre tropes and 80s disco numbers, Anyab provides a running commentary on the social situation in Egypt, from youth unemployment to class struggle, while intersecting sexual politics into the mix.” (Gasworks)
100 Minutes / 1981 / Egypt / Horror, Drama, Camp / PG-13 / Arabic with English subtitles
For questions, e-mail Dave Serio at dserio@accesscommunity.org.

All Arts: Foreign Drama Film Festival
2022-10-28 - 2022-11-01
ALL ARTS is hosting a Foreign Drama Film Festival from Oct. 4 to Nov. 1. Here are the details about the films and how to watch.
Includes:
A Son by Tunesian Director, Mehdi Barsaoui
11-year-old Aziz needs a liver transplant after being seriously injured during a terrorist ambush while on holiday in 2011. At the hospital a family secret will be revealed.

Foreign Body
After a young Tunisian woman informs on her radical Islamist brother, she arrives illegally in France, finding danger as well as hope.

Virtual Film: FalaFala directed by Mohammed Almughanni
2022-10-29 09:00 - 11:00
All times are based on US EDT – 12 Noon; 7:00 PM in Palestine. English subtitles | Thirty Minutes.
Please click here to register for this event.
Please click here to view the film’s trailer.
The film screening will be followed by discussions with the film director Mohammed Almughanni.

About the Film
Denmark, 1972: Abdul Alnajjar is flown in secret to Denmark to be the first child to recieve a heart valve operation. But when the only link between Abdul and his family in Jordan is severed, his life takes a different direction.

Filmmaker, Mohammed Almughanni

Mohammed Almughanni
Director, screenwriter and cinematographer. He was born in 1994 in Gaza, Palestine. He pursued his Bachelor and Masters degrees in Film Directing at Łódź Film School in Poland.
In the past few years he did film in different areas in the world such as Cuba, Palestine, Denmark, China, Jordan, Lebanon, Poland and Germany.
He is an author of documentary and narrative films, including “Blacklisted” (2021), “Son Of The Streets” (2020) “Falafala” (2019), “Operation” (2018), “Where’s the Donkey” (2018), “Shujayya” (2015) and “Halawan”

Screening of the documentary film "Healing Hearts," directed by Katya Chelli
2022-11-05 09:00 - 11:00
Saturday November 5, 2022 – 12:00 Noon US EDT; 6:00 PM Palestine Time.
Screening of the documentary film “Healing Hearts,” directed by Katya Chelli
71 Minutes; English subtitles; Director available for post-screening Q&A and discussion with audience.
Please click here to register for this event

Screening of documentary film "Shalal (Looted): A Reel War"
2022-11-06 09:00 - 11:00
Madafeh: Screening of documentary film “Shalal (Looted): A Reel War,” directed by Israeli filmmaker Karnit Mandel.
Please click here to register for this event.

About the Film
History is archived by the victors. While searching in an Israeli archive, filmmaker Karnit Mandel stumbles across film reels from a long-lost Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) film archive. This never-before-seen footage was seized by Israel during the 1982 invasion of Lebanon, and Mandel begins to wonder what is so dangerous in it that requires hiding. As the truth of these historical records unravel, she comes into conflict with the bureaucracy of Israel’s military apparatus, which denies the possession of additional footage. Will she be able to wrestle back any of this untold history, or will the reels forever remain buried

Screening and Discussion of Naila and the Uprising
2022-11-06 12:00 - 14:00
Screening (watch beforehand on your time) and discussion of Naila and the Uprising
November 6 at 3:00 pm ET | Virtual
Join the DC chapters of Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) and the Democratic Socialists of America’s Internationalism Working Group for a virtual screening of Naila and the Uprising. The screening link will be open from November 2-6, followed by a discussion with Katherine Hughes-Fraitekh on November 6.

AFMI's: 26th Arab Film Festival
2022-11-10 - 2022-11-21
The flagship event of the Arab Film and Media Institute, the Arab Film Festival is the longest running independent festival of its kind in North America. Launched in 1996, the festival’s mission is to present the best of contemporary films that illuminate the richness of Arab culture through authentic narratives and images, providing insight into the beauty and complexity of the Arab world.
The festival also offers special programming to local audiences, and unprecedented access to the diversity and range of authentic Arab experiences. The festival has gained an international reputation for excellence and offers its audiences access to media that reflects the lives of under-represented and provocative themes and groups on a cultural and societal level.

Arab Film Festival - San Francisco (virtual)
2022-11-11 - 2022-11-20 | Virtual
North America’s largest and oldest festival of Arab films opens on Friday, November 11th at the historic Castro Theatre and will run through November 20th. Our presale is over, but you can still get a pass! Festival passes are the best way to watch as many films as you can 😉
Psst: Not in the San Francisco Bay Area? Choose our VIRTUAL ONLY pass.

26th Arab Film Festival Shorts: Queer Lens
2022-11-12 - 2022-11-19 | Virtual
AFMI’s annual Queer Lens program celebrates the multi-dimensional formations of Arab queerness in stories that so urgently need to be told, especially in today’s polarized media climate that leaves issues of visibility lost in the haze, or, worse: cast in a one-size-fits-all “Western Queer Narrative” that ignores the many complexities and nuances faced by LGBTQ+ persons in the Arab World and beyond.
This year’s program theme is Diaspora & Displacement and features 5 award-winning short films that highlight the experiences of Queer Arabs around the globe. The characters in these stories all find themselves at the intersection of their identities. Some must reconcile the reality of their sexuality with a family who loves but does not understand, others work towards a life lived authentically in a society that does not accept them and a few explore leaving a place that is not safe even though it means letting go of those they care about. In this collection, audiences will find stories that may be unique in their details but are deeply relatable at their core and despite the difficulties, celebrate honesty and love.
Join us after the screening for Arab + Queer + Film: between here and there a conversation with four of the filmmakers in the Queer Lens program.
This program includes the following films:
Habib & the Thief (Sweden) dir. Naures Sager
The Window (Lebanon) dir. Sarah Kaskas
Faraway (Canada) dir. Aziz Zoromba
Dress Up (United States) dir. Karina Dandashi
Warsha (Lebanon) dir. Dania Bdeir

Screening of the documentary film "Blanche's Homeland," directed by Maryse Gargour
2022-11-12 09:00 - 11:00
Saturday November 12, 2022 – 12:00 Noon US EST; 7:00 PM Palestine Time.
Screening of the documentary film “Blanche’s Homeland,” directed by Maryse Gargour
30 Minutes; English subtitles; post-screening Q&A and discussion with audience.
Please click here to register for this event

About the Film
This intimate film, evocative and poetic, follows the steps of an elderly woman in the years between 1988 and 2001. Blanche was born in Jaffa, Palestine, where her parents were landowners, and was exiled in the 1948 war.

Netflix Film: The Swimmers
2022-11-23
THE SWIMMERS
A Netflix film directed and written by Sally El Hosaini

Based on a true story, THE SWIMMERS follows the journey from war-torn Syria to the 2016 Rio Olympics. Two young sisters embark on a harrowing journey as refugees, putting both their hearts and champion swimming skills to heroic use.
Catch it at the Arab Film Festival before it streams!
The Swimmers will be on Netflix November 23

2022 Sundance Film Festival Short Film Tour [In-Person Only]
2023-01-04 19:30 - 21:00 | Northwest Film Forum, 1515 12th Ave, 2, Seattle, WA, 98122, United States
The 2022 Sundance Film Festival Short Film Tour is a 95-minute theatrical program of 7 short films curated from the 2022 Sundance Film Festival short film program, including three titles that won Festival awards.
Including:
Warsha

France & Lebanon (Director and Screenwriter: Dania Bdeir, Producer: Coralie Dias)
A Syrian migrant working as a crane operator in Beirut volunteers to cover a shift on one of the most dangerous cranes, where he is able to find his freedom. Fiction. Cast: Khansa. Short Film Jury Award: International Fiction.
Dania Bdeir is a Canadian-Lebanese writer and director. She’s a member of the Brooklyn Filmmakers Collective and has an MFA in directing from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. In 2019 she was selected as a Berlinale Talent and participated in its Short Film Station with Warsha. She is currently based in Dubai and is developing her first feature film.

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