Two work-in-progress films + a selection from one award-winning debut feature are accompanied by their makers from Lebanon, Tunisia, Palestine and Israel. They all explore themes of identity, belonging, and displacement. “Trash Cemetery” (dir: Firas Rebiai & producer: Dhia Rebiai, Tunisia, USA) Once a heavenly village in the outskirts of Tunis, Tunisia, El Attar turned into a living hell once the Mediterranean’s biggest landfill opened on its doorsteps. While villagers engage in a fierce fight, Barbesha ragpickers align with the more powerful landfill. Director will attend the event in person for Q&A. “No Other Land” (dir: Basel Adraa, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Balal, Palestine & Israel) For the past ten years, Basel, a young Palestinian activist, has been filming his community being destroyed by Israeli soldiers. During the darkest year of his life, he develops an unlikely relationship with an Israeli journalist. With recorded presentation by the filmmakers.) “Q” (Selected scenes, dir: Jude Chehab (Lebanon, USA) In her exceptional debut feature, Chehab potently explores her mother’s devotion to an all-female, secretive religious order in Syria, showing how it upended their mother-daughter relationship and the dynamic of the whole family. Director and editor will attend the Q&A via Zoom.
This program is presented by Silver Sun Foundation, (Woodstock, NY) in partnership with Close Up, a development program that provides training and mentorship for emerging documentary filmmakers from Southwest Asia and North Africa (SWANA) with a strong mission for pluralism, cultural understanding, and artistic freedom.
