A collection of short films produced by the Institute of Modern Media, Al-Quds University, and George Khleifi.
Nada El-Yassir left the field of neurophysiology for cinema. Her work ranges from fiction to documentary to experimental. She presently lives in Nazareth.
Tawfik Abu Wael was born in the Palestinian town of Um El-Fahim in Israel, in 1976. He graduated from Tel Aviv University, where he studied film directing, and worked in the film archive from 1996 to 1998. He taught drama at the Hassan Arafe School in Jaffa from 1997 to 1999.
Ismael Habbash, Nada El-Yassir, Tawfiq Abu Wael, Najwa Najjar and Abdel Salam Shehadeh -- 58' (Palestine: 2001)
Based on a novel by Jean-Luc Outers, one of Belgium's leading novelists, the film is a satire of modern bureaucratic man and his contradictions, with a mixture of surrealism and Kafkaesque comedy. Martin is a sort of post-Romantic anti-hero who feels trapped by the strange and abstract demands of a modern bureaucracy. At the same time, he is unable to muster either the will or the resources revolt against his fate and superiors – on the contrary, he seems to perpetuate and desire his fate.
Michel Khleifi was born in Nazareth in 1950. In 1970 he traveled to Belgium where he studied television and theatre directing. Considered the founder of modern Palestinian cinema, Khleifi produced and directed several full-length features and documentaries for international release and broadcast. His previous documentary feature, Fertile Memory (1980), was the first Palestinian film to be shown at the Cannes FF and was a groundbreaking work, both on a political and aesthetic level, treating the struggle for women's freedom and emancipation, across the generations and under occupation, in a haunting lyrical style that became all his own.
Michel Khleifi -- 105’, French (Belgium: 1992)
Written and directed by Palestinian youth living as refugees in Lebanon. The young writers enter the film as a group of friends whose daydreams become a reality. Mohammed, the journalist, covers the young photo exhibit in the camp, Rabab flies across all borders, Muna becomes a doctor, Walid finally sings on stage and Zeinab directs a film.
Hicham Kayed is a 2008 Joiner Fellow. A Palestinian living in Lebanon, he is the director of The Arab Resource Center for Popular Arts, organizations which work conducting writing and film workshops for Palestinian youth living in the refugee camps in Lebanon. He is the multimedia coordinator of AL-JANA, the Arab Resource Center for Popular Arts in Beirut.
Hicham Kayed -- 16' (Lebanon: 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.
Ibdaa Video Workshop -- 4’ (Palestine: 2001)
In Out of Place, each image and each place conjures up spaces that preoccupy the director Azza Al-Hassan; be it heaven or hell or the earth in between, each space evokes the spirits of the past, present and future, and amalgam history, geography and fantasy into a subjective experience that is uniquely intimate and universally appealing.
Azza El-Hassan's work has been produced and shown by various international TVnetworks such as BBC, arte, YLE, ARD and many others. It has also been screened in film festivals and art venues around the world like, Yamamgata Documentary FilmFestival (Japan), International Film Festival IDFA (Holland), Lipzic (Germany)and many others.
Azza al-Hassan (1999)
