Children of Shatila (Aftal Shatila)

 

About the film

Many people first became aware of the Shatila refugee camp in Lebanon after the shocking and horrific Sabra-Shatila massacre that took place there in 1982. Located in Beirut's "belt of misery," the camp is home to 15,000 Palestinians and Lebanese who share a common experience of displacement, unemployment and poverty. Fifty years after the exile of their grandparents from Palestine, the children of Shatila attempt to come to terms with the reality of being refugees in a camp that has survived massacre, siege and starvation. Director Mai Masri focuses on two Palestinian children in the camp: Farah, age 11 and Issa, age 12. When these children are given video cameras, the story of the camp evolves from their personal narratives as they articulate the feelings and hopes of their generation.

 
 
DOAN | Filmmakers 2
Mai Masri
Mai Masri

Mai Masri (b. 1959) is a Palestinian filmmaker largely based in Lebanon. Masri received a degree in film production from San Francisco State University. She has directed and produced several award-winning films that have been broadcast and shown internationally. 

 
 

Mai Masri -- 50’, Arabic with English Subtitles (Lebanon: 1998)
 

Chronicle of a Disappearance (Sijl Ikhtifa’)

 

About the film

What does it mean to be Palestinian in the second half of the twentieth century? Filmmaker Elia Suleiman returned to the land of his birth to answer that question. Born in Nazareth in 1960, well after the establishment in 1948 of the State of Israel in historic Palestine, Suleiman lived for twelve years in self-imposed exile in New York. He returned to attempt to find his roots in a culture that had been uprooted. Chronicle of a Disappearance is a personal meditation on the spiritual effect of political instability on the Palestinian psyche and identity.

 
 
 
Featured
Elia Suleiman
Elia Suleiman

Born in 1960 in Nazareth, Elia Suleiman lived in New York from 1981 to 1993. While in the United States, he has directed his first two short films: Introduction to the End of an Argument and Hommage by Assassination, winning numerous awards.

 

Elia Suleiman -- 88’ (France/Palestine: 1996)

Close to Death

 
 
 
DOAN | Filmmakers 2
Abdel Salam Shehadeh
Abdel Salam Shehadeh

Abdel Salam Shehadeh is from Rafah in Gaza, Palestine. He has worked in television production and media and as a camera and sound technician, and has worked in various capacities for international news crews. Director of more than 15 Documentary films such as The Shadow, the Cane, and Debris which had a good impact in many international festivals.

 
 

Abdel Salam Shehadeh -- 26' (Palestine, 1997)

Crónicas Palestinas: Los Caminos De La Ira

 
 
 
 
DOAN | Filmmakers 2
Miguel Littin
Miguel Littin

Born in 1942 in Palmilla, Chile to Palestinian parents, is a major Latin American director and screenwriter. Littin has had a long and distinguished career as a filmmaker and screenwriter in his home county and in Europe.

 

Miguel Littin -- 58’ (Chile/Palestine: 2002)

Crossing Kalandia

 

About the Film

A video journal reflecting the life of a Palestinian family and a Palestinian town during one year of the intifada. Kalandia is the name of a refugee camp between Ramallah and Jerusalem, but more recently it has become the location of one of the most heavily-traveled Israeli checkpoints in the Palestinian territories. Shot between May 2001 and August 2002, Crossing Kalandia offers a unique perspective on recent events in Palestine.

 
 
DOAN | Filmmakers
Sobhi Al-Zobeidi
Sobhi Al-Zobeidi

Sobhi al-Zobaidi is an independent Palestinian filmmaker, artist and scholar. He studied economics at Birzeit University and Cinema at NYU.

 
 

Sobhi al-Zobaidi -- 52' (Palestine: 2002) 
 

Curfew (Hatta Isaar Akhar)

 

About the Film

A unique dramatization of the human cost of the Arab-lsraeli conflict. Set during an endless curfew in a quiet Palestinian quarter of occupied Gaza, the film evokes the pressures and displacements of life under siege: the spookily quiet streets; the mounting despair and frustration; the tear gas clouds and electricity outages; the crackle of loudspeakers and the headlights sweeping the night. Curfew conveys the Palestinian side of the Middle East crisis, but its insights would be equally valid for any place where civil liberties are routinely suppressed and ordinary life is not permitted to be ordinary.

 
 
 
Featured
Rashid Masharawi
Rashid Masharawi

Rashid Masharawi was born and raised in Shati refugee camp, Gaza Strip. He is a self-taught filmmaker, beginning to work at eighteen in the cinema industry and acquiring skills on over twenty films before starting himself to write and direct his own. Masharawi’s films portray his knowledge of living under the Israeli Occupation in refugee camps, the new space of the intifada, as well as his constant reflection on cinema narrative.

 

Rashid Masharawi -- 74’, Arabic/Hebrew (Palestine: 1994)