An Israeli sniper suffers mission drift while on a stakeout as a mysterious drama unfolds between a Palestinian man and woman.
Hazim Bitar is a Palestinian-Jordanian producer, writer, and director. He founded the Amman Filmmakers Cooperative, which serves as the launching pad for some of Jordan's leading independent filmmakers. Since its founding, the Amman Filmmakers Cooperative has provided cinema education to hundreds of Jordanians and Palestinians, mainly in disadvantaged areas.
Hazim Bitar -- 16’, Hebrew/English (Jordan/Palestine: 2008)
Sobhi Al-Zobeidi presents a group of children from the Jalazone refugee camp, his home camp, as the heroes of this original documentary.
Sobhi al-Zobaidi is an independent Palestinian filmmaker, artist and scholar. He studied economics at Birzeit University and Cinema at NYU.
Sobhi Al-Zobeidi -- Documentary, 10' (Palestine: 1999)
A young peasant boy living in a Central American country governed by a repressive regime dreams of flying with Condors. After an injury, the boy joins with a guerrilla force to fight for liberation.
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 -- 89’, Spanish (Nicaragua/Mexico: 1982)
Amreeka chronicles the adventures of Muna, a single mother who leaves the West Bank with Fadi, her teenage son, with dreams of an exciting future in the promised land of small town Illinois. In America, as her son navigates high school hallways the way he used to move through military checkpoints, the indomitable Muna scrambles together a new life cooking up falafel burgers as well as hamburgers at the local White Castle.
Told with heartfelt humor by writer-director Cherien Dabis in her feature film debut, Amreeka is a universal journey into the lives of a family of immigrants and first-generation teenagers caught between their heritage and the new world in which they now live and the bittersweet search for a place to call home.
Amreeka recalls Dabis’s family’s memories of their lives in rural America during the first Iraq War. The film stars Haifa-trained actress Nisreen Faour as Muna, and Melkar Muallen plays her 16-year-old son, Fadi. Also in the cast are Hiam Abbass, Alia Shawkat, Yussef Abu-Warda and Joseph Ziegler. Written and directed by Cherien Dabis, Amreeka was produced by Christina Piovesan and Paul Barkin. Alicia Sams, Dabis and Gregory Keever were executive producers; Liz Jarvis and Al-Zain Al-Sabah were co-producers.
National Geographic Entertainment will release Amreeka in September 2009. Amreeka is a First Generation Films-Alcina Pictures-Buffalo Gal Pictures/Eagle Vision Media Group Production, presented by E1 Entertainment in association with Levantine Entertainment, Rotana Studios and Showtime Arabia.
Amreeka made its world premiere in dramatic competition at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival, and played as Opening Night of New Directors/New Films, a co-presentation of The Museum of Modern Art and The Film Society of Lincoln Center. Amreeka made its debut internationally in Directors’ Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival.
Born in Omaha, Nebraska in 1976 to Palestinian Jordanian immigrants, Cherien Dabis is an award-winning feature filmmaker who received her M.F.A. in film from Columbia University. Her writing and directorial debut, Amreeka (2009), world-premiered at the Sundance Film Festival (2009).
Cherien Dabis -- 96’, Arabic/English (Canada/Kuwait/United States: 2009)
Commissioned by ARTE network as part of a series of films for the end of the millenium, this film is a travelogue through Jerusalem, Nazareth and Ramallah. The film is a meditation on quotidian injustices, and a formulation of an aesthetic and creative response to them.
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 Sulieman -- 30' (Palestine/France: 1998)
The story of a young boy and his father on their journey home to the city of Nazareth. What should be a simple car trip is beset by politically charged tension and a militarized reality- each of which serves as a foil to enhance the struggle of a complacent father raising a strong willed son.
Sameh Zoabi was born and raised in Iksal, a Palestinian village near the city of Nazareth in 1975. In 1998, Zoabi graduated from Tel Aviv University with a dual degree in Film Studies and English Literature.
Sameh Zoabi -- 19’, Arabic/Hebrew with English Subtitles (France: 2005)
By focusing on the experiences of 25-year-old Nadine Zaidan, who was one of the thousands of activists who gathered in Beirut's Martyrs Square in the chaotic days immediately following the assassination of Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri in February of 2005, Beirut Diaries explores critical transformations and crucial questions facing contemporary Lebanon. With this insightful video diary, director Mai Masri (Frontiers of Dreams and Fears) chronicles the political ferment embodied in the March 11th Movement, also known as The Cedar Revolution, as people of all factions, ages and religious affiliations passionately debate such issues as Syria's influence in Lebanese politics, the establishment of an international commission to investigate Hariri's assassination and the organization of free parliamentary elections. Masri's documentary shows that together, the people of Lebanon are striving to forge a new direction for their country.
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 -- Documentary, 79’, Arabic (Lebanon: 2006)
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. Her life became a series of exiles, from Jaffa to Beirut to Europe and the U.S. Reflecting on the history she has lived, Blanche rebels against the amnesia of the world concerning the fate of the Palestinians, and through dialogues between her and the younger generations of exiled Palestinians, bears witness to the tenacity and permanence of their identity.
Maryse Gargour was born in Jaffa. She has been a journalist and a producer at the Office de Radio Diffusion et de la Télévision Française in Beirut. She has worked at UNESCO in Paris, at the International Council for Cinema and Television, and has also been a freelance journalist for international television news services in Paris.
Maryse Gargour -- Documentary, 28', French/English/Arabic (Palestine/France: 2002)
