Hanan Ashrawi: A Woman of Her Time

 

About the Film

In the stormy aftermath of the peace accord signed between Israel and the PLO, Palestinian spokeswoman Hanan Ashrawi emerged as a formidable negotiator and a persuasive voice on the international stage. But beyond the polished rhetoric and the public poise, what drives the 47-year-old mother of two whose high profile and personal integrity have made her enemies as well as friends?

 
 
 

Mai Masri & Jean Chamoun -- 50', Arabic with English Subtitles (Lebanon/Palestine: 1995)

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. 

 

Happy Days

 

About the Film

Happy Days exposes everyday Palestinian life under Israeli occupation. In the video, a collage of footage shot on location in the occupied territories is accompanied by the theme music from the 70s sitcom Happy Days.

The idea is to subjugate international politics to a format normally associated with entertainment and thereby call attention to the blurry boundary between the two.

 
 
DOAN | Filmmakers 2
Larissa Sansour
Larissa Sansour

Born in Jerusalem, Larissa Sansour studied Fine Art in Copenhagen, London and New York. Her work is interdisciplinary, immersed in the current political dialogue and utilises video art, photography, experimental documentary, the book form and the internet.

 
 

Larissa Sansour -- 3’ (Palestine: 2006)

Heaven Before I Die

 

About the Film

A tale of life and love unfolding in Toronto where the handsome but sheltered Jacob arrives from Palestine. Culture shock sets in when Jacob is taken under the wing of petty thief and the beautiful Selma. When the young man's innocence meets the realities of modern life chaos ensues love fills the air and a special magic begins. Co-starring Omar Sharif with special appearances by Joe Bologna and Burt Young.

 
 
 
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Izidore Musallam
Izidore Musallam

Izidore Musallam is a director and most recently produced the Sci Fi Pictures original film: Savage Planet. He was born in Haifa and graduated with a BFA in film production from York University in Toronto, Canada where he now lives and works.

 

Izidore Musallam -- 98' (Canada: 1997)

Her Story (Qissatuha)

 
 
 
DOAN | Filmmakers
Suha Arraf
Suha Arraf

Suha Arraf was born in 1969 in the village of Mi’ilya to a Palestinian family. She obtained her BA degree in Philosophy and Literature at Haifa University (1990) and her Master’s degree in Anthropology at the University of Tel Aviv (1994). 

 
 

Suha Arraf -- Documentary (Palestine: 2000)

Homage by Assassination (Segment in “The Gulf War: What Next?”)

 

ABOUT THE FILM

This is the fifth part of the collective film titled Gulf War, What Next? It films a Palestinian man reflecting on the war in the Persian Gulf and on the related media coverage. The man is the filmmaker himself, cloistered in his claustrophobic studio in New York as Nazareth, his native city, and is threatened by the Iraqi Scud missiles launched against Israeli cities, during the Iraqi-Persian War. This short diary-report style film follows up the routines of Suleiman's day that he performs: He ties his bootlaces, boils milk on the stove, observes from the window a couple's quarrel in the street, weighs himself repeatedly on the scale, goes to the bathroom, makes phone calls and works on editing his film.

 
 
DOAN | Filmmakers 2
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 -- 27’ (Palestine/Tunisia/US: 1992)

Human Shield Theory

 

ABOUT THE FILM

A short film about becoming a human shield and about one's reasons for taking up what might appear as another people's battle.

 
 
DOAN | Filmmakers 2
Leila Sansour
Leila Sansour

Leila Sansour is the founder and CEO of Open Bethlehem. She was born in Moscow to a Palestinian father and a Russian mother and grew up in the occupied West Bank. Leila Sansour studied at the Sorbonne, Paris, at Moscow State University and at Warwick University in the UK. She holds a Masters degree in philosophy.

 
 

Leila Sansour -- 6' (Palestine/UK: 2003)