The 2nd Annual DC Palestinian Film & Arts Festival24 - 30 September 2012

The 2nd AnnualDC Palestinian Film& Arts Festival

24 -30 September 2012

About the FestivalThe DC Palestinian Film and Arts Festival (DC-PFAF) seeks to showcase the work of Palestinian filmmakers and more generally, to promote the richness of Palestinian Arab culture through cinema, music, and other forms of visual arts.

The stories told in this festival are not necessarily about the Palestinian/Israeli conflict, nor are they necessarily stories about Palestinians, but they are stories that reflect the dynamic formation of a transnational identity common to Palestinians and diasporic communities in general.

Beyond that, this project aims to bring DC’s various communities closer together through art, and catalyze invigorating discussions about film and culture using the lens of Palestinian filmmakers as an entry point.

About the 2012 Program

The DC Palestinian Film and Arts Festival is delighted to launch its 2nd annual festival from September 24th to 30th, 2012 in the DC Metropolitan area.

Following the success of our inaugural festival in 2011, this year’s events will include feature-length films and shorts featuring a broad array of genres ranging from dramas to documentaries and comedies.

The festival will also include panel discussions with filmmakers and visual and still performances including music, poetry, and an art exhibit.

> dcpfaf.org> @DCPFAF> fb.com/dcpfaf> palestinefilmdc@gmail.com

The FilmYoussef, a taxi driver, is about to make an impossible choice between a surgery that might save his life and a gesture to save his relationship with his son who has gone to live with his mother and new stepfather. But Youssef has to fight the clock and has until ‘last Friday’ to come through. After getting a divorce, isolation and loneliness ensue Youssef’s life as his wife takes their only son to live with her. Youssef counts the days till he sees his son during once-a-week visits and until then plays backgammon by himself, makes tea, breakfast, sometimes takes long drives in his taxi through the streets of Amman, or meets up with his friends to lament of their troubles. Suddenly, he finds himself in a doctor’s office and told he has to have serious testicular surgery and now has to make one of two choices: either he has the surgery, or buys his son a dog before the new stepfather does.

The DirectorBorn in Libya in 1978 and raised in Saudi Arabia, writer, director, producer and literary critic Yahya Alabdallah studied Film and Literature in Paris. Yahya has written and directed eight short films achieving international acclaim. In 2004, his film “Six Minutes” won the Al Jazeera Film Festival Gold Award, the Silver Award in the Amman Short Film Festival, and jury selection in the Trenton Film Festival. Yahya founded ME Films in 2005, an independent production company based in Amman-Jordan to cater to the independent film industry. “The Last Friday” is his first feature length film and has received official selection in the 2011 Muhr Arab Feature competition, winning Jury Selection, Best Actor, and Best Composer, and 2012 Jury Selection in the Berlin International Film Festival, Seattle International Film Festival, and the San Sebastian Film Festival.Th

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The FilmTwenty-something Palestinian-Israeli slacker Jawdat just wants to have fun with his friends, talk on his cell phone and find love. Instead, he navigates unconvincing dates with Muslim, Christian, and even Jewish girls and wrestles with the Hebrew college entrance exam. Meanwhile, his curmudgeonly olive-farming father, Salem, is determined to drag Jawdat and the whole community into a fight against a nearby Israeli cell phone tower that Salem fears is poisoning the villagers with radiation. As Salem’s efforts to remove the tower disrupt Jawdat’s precious cell phone reception, preventing any further communication with his potential girlfriends, Jawdat is forced to face the battle and grow up to be a man.

* Join us after the film for a panel discussion with the director.* This event is sponsored by CCAS at Georgetown University.

The DirectorSameh Zoabi was born in 1975 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. The following year, Zoabi was awarded a merit scholarship to pursue a Master’s degree. In February 2005 he completed his M.F.A. in Film direction at Columbia’s School of the Arts. Zoabi’s previous short film “Be Quiet” (19 min.) is an international award-winning film, receiving the Third Prize at the Cinéfondation Selection at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival. Filmmaker Magazine named Zoabi as one of the Top 25 New Faces of Independent Cinema. “Man Without a Cell Phone” is Zoabi’s feature film debut.

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1Film: NukaybaThis documentary focuses primarily on the children of Palestinian refugees in the Burj al Barajne camp, the largest of the twelve refugee camps in Lebanon. It explores how the spirit and memory of their stolen homeland Palestine is instilled in children through stories and schooling by their elders. Children whose grandparents were born in Lebanon still respond to the question, “Where are you from?” with a decisive one-word answer, “Palestine!”

Directors: Khaled Mourra and Charlotte BruneauKhaled Mourra is a sound designer, musician, and filmmaker, currently living in Brooklyn. He is a Palestinian refugee from Lebanon who recently immigrated to the United States. Charlotte Bruneau is a Luxembourgian documentary filmmaker, journalist, and Middle East scholar, currently living in Lebanon.

Film: Gaza: Tunnels to Nowherewww.gazatunnels.org

This film is a short documentary about the political economy of child labor in the smuggling tunnels of Gaza.

Director: Miriam Abu SharkhProfessor Miriam Abu Sharkh is a Visiting Associate Professor at the Stanford Center for International Development. She is on faculty as the Development Studies Institute at the London School of Economics and Political Science, where she is the Principal Research Fellow on a grant by the European Research Council on global governance and human rights. Her writings cover child labor, gender discrimination, and social movements.

* Join us after the films for a panel discussion with the directors.

UNRWA ShortsThe United Nations Relief & Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) sponsors an annual film competition for young Palestinian Refugees. This year, we are screening four finalists from the 2010-2011 competition series.

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Film: Uncle Nashaatlidf.co.uk/film/uncle-nasshat

Nashaat is a Palestinian fighter who was killed by the Israelis in 1982. When Aseel, Nashaat’s nephew, comes across a fact that makes him doubt the circumstances of his uncle’s death, he embarks on a quest to find the truth. Not only does this quest lead him to disturbing facts, but it also makes him understand the real reasons behind his broken relationship with his father during his childhood.

Director: Aseel MansourAseel Mansour is a Palestinian-Jordanian filmmaker born in Baghdad in 1977. He moved to Amman in 1991 where he received his BA from the University of Jordan in 2000. Mansour subsequently began his filmmaking career, winning the 2004 Best Filmmaker of the Year award in Amman for his film “Alert Guns” and then winning the Special Mention Award for Arab Film in the Jordan Short Film Festival in 2006 for the film “Little Feet”. In 2010, Mansour went to the US and received a Master’s degree in Media Psychology from Walden University. “Uncle Nashaat” is a personal journey for Mansour.

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9Palestinian Innovators

Love Under Apartheid with Tanya Keilaniloveunderapartheid.com

Indigenous Palestinians have been living under Israeli military occupation for nearly 70 years now. Thinking about occupation historically and in the abstract, we may not comprehend the extent to which it affects the most private and intimate parts of Palestinian lives. In a place where love is made nearly impossible, these stories hope to capture singular moments of love in struggle.

Tanya Keilani is the founder and coordinator of the “Love Under Apartheid” project. She has a Masters in Anthropology from Columbia University, where she studied the impact of Israeli policy on Palestinian relationships for her graduate thesis titled “Righting Love: Regulation and Response in Palestinian Intimate, Communal, and Familial Life.”

Sketches by Mousa Kraishwww.kraish.com

Screening sketch comedy videos “You Love I” episodes 1, 2, 3.

Mousa Kraish was raised in the Bay Ridge section of Brooklyn in New York City. He went on to work as a photographer and cinematographer for numerous media companies and went on to start to build a career as a Music Video Director. Since then, he has appeared in several independent and television films, as well as features, including such luminaries as Mike Nichols, Greg Mottola, Judd Apatow and Al Pacino. Other directors include Sidney Lumet, Steven Spielberg, and Todd Solondz.

Performance by Huda Asfour & Bandwww.hudaasfour.com

Huda (composer of ‘Love under Apartheid’ sound clip) will present a special program inspired by the same theme, accompanied by Nehad Khader on vocals and percussion and Derek Bond on bass.

“My fascination with waves goes beyond my love for music. It is a fascination with the sea, the resonance of strings, the cyclic nature of life and more recently electrical waves in one of the most impressive pumps on earth, the heart. Being an engineer and a musician; I find my inspiration in the lab, in nature and in monitoring the finest movements around me. I write, play music and enjoy this journey on earth.” - Huda Asfour

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FouseyTube featuring Yousef Erakatyoutube.com/user/fouseyTUBE

Fouseytube is a youtube channel that was created by Yousef Erakat, a young Palestinian American living in the Bay area. His channel became an overnight sensation with his first viral video Middle Eastern Parents, and Yousef has since kept audiences around the world entertained with his often comedic but captivating work. Fouseytube currently has over 260,000 subscribers and over 205,000 “likes” on Facebook. We like him too and are excited to feature his work and have him on stage to answer all our pressing questions.

* Join us after the film for a reception in the mezzanine.

AcknowledgementsDC-PFAF has many people and institutions to thank but above all we would like to acknowledge the generosity of The Jerusalem Fund who was our first donor in our inaugural year and who graciously contributed again this year. Thank you for your continued belief in our project.

We would also like to thank all of our incredible individual donors who helped finance our 2012 festival. Your support motivates us to just keep getting better and better and we hope you can see the fruits of this in our 2012 program. We would especially like to thank those who contributed $200 or more: Ajmal Andani, Sanne Alexandra van den Bergh, Abdallah Daar, Talal Daair, Musa Essayyad, and Muna Shami.

We would like to extend our gratitude to the Middle East Studies Program at George Mason University whose Chair, Dr. Bassam Haddad, has stood behind our project for the second year running now. We are also thrilled to have Georgetown’s Center for Contemporary Arab Studies co-sponsoring a film this year, and a special thanks goes to Marina Krikorian for helping to make this happen.

We are grateful for staff and venue support provided by the Landmark E Street Cinema, the Goethe Institute Washington, Busboys and Poets, and Bloombars. Sincere gratitude to Xanthus Design for the beautiful & quick printing job!

This program would not have been possible without the passion and creativity of several individuals who have to be named here: Fadi Shayya for your beautiful eye and patience required to design this booklet; Kristopher Kane for the awesome website you designed and maintained for us; and Maryam Zohny, the director of the Learning for the Empowerment and Advancement of Palestinians (LEAP) program, for the opportunity to have such beautiful photos to display at our exhibit. To the children who produced these photos: your endurance and ability to find beauty in spite of your circumstances is breathtaking.

And to our stunning artists whose work we have displayed in the Bloombars exhibit, and to our hugely talented 2012 Festival filmmakers: thank you for sharing your art; we hope we have done it justice.

This festival runs on the fuel and heart of several individuals: our incredible Board members Huda Asfour, Nadia Daar, Noura Erakat, Tamara Essayyad, Angelina Jarrouj, Abdalwahab Khatib and the wonderful Nehad Khader who held us all together this year. Nour Joudah and Haitham Omar, thank you for your tireless dedication to this project. And to all our volunteers, THANK YOU!

> Cover and first spread photographs: “Walk away” art by Dima Asfour> Hand sketch: “Child and fence” art by Mariam Al Hakim> People gathering photograph: art by Dima Asfour> Last spread film still: “Gaza: Tunnels to Nowhere” by Miriam Abu Sharkh> All other images are film stills by their respective directors

Co-Sponsors

This festival has been made possible through the generous contributions of institutional and individual donors.

The Jerusalem Fund for Education and Community Developmentwww.thejerusalemfund.orgMiddle East Studies Program at the George Mason Universitymiddleeast.gmu.eduCenter for Contemporary Arab Studies at Georgetown Univesityccas.georgetown.edu

2012 Program* Tickets are $10 for regular/adult and $8 for students, unless noted.

> Monday, September 24“The Last Friday” (2011, DC Premier!) @ 7:00 pm> Landmark E Street Cinema @ 555 11th Street NW, Washington DC 20004“Man Without a Cell Phone” (2010) @ 6:00 pm> Johnson Center Cinema, GMU, 4400 University Drive, Fairfax VA 22030

> Tuesday, September 25 @ 6:30 pm“Man Without a Cell Phone” (2010) - followed by discussion> Goethe Institute @ 812 7th Street NW, Washington, DC 20001* This event is sponsored by CCAS at Georgetown University.

> Wednesday, September 26 @ 7:00 pmShort Documentaries: “Nukayba” (2010), “Gaza: Tunnels to Nowhere” (2012) & UNRWA Shorts - followed by discussion> Goethe Institute @ 812 7th Street NW, Washington, DC 20001

> Thursday, September 27 @ 7:00 pm“Uncle Nashaat” (2011)> Landmark E Street Cinema @ 555 11th Street NW, Washington DC 20004

> Friday, September 28 @ 7:30 pm“Palestinian Innovators: Love Under Apartheid with Tanya Keilani, sketches by Mousa Kraish & performance by Huda Asfour and Band”> Busboys & Poets @ 2021 14th Street NW, Washington, DC 20009

> Saturday, September 29 @ 6:30 pm“Fouseytube featuring Yousef Erakat” - followed by reception> Goethe Institute @ 812 7th Street NW, Washington, DC 20001* Tickets are $20 for advanced purchase and $25 at the door.

> Sunday, September 30Art Exhibit featuring Dima Asfour & Mariam Al Hakim> Bloombars @ 3222 11th Street NW, Washington, DC 20010* Free entrance.

For info, visit dcpfaf.org/pfaf2012 or email palestinefilmdc@gmail.com