Boston Palestine Film Festival 2008

An unflinching examination of the subject of “honor killings,” still meted out as punishment in some Arab countries that use the tribal system. Though not a common occurrence in Palestine, the risk is all too real for women who live with the possibility that even a suspicion of “impropriety” can put their lives in danger.  Khoury explores the issue through the stories of four women whose experiences will horrify, enrage, surprise and inspire.  Winner of a Silver Muhr Award at the Dubai Film Festival.

Buthina Canaan Khoury, born in Ramallah in 1966, is a Palestinian independent filmmaker who established Majd Production Company in Ramallah city in 2000. The company's main objective is to produce documentaries about women's social and political problems. Khoury received her Bachelors degree in Filmmaking and Photography from the Massachusetts College of Fine Arts in Boston, in 1988. She is the first Palestinian woman to work as cameraperson, producer and coordinator covering special events in the Middle East for the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and several well known European TV channels in Palestine. She has also worked as assistant director, documentary researcher and cameraperson in the films The Woman Next Door, A Woman of Her Times: A Portrait of Hanan Ashrawi, and Youth of Both Sides. Women in Struggle (2004), co-produced with Lichtpunt in Belgium and Medea Fund, is Khoury's first documentary as producer and director. Screened worldwide, the documentary was awarded two prizes at the Allsmalia Film Festival and one at Amwa in Virginia, USA. Her new project, Taste the Revolution is a documentary about her family and their business.

Co-presented with Women in Film and Video New England