Boston Palestine Film Festival 2008

The third in a series entitled Inessential (Gaza in Three Pieces) documents the Mahmouds, a family of seven living in Bureij Refugee Camp. The medical infrastructure in Gaza is unable to adequately support the medical needs of Mounir and his sons. The family tries to live as normal a life as possible, between power cuts and aerial strikes.

Maryam Monalisa Gharavi visited Gaza and filmed Inessential in January 2008. She has written/directed several short films, including Psychosomatic (2005) Dreams of Wingless Flight (2003) and All About My Lover (2002). She worked on feature film projects Situation Room #2 (2005) with NY-based director Steve Staso, Security (2005) with Cannes/Sundance-winning director Rob Nilsson, and most recently on the PBS television documentary Stand Up: Muslim American Comics Come of Age (2008). She has screened her work at the Pacific Film Archive, Women of Color Film Festival, Anthology Film Archive, among others. Currently she is a doctoral candidate in Comparative Literature and Film and Visual Studies at Harvard University.