Boston Palestine Film Festival 2008

Part of the six-part documentary series Chronicles of the Refugee, “Identity without a Homeland” debates the formation of the Palestinian identity since the Nakba. How is the Palestinian identity transmitted to new generations of refugees? How important are the camps to preserving Palestinian identity? How does citizenship and immigration affect the Palestinian identity? Shapiro, Issa and Mansour interview Palestinian refugees from over 25 countries. Adam Shapiro is co-founder of the International Solidarity Movement, and has previously made the documentaries About Baghdad (05), Darfur Diaries (06), Becoming Nadya (07) and Nowhere to Flee (07). Perla Issa is a Palestinian from Lebanon, who recently produced a short documentary on Nahr Al-Bared (07). She also worked with Shapiro on the documentary Nowhere to Flee (07) and was part of the team that produced the documentary series, Arabs and Terrorism (07). Aseel Mansour is an independent Palestinian filmmaker from Jordan. His filmography includes: Little Feet (06); Nightmares of Reality, (03) co-director; and Alert Guns (04). Trailer: Chronicles of a Refugee Preview

The first in a series entitled Inessential (Gaza in Three Pieces), this short film records a Gazan fisherman describing the Israeli-imposed economic stranglehold that threatens his livelihood. Once among the proudest and most skilled population within Palestinian society, Gaza’s fishermen are now its poorest. Israel has drastically reduced the nautical miles in which fishermen can make their living, leaving them with nothing to fish and little to do. In this short piece, Hussam al-Habash, a member of the fishermen’s syndicate, describes life under the siege, and common harassment and shooting incidents against Palestinian fishermen. 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.

The second in a series entitled Inessential (Gaza in Three Pieces), this short film features farmers relating the effects of Israeli blockades on their ability to farm. Long crippled by the effects of Israeli bulldozing, shelling, and sanctions, the farms of Beit Hanoun, located just four miles from Israel, have been shut down. An eerie silence punctuated by occasional Israeli strikes envelops the farm. 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.

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.

An artistic interpretation of the late Palestinian poet, Mahmoud Darwish’s, poem “Intensive care unit.” The film uses photomontage with abstract black and white cinematic scenes shot by youth in the Shufat refugee camp, to express the deeper meaning of this heartfelt poem. The poem, spoken by a man and a young girl, is recorded in a small studio in the camp. The film being produced merely 2 weeks after the death of Darwish holds a special meaning for the youth and audiences today. Youth Filmmakers: Alaa Edreis, Baraa Eshhadeh, Khaled Esheikh, Ola Abu Taleb and Wardeh Edkedek Supervised by Anne Paq and Nitin Sawhney The film was produced during the Digital Storytelling Workshop conducted by Voices Beyond Walls in the Shufat Refugee Camp in East Jerusalem in August 2008.

This film juxtaposes archival footage of archaeological digs in Jerusalem with quotations of Biblical punishment for adultery. The result is an oblique but provocative look at Jerusalem’s status as an ancient city and as territory claimed by both Palestine and Israel. Matthias De Groof is an independent photographer and filmmaker who co-runs Laboratoire d’Ondes, a collective consisting of videographers and curators hosting cinema events in Antwerp. His The Wall, a series of collages depicting the separation wall in Palestine, was selected by Fotografie Circuit for a touring exhibition of two years. He has had his work screened worldwide. He currently teaches at the Film Studies Department of the University of Antwerp.

During a Tulkarem raid, the Israeli Defense Force kills an innocent mother. B'Tselem is part of the Israeli Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories has, for the past 20 years, been combining first class research, innovative advocacy and public education strategies to effect change.

Denmark-based Palestinian video artist, Larissa Sansour explores the notion of territory as constitutive not only of national but also personal identity.  This work is both a requiem for a particular piece of stolen land and a wistful hymn for all of Palestine’s lands. Larissa Sansour , born in Jerusalem in 1973, studied Fine Arts in Copenhagen, London and New York, and graduated with a master’s degree from New York University. Her work is interdisciplinary, immersed in the current political dialogue, and utilizes video, photography, experimental documentary as well as the Internet. Sansour’s work has been exhibited worldwide in galleries, museums as well as film festivals. Her most notable shows include the Tate Modern in London, UK, in May 2007 and the National Museum of Queen Sofia in Madrid, Spain, in September 2007. Besides videos, she has recently been commissioned to create a mega-billboard for the Images of the Middle East festival that took place in Copenhagen in the summer of 2006. She lives and works in Copenhagen.

In this documentary the late 19th century birth of Zionism—and its repercussions for Palestinians—is detailed with original source documents, rare archival footage, testimonies of witnesses and interviews with historians. All help to illustrate that the expulsion of the indigenous Arab population from Palestine was far from an accidental result of the 1948 war. This award-winning film shines a spotlight on the ethnic cleansing of Palestine by the Zionist movement. 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. Her documentaries include: “Une Palestinienne face à la Palestine”, “Le Pays de Blanche”, "La Terre Parle Arabe" and wrote and produced "Jaffa la Mienne" and "Loin de Falastin".