Boston Palestine Film Festival 2008

London-based filmmaker Katia Saleh was in Lebanon in 2006 covering the war in Lebanon between Israel and Hezbollah. One year later she went back and found out that the enemy had changed. Now the Palestinian refugees were threatened by a new group called Fateh el Islam who mysteriously entered Lebanon and based itself in the camp of Nahr el Bared in north Lebanon. Katia follows the children who are being displaced again within their own camps. Katia Saleh has been directing and producing her own documentaries over the last two years, making films primarily about the Middle East. The most recent film she has made for Al Jazeera English was Deadly Playground about the remaining 1 million unexploded cluster bombs that Israel dropped in South Lebanon in 2006 and how children are living among them.

The Rules of Engagement for Israeli soldiers are unclear and often lethal. 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.

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

A boat embarks on a besieged Beirut to evacuate foreign nationals. From under the rubble of destroyed buildings, relief workers pull the bodies of the dead. Moving between light and darkness, life and its extinction, bodies redraw the boundaries of other bodies, the smell of death cloaking all. This haunting film, transmits, without music or excessive gestures, in 10 minutes and just five shots, the anguish of death during and in the aftermath of the 2006 Israeli war on Lebanon. Maher Abi Samra studied theatre at the Lebanese University, and majored in audiovisual studies at the Institut National de l'Image et du Son in Paris. He worked as a photographer for Lebanese newspapers and for Agence France Press and Reuters. He wrote and directed several documentaries, including Mariam (2006), Rond-Point Chatila (2004), Women of Hezbollah (2000), and Building on the Waves (1995).

The first of the six-part documentary series Chronicles of the Refugee, Nakba Dailies presents accounts by Palestinian refugees who experienced firsthand the displacement in 1948. Those interviewed come from a wide cross-section of Palestinian society. 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

This screening explores the injustices that are born from occupation. The documentary feature "Edge of Hope" is about a videographer in Ramallah who is trying to get the Palestinian story out to the world. "Against all Odds" is about Arab-Palestinians living in Israel, and shorts by B'Tselem, an Israeli human rights organization, give us an intimate look at the behavior of occupation forces and illegal settlers in the West Bank. We will screen some of their films from 2005-2007 in the West Bank. B'Tselem Since 1989, B'Tselem – the Israeli Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories- has worked to promote human rights by combining first class research, advocacy and public education strategies to effect change. B'Tselem has published over 125 reports on a wide range of human rights issues, produced videos and created an extensive images and video archive, organized major public campaigns, and serves as an important source of information for journalists, researchers and the diplomatic community. For the last few years, B’Tselem has provided video cameras to Palestinians as part of their "Shooting Back" project, so that they might document the extreme conditions of their own lives.

Upon his release from an Israeli prison, older brother Mazen develops romantic feelings for his childhood friend, Raeda. However, Raeda is already engaged to Mazen's younger brother Taher. Each of them find themselves painfully torn between love and loyalty. Honorable Mention San Francisco International Film Festival and Special Jury Prize Cairo International Film Festival. Hanna Elias was born in Jish, a village near Nazareth, Galilee. In 1991 he graduated with an MFA in film production from the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA). He directed several short films, including "The Mountain" (1992). In 1997 he directed and produced the Israeli/Palestinian co-production of Children's Television Workshop of "Sesame Street". Then from 1998-1999, he worked for the United Nations on a series of promotional films on democracy and women rights in Palestine.

To leave her house Malka has to climb through the rooftops. B'Tselem - the Israeli Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories- has worked since 1989 to promote human rights in the occupied territories. B'Tselem combines first class research and innovative advocacy and public education strategies to effect change.

BPFF presents a special program of creative media projects and video shorts (5-10 mins each) by Palestinian youth (ages 10 to 22) living in refugee camps in the West Bank. Weaving together original stories, drama, photography and video these youth express their own perspectives on Palestinian history, culture and life under occupation, as well as their dreams and aspirations. This special program showcases selected work emerging from digital storytelling workshops conducted by Voices Beyond Walls in Summer 2008, as well as selected Student Films from the Palestine Audio-Visual Project (PAVP) supported by the A.M. Qattan Foundation. Discussion with workshop organizers will follows the screenings.