2005 Pittsburgh Palestine Film Series
For the first time, Pittsburgh hosts a film series featuring documentaries, shorts and feature films narrating the Palestinian story. Ten works will screen between October 21 and December 2, 2005, coordinated by the Pittsburgh Palestine Solidarity Committee and the Students for Justice in Palestine. Funding has been provided through a generous grant from the Three Rivers Community Foundation.
Each film will be introduced by local students from Gaza, the West Bank and Israel or local community members each having their own stories about when they began to identify with the Palestinian people.
Visit the Pittsburgh Palestine Solidarity Committee website for complete listing of guest speakers, moderators, film descriptions, maps to film venues, and links to informative websites. Please join us in this journey to learn and seek a glimpse of what it means to be a Palestinian.
Donations of $3.00 will be accepted during all showings
Fri Oct 21 | Sun Oct 23 | Sun Oct 30 | Fri Nov 4
Sun Nov 6 | Fri Nov 11 | Sun Nov 13 | Sun Nov 20 | Fri Dec 2
Friday Oct. 21, 7:30 PM
Join us for the opening reception of the first Palestine Films Series in Pittsburgh. In the tradition of the Middle East, enjoy homemade Palestinian delicacies, music, film screening and discussion.
Location: Friends Meeting House, 4836 Ellsworth Ave, Shadyside, 15213, (412) 683-2669 Mapquest Map
Special Guest Speaker: Suha Araj, director of I am Palestine
Films: I am Palestine and Jerusalem 1948
I AM PALESTINE is the exploration of a stateless nation, one that exists despite the powerful forces that try to crush it. Palestine is a people whom refuse to be defeated, who continue to hold their heads high. Generations on every continent keep Palestine alive through stories, memories and hope. I am Palestine is a window into what it means to be a Palestinian while Palestine does not exist, and how a collective experience and a profound hope holds Palestine together. One story, one struggle, millions of lives. This is about a passion to live, a purpose to exist and a reason to believe in a future. Director: Suha Araj; Documentary, 2003, 49 minutes, English with Subtitles, Arabic with Voice Over
JERUSALEM 1948 covers the events in Jerusalem and the major villages to the south and west in the period between the 1947 UN Partition Resolution and the first truce between the Arab and Israel armed forces in June 1948. The film challenges the major myths surrounding the war of 1948 that resulted in Israeli statehood and Palestinian exile. The film aims, on the one hand, to explain the historical complexity of the Palestinian Nakba in 1948 and provide insight into the diversity of Palestinian refugee experiences since then. Palestinian eyewitnesses and experts, now refugees living in refugee camps, villages and cities in Palestine, Jordan and the USA tell the story of their lives in pre-1948 Jerusalem.
Sunday, October 23, 7:30 PM
Location: Carnegie Mellon University, 100 Porter Hall, 100 Frew Street (Across from Flagstaff Hill)
Film: Palestine is Still the Issue
PALESTINE IS STILL THE ISSUE. In this in-depth documentary, John Pilger asks why the Palestinians, whose right of return was affirmed by the United Nations more than half a century ago, are still caught in a terrible limbo -- refugees in their own land, controlled by Israel in the longest military occupation in modern times. In a series of extraordinary interviews with both Palestinians and Israelis, Pilger weaves together the issue of Palestine. Continually asking for the solution, John Pilger says it is time to bring justice, as well as peace, to Palestine. Awarded the Chris Award, Columbus International Film & Video Festival
Best of Category, Vermont International Film Festival, Certificate of Merit, Chicago International Television Awards and the Mountaintop Film Festival, Vermont. Director: Anthony Stark; 2002; 53 minutes; English
Sunday, October 30, 7:30 PM
Location: Carnegie Mellon University, 100 Porter Hall, 100 Frew Street (Across from Flagstaff Hill)
Film: Women in Struggle
The documentary film WOMEN IN STRUGGLE is about Palestinian women whom are ex-political detainees demonstrating their struggle during their years of imprisonment in Israeli jails exploring the affects and influence on their present life and their future outlook.
The focus is on the lives of four women who came out of their regular roles as sisters, mothers, wives, and took on a different role being involved in the Palestinian national struggle for independence. Without narration, these women give their testimony in their own words about their past difficult experiences, of their suffering while living their daily difficult life in the current Palestinian Intifada which was not an element present during the initial research of this documentary nor was the so called “war on terror” and the apartheid wall.
These additional three elements have made this film critical in exploring, identifying, and understanding how these women detainees made the effort to preserve their dignity and integrate in the social and political aspects of the Palestinian life. Although these four women are out of the actual Israeli prison they actually find themselves in a bigger prison carrying “prison” within them in every aspect of their life. Director: Buthina Canaan Khoury; 2004; 56 minutes; Arabic with English subtitles
Friday, November 4, 7:30 PM
Location: Monumental Baptist Church, 2240 Wylie Ave 15219 Mapquest directions
Film: The Israeli Wall in Palestinian Lands
THE ISRAELI WALL IN PALESTINIAN LANDS was made during a time in Palestine when the “Wall” that separates Palestinians from each other and from Israelis was one quarter completed. The film offers the viewer a perspective from seven diverse and ordinary Palestinians whose lives are directly affected by the wall.
You will meet a businessman from Abu Dis, a neighborhood of East Jerusalem, a young mother from Dheishe Refugee Camp near Bethlehem, a music student from Ramallah, a community center director from Jerusalem's Old City, a farmer from the northern Qalqilya district, the director of the Stop the Wall campaign and finally, a member of the African-Palestinian community.
Viewers will witness the effects of the Apartheid Wall on the Palestinian people, and come out with the inescapable conclusion that this wall is another tool in Israel's ethnic cleansing efforts against the Palestinian population. Directors: Andrew Courtney & Emily Perry ; 2004; 43 minutes; English and Arabic with English Subtitles
Sunday, November 6, 7:30 PM
Location: Pittsburgh Mennonite Church, 4005 Murray Ave, 15217
Film: Jenin, Jenin: The Second Intifada
JENIN, JENIN: THE SECOND INTIFADA. A camera crew filmed at the site of the Jenin refugee camp only a few days after the overwhelming attack of the Israeli army in April 2002. The cameras captured the camp at a time when the people still had not fully understood what happened. The film is not an informational report about these events, but a description of the traces left by the events on the inhabitants. It depicts resistance, heroism, and victory despite death and destruction. Director: Mohamed Bakri; 2002; 54 minutes; Arabic with English subtitles
Friday, November 11, 7:30 PM
Location: First Methodist Church, Centre & S Aiken Avenues, Shadyside, 15233
Film: Frontiers and Dreams
FRONTIERS AND DREAMS focuses on two teenage girls, Mona and Manar, living in Palestinian refugee camps. Although living in refugee camps miles apart, the girls manage to communicate and become friends with each other despite the overwhelming barriers separating them. The film reveals their lives and dreams and their growing relationship, at first through email, then culminating in their dramatic meeting at the fence that separates them at the Lebanese/Israeli border. Directors: Mai Masri & Jean Chamoun; 2001; 56 minutes; Documentary; Arabic with English subtitles
Sunday, November 13, 7:30 PM
Location: David Lawrence Hall, University of Pittsburgh, 3942 Forbes Avenue, 15213, Mapquest directions
Film: Arna's Children
ARNA'S CHILDREN. Arna Mer Khamis, a legendary activist for the rights of the Palestinian people, founded a theatre group at a refugee camp, teaching children to express themselves through acting. Her son Juliano filmed her working with the children over a 6-year period; following her death, he returns to the camp to find out what became of the young refugees. Best Documentary Feature winner at the 2004 Tribeca Film Festival. Director: Julian Mer Kamis; 2003; 84 minutes; Documentary; Arabic and Hebrew with English subtitles
Sunday, November 20, 7:30 PM
Location: David Lawrence Hall, University of Pittsburgh, 3942 Forbes Avenue, 15213 Mapquest directions
Film: The Killing Zone
Friday, December 2, 7:30 PM
Location: TBA, University of Pittsburgh
Film: Rachel: An American Conscience
RACHEL: AN AMERICAN CONSCIENCE. Activists from all struggles have been deeply affected by Rachel's story and the struggle of the Palestinian people resonates for all who care about issues of human rights and justice. Palestinian director Yahya Barakat's power documentary goes beyond the politics of the Occupation to depict facts on the ground. The director shows the Palestinian dilemma and what motivates members of the international peace movement to come to Palestine. Director: Yahya Barakat; 2005; 56 minutes; Arabic with English subtitles
