FILM season 2010
Fragments of a Lost Palestine
+ Bethlehem Checkpoint
Driving to Zigzigland
FRAGMENTS OF A LOST PALESTINE Filmmaker Norma Marcos has both French and Palestinian passports, yet finds herself a citizen of nowhere. Denied entry to Palestine by the Israeli authorities, she is unable to visit her ailing mother, and spends much of her time on the phone being given the runaround by civil servants. Art comes from the roots. Fragments of a Lost Palestine is a subjective journey, shot as fragmented memories of the director’s country of birth, Palestine, as remembered throughout years in exile. The film is above all an encounter with people—intellectuals, peasants, workers, and the director’s niece as she grows.
The director, Norma Marcos, will be available for a question & answer session after the film.
http://sheffdocfest.com/films/show/5005
BETHLEHEM CHECKPOINT is a poignant lyrical short film exposing the inhuman ordeal Palestinians have to got through just to get to work. 11mins.
A chronicle of a day in the life of a Palestinian cab driver in Los Angeles, DRIVING TO ZIGZIGLAND, portrays the social struggle of the Arab immigrant in post-9/11 America. A film audition typecasts Bashar to play an Al Qaeda terrorist role. The utilities are due and Bashar has twenty-four hours to make the money. For the remaining hours left until tomorrow, an unceasing flow of passengers ride in Bashar's taxi and give the Arab cabbie the run-around on issues that deal with suicide bombers, George Bush, Cat Stevens, the war in Iraq, music, and world geography. Bashar's quest to make the money is won until he realizes he has to choose between the Department of Homeland Security and his family. Shot in Los Angeles and Palestine, based on true stories. 92 mins.
BUDRUS is an award-winning feature documentary film about a Palestinian community organizer, Ayed Morrar, who unites local Fatah and Hamas members along with Israeli supporters in an unarmed movement to save his village of Budrus from destruction by Israel’s Separation Barrier. 70 mins.
On August 23, 2008, 44 ordinary people from 17 different countries sailed from Cyprus to Gaza on two small wooden boats, the FREE GAZA and the LIBERTY - they broke the siege of Gaza. Directed by Fathi Jaouadi, GAZA IN MY MIND is a moving film featuring Sheffield activist Musheir Al Fara attempting to enter Gaza so as to visit his mother's grave. 30mins.
There will be a question and answer session with Fathi and Musheir after the film finishes.
Budrus + Gaza in my mind
Directed by Julian Schnabel, MIRAL is based on the book of the same name by Palestinian-born journalist Rula Jerbeal. The story begins in 1948 with Hind Husseini (Hiam Abbass), a well-to-do Palestinian woman, discovering a group of orphan kids abandoned in the street in bombed-out Jerusalem. She takes them in and sets up a school to educate them. This school rapidly grows until it has up to 2000 pupils. One of these – in the mid Seventies – is Miral, a doe-eyed girl with a troubled and tragic family background. Miral (played as a young adult by Freida Pinto) is a 17-year-old at the time of the first intifada and is inexorably drawn into the struggle against the Israelis. 112 mins.
Miral
Amreeka
AMREEKA chronicles the adventures of Muna, a single mother who leaves the West Bank with Fadi, her teenage son, with dreams of an exciting future in the promised land of small town Illinois. In America, as her son navigates high school hallways the way he used to move through military checkpoints, the indomitable Muna scrambles together a new life cooking up falafel burgers as well as hamburgers at the local White Castle. 96 mins.
friday 26th november - 6pm
See all the films in the season for just £20. To book, call the Showroom box office,
0114 275 7727. Tickets for individual films can be purchased online.
This year, other cities - Leeds, Bristol, York, London - are also showing Palestinian films, under the banner of cinemaPalestino. Find out more from our facebook site; details will be posted as they become available.
A weekend of film and discussion about Palestine
Schedule
Schedule
