HPFF 2009
FILM SCHEDULE
Thursday, April 16, 2009, 7:00 pm
Friday, April 17, 2009, 7:00 pm
Space Exodus
Director Larissa Sansour
2008, 15 minutes
In ‘A Space Exodus’, the Palestinian-born multi-media artist Larissa Sansour vividly re-imagines scenes from Stanley Kubrick’s ’2001: A Space Odyssey’, as she floats through the universe on a mission to become the first Palestinian on the moon. A thrilling, surreal interstellar journey, Sansour’s quirky short discusses themes of identity and displacement through a bold, imaginative journey, unlike anything you’ve ever seen before.
Salt of This Sea
Director Annemarie Jacir
Israel, 2008, 109 minutes
Annemarie Jacir and Lead Actress Suheir Hammad in attendance
A dramatic and edgy thriller, set in modern-day Palestine, marks director Annemarie Jacir’s first full-length feature. Soraya is a Brooklyn-born Palestinian, who at the age of 28, is determined to return to her homeland and make a new life for herself. But upon returning, her excitement and optimism is harshly curtailed when she discovers herself blocked from claiming pre-1948 family assets. Disillusioned by the harsh reality of life in the beleaguered territories, she teams up with a young Palestinian, Emad, who’s yearning to escape the country. As the pair struggle to realise their dreams and ambitions, it becomes apparent that they will have to take matters into their own hands and risk everything they have in the search of freedom. A mastery of emotional narrative makes this acclaimed feature stand out, with its sensitive, yet pacy treatment of a gripping story. It was a Cannes Official Selection this year, as well as winning the International Critics Award FIPRESCI Prize at Osians 2008.
Post Film Reception hosted by National Arab American Professionals – Houston Chapter.
Saturday, April 18, 2009, 7 pm
Daggit Gazza
Director Hadeel Assali and Iman Saqr
USA, 2009, 7 min
(To My Father) إلى أبي
Director Abdel-Salam Shehada
Palestine & Tunisia, 2008, 52 minutes
The film shows, the Time being brought by the hand of light, for the story to peek on us, as it (the film) runs from scene to scene, till it turns into Sea with an ancient shore full of sand and memories. We get deceived by the Sea till it burst out of tears, joy, birds, wounds, songs and many things that can not be described nor counted unless in a fresh memory as dew.
Photo here is not just a photo. It is the life that moves toward life, and as the director say, “… the prettiest part of the photo is that it does not get older when we do”. Then he closes his box and leaves. Leaving us with boys’ laughs and their hoping eyes looking silently at a wide space where they can not find their own space in it yet…
Keffiyeh
Director Benoit Faiveley
Palestine, 2008, 7 min
Friday, April 24, 2009, 7:00 pm
People Not Places
Director Iqaa The Olivetone
USA, 2009, 6 minutes
This video is based on the song of the same name by Invincible featuring, Abeer, Suhell Nafar (DAM), and Shadia Mansour, which takes the listener on a journey through a “birthright” tour of Israel where the buried Palestinian significance of each location comes to light. Along the route the video exposes the process of historic and continued colonization as being even deeper than land seizure and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, but one that is invested in erasing the indigenous language, culture, and memory.
Memory of the Cactus
Director Hanna Musleh
Palestine, 2008, 42 minutes
The film follows two separate but parallel journeys. Aisha Um Najeh takes us down the painful road that Palestinians have been forcefully pushed down, separating them in time and place from the land they nurtured; while Israelis walk freely through that land, enjoying its fruits. The stems of the cactus, however, take a few of them to discover the reality of the crime committed.
War of 33
Director Richard Rowley
Palestine, 2007, 35 minutes
Director Richard Rowley
Palestine, 2007, 35 minutes
Invincible will be in attendance!
Saturday, April 25, 2009, 7:00 pm
(Pomegranates and Myrrh) رمان و المر
Director Najwa Najjar
Palestine, 2008, 95 minutes
Ramallah this decade. A free spirited woman dancer, Kamar, finds herself the wife of a prisoner, Zaid, and away from everything she loves until she returns to the dance, defying society’s taboos. At the dance Kamar is confronted with Kais, a Palestinian returnee, who has taken Kamar’s role as the head choreographer. Sparks fly between Kamar and Kais, creating more than a passionate, emotional dance for the both of them. Matters become even more complicated when Zaid’s sentence is extended.
At the same time the family’s legal case against the land confiscation faces one obstacle after another and the villagers from the nearby villages are unable to reach the family’s olive groves, placing the annual harvest and consequently the family’s livelihood in danger. And Kamar’s life is thrown into turmoil as she becomes increasingly attached to Kais, and caught in the midst of her desire to dance and breaking the family and society taboos of the prisoner’s wife’s role while life under occupation rages on.
Arafat & I
Director M. Fleifel
England, 2008, 15 minutes
Marwan is a Palestinian in love. He’s finally met Lisa, the girl he’s going to marry. Everything about her is perfect – she was even born on the same day as Chairman Arafat! But does Lisa know the significance of this coincidence? And how far will Marwan go to make her understand?
Director Mahdi Fleifel will be in attendance
Post Film Reception hosted by Free Press Houston
