Chicago Palestine Film Festival
From April 25 through May 8, the Gene Siskel Film Center collaborates with the Chicago Palestine Film Festival to present the seventh annual festival representing the spirit and mood of contemporary Palestinian life. This festival is dedicated to exhibiting film and video work that is open, critical, and reflective of the culture, experience, and vision of the artists. This year’s festival opens with the Chicago premiere of the vibrant documentary SLINGSHOT HIP HOP in which young Palestinians turn to a highly politicized form of rap to counter the violence that surrounds them.
The opportunity to meet artists and to engage in audience discussion is always a feature of the Chicago Palestine Film Festival. Director Jackie Salloum appears in person on opening night to discuss her film SLINGSHOT HIP HOP. On May 4, director Osama Qashoo appears with a program of his work including SOY PALESTINO, his bittersweet documentary shot in Cuba.
This year’s festival is made possible in part through the support of the Crossroads Fund and individual contributions. For their invaluable cooperation the Gene Siskel Film Center thanks the members of the Chicago Palestine Film Festival Committee.
--Barbara Scharres
DRIVING TO ZIGZIGLAND
2006, Nicole Ballivian, USA, 92 min.
With Bashar Da’as, Hussam Abu Eisheh
A PALESTINIAN MURAL
2007, Norma Shiheiber, USA, 12 min.
DRIVING TO ZIZIGLAND, a drama with a black-comic style, is based on the daily routine of a Palestinian actor working as an L.A. cabdriver. To deflect the curiosity of passengers, Bashar fabricates an island homeland off the coast of South America. In the course of a 24-hour marathon to earn a much-needed $500, he’s robbed, ticketed, insulted, threatened with deportation, and offered an acting job as an al Qaeda terrorist. In English and Arabic with English subtitles. DigiBeta video.
A PALESTINIAN MURAL charts the struggle between Palestinian students and a state college administration over the content of a mural honoring Edward Said. In English. Mini-DV video. (BS)
Saturday, April 26, 8:00 pm
Wednesday, April 30, 6:00
THE EDGE OF HOPE
(AM RAND DER HOFFNUNG)
2006, Gerd Schneider, Germany, 52 min.
JERUSALEM: THE EAST SIDE STORY
2007, Mohammed Alatar, Palestine, 57 min.
In THE EDGE OF HOPE, 35-year-old Ramadan plies his trade as a cameraman for Al-Jazeera against the background of the 2005 Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza strip. Born and bred in the camps, he feels the weight of history in his role as recorder of daily life in all its contradictions. In Arabic with English subtitles. DigiBeta video. (BS)
A holy city venerated by three religions, Jerusalem represents the heart of the Israel-Palestine conflict. In JERUSALEM: THE EAST SIDE STORY, filmmaker Alatar (THE IRON WALL) provides an incisive overview of the subject, from the 1947 partition to the 1967 occupation to the more recent Israeli policies of demolition and resettlement, which the film presents as examples of ethnic cleansing. In English, Arabic, and Hebrew with English subtitles. DVCAM video. (MR)
Monday, May 5, 8:00 pm
Thursday, May 8, 8:00
PALESTINE 1948 NAKBA
2008, Ryuichi Hirokawa, Japan, 131 min.
This year marks the 60th anniversary of the birth of Israel. It is also the anniversary of Nakba (Arabic for “catastrophe”)--i.e., the displacement of 700,000 Palestinians by that event. While working on a Kibbutz in 1967, Japanese photojournalist Hirokawa came upon the rubble of a destroyed Palestinian village. This epic film, culled from over 1000 hours of footage, is the result of Hirokawa’s forty-year quest to uncover the story of that village and the erased history of expulsion and occupation that it represents. In Arabic, Hebrew, Japanese, and English with English subtitles. DVCAM video. (MR)
Sunday, May 4, 5:15
THE ROOF
(ALSATEH)
2007, Jamal Aljafari, Palestine/Germany, 61 min.
WAITING FOR BEN GURION
(EN ATTENDANT BEN GURION)
2006, Norma Marcos, France/Palestine, 30 min.
THE ROOF’s Palestine is a surreal world where some reside uneasily in houses not their own and others continue to inhabit homes with walls ripped away as if living in display windows. Director Aljafari’s haunting portrait conveys languor, beauty, and love of the land in all its chaos. In Arabic with English subtitles. Mini-DV video.
Filmmaker Marcos’s playful method in WAITING FOR BEN GURION underlines the absurdity of injustice when Israeli airport officials hold her in detention for seven weeks after refusing to recognize her French passport. In Arabic and English with English subtitles. Mini-DV video. (BS)
Saturday, April 26, 5:00 pm
Monday, April 28, 8:00
Opening night film!
Jackie Salloum in person!
SLINGSHOT HIP HOP
2008, Jackie Salloum, USA, 88 min.
“Rap becomes the nonviolent weapon of choice for several young Palestinians.”--Justin Chang, Variety
Creative energy bursts from this documentary chronicling Palestine’s love affair with rap. In just a few short years, groups like DAM and PR, and individual musicians including MWR and female rappers Abeer and Arapeyat have cultivated a vast youth audience with empowering and highly politicized songs originally inspired by African American rap groups including Public Enemy. Suhell Nafar of DAM, the group best known for its hit single “Who’s the Terrorist?,” narrates an insider’s orientation to all things rap in Palestine, from packed outdoor concerts to work with kids hungry for positive role models. In Arabic, Hebrew, and English with English subtitles. Digital video. (BS)
Director Jackie Salloum will be present for audience discussion.
Friday, April 25, 8:15
SLINGSHOT HIP HOP
2008, Jackie Salloum, USA, 88 min.
DRYING UP PALESTINE
2007, Rima Essa and Peter Snowdon, Palestine, 28 min.
See above listing for a full description of SLINGSHOT HIP HOP, which plays with DRYING UP PALESTINE on May 3 only.
“What’s it like to live with less than one raindrop out of every ten,” inquires DRYING UP PALESTINE, an incisive documentary charting Israeli initiatives to siphon off the groundwater from under Palestinian villages. In Arabic with English subtitles. Mini-DV video. (BS)
Saturday, May 3, 8:00
Osama Qashoo in person!
SOY PALESTINO
(ANA FALASTINI)
2007, Osama Qashoo, Palestine/UK/Cuba, 65 min.
INSIDE OUTSIDE
2005, Osama Qashoo, UK, 24 min.
NO CHOICE BASIS
2006, Osama Qashoo, UK, 15 min.
While visiting Havana, director Qashoo overhears a street musician named Luisito singing “Soy Palestino (I am Palestinian).” Could this be a fellow countryman? Qashoo learns that “Palestino” is derogatory Havana slang for second-class citizens from the eastern part of the island, and he realizes that he has much in common with his Palestino friend. Qashoo’s vibrant, impressionistic style matches the bittersweet lilt of Luisito’s music shot-for-shot and note-for-note. In Spanish and English with English subtitles. Digital video. (MR)
In INSIDE OUTSIDE, the filmmaker absorbs the frustration and cultural drift of a London family in permanent exile. In NO CHOICE BASIS, the telephone becomes the filmmaker’s lifeline to Palestine. Both in Arabic and English with English subtitles. DigiBeta video. (BS)
Director Osama Qashoo will be present for audience discussion on Sunday.
Sunday, May 4, 3:00 pm
Thursday, May 8, 6:00
USA VS. AL-ARIAN
2006, Line Halvorsen, Norway, 102 min.
EVERYWHERE WAS THE SAME
2007, Basma al-Sharif, Palestine/USA, 12 min.
“Eye-opening…USA VS. AL-ARIAN throws the spotlight on a justice system shanghaied by the Patriot Act.”--Jay Weissberg, Variety
One night in 2003, police raid the home of University of South Florida professor and Palestinian activist Sammi Al-Arian, a community leader so respected that he had advised both Clinton and Bush on Palestinian issues. Arrested and charged with a broad menu of alleged terrorist activities under the Patriot Act, he is held for two years before the trial. Al-Alrian and his family discover the nightmare is just beginning when the government refuses to release him once a jury finds him completely innocent. In English and Arabic with English subtitles. DV-CAM video.
The poetic imagery of EVERYWHERE WAS THE SAME makes for a cryptic counterpoint with a voice from the Madrid peace talks. In English and Arabic with English subtitles. Mini-DV video. (BS)