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Every
year, millions of applicants take the national test necessary to
qualify for university study in Iran. Only a small percentage succeed;
however, the nearly impossible nature of the exam does not deter
young people from trying to enter higher education and improve their
lot in life. Nasser Refaie’s eloquent, gripping debut takes
place in one of the designated centers where women are permitted
to take the exam. Unfolding in real time, the film begins with the
early morning arrival of the applicants and, shifting its focus
from girl to girl, exposes the hopes and dreams of a generation. In Persian with English subtitles. Opening remarks by Ella Shohat Post-screening panel discussion with Godfrey Cheshire (film critic, NYC), Roxanne Varzi (NYU) & Shouleh Vatanabadi (NYU) Join us for an opening night reception following the screening at the Kevorkian Center, 50 Washington Square South, on the corner of Sullivan Street. Hosted by Arabic Women’s eNews. Program co-presented by the Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality, NYU, and Arabic Women’s eNews |
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September 27, 6PM: My Lost Home by Kamal El Mahouti (France/Morocco, 2001, 19 minutes, BetaSP) |
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| On
the eve of its demolition, Moroccan-born filmmaker Kamal El Mahouti
revisits the housing project in Saint-Dénis, France, where
he lived from the age of six. His delicate, impressionistic document
probes the graffiti-covered walls, broken windows, and empty stairwells
of a bleak apartment block to retrieve the memories of an immigrant
family, its difficulties and rituals. In French and Arabic with English subtitles. |
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| Effaced
by Nadine Shamounki
(USA, 2001, 20 minutes, BetaSP) |
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Winner
of Best Personal Documentary - Mixed Messages 2002 Awards, Effaced
is a documemoir of one family’s journey from war and in search
of a homeland. The filmmaker’s grandfather, an Assyrian, survived
the Ottoman massacre of 1915-1917 and escaped Turkey for Palestine
at the age of six. With the establishment of the State of Israel
in 1948, the family, like many Palestinians, was displaced to Jordan,
and later to Lebanon and the United States. Tracing her family’s
forced journeys, Shamounki reflects on her inherited loss and the
history of a people constantly on the run as they search for a safe
"Home." |
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Crossing Kalandia by Sobhi al-Zobeidi (Palestine, 2002, 50 minutes, BetaSP) |
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| In
a casual, video-diary style, Sobhi al-Zobeidi records a year in the
life of Palestinians living in the West Bank through the daily routine
at the Kalandia checkpoint between Jerusalem and Ramallah. Recording
the humiliations and the violence of segregation during the second
Intifada, the roving camera takes in the tragedies and altercations,
the tedium of curfews and the rare moments of freedom, like driving
without stopping. What emerges is an intimate, graceful portrait of
average Palestinians who withstand daily suffering, yet are dedicated
to preserving their dignity and the simple pleasures of daily life.
In Arabic with English subtitles. |
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| Post-screening
panel discussion with filmmaker Nadine
Shamounki, Charles Anderson (NYU) and Joseph Massad
(Columbia University) |
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October 11, 6PM: Piano, Piano Kid by Tunc Basaran (Turkey, 1990, 130 minutes, 35mm) |
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From
the perspective of view of eight-year old Kemal, Piano, Piano
Kid tells the sentimental story of several families who share
a large house in Istanbul during World War II. Although conditions
are difficult, the families rely on mutual support. The original
meaning of the word "piano" is "quiet" or "soft,"
so when Kemal's uncle Kerim admonishes him by saying "Piano
piano kid," he encourages his nephew to go through life softly.
The boy is surrounded by eccentric people like his Uncle Kerim,
who hopes to improve his family's lot through a great deal on old
coins. His father is a compulsive gambler, and aside from rents
paid by their tenants, the family earns most of its income through
Kemal's mother's acting jobs. This sweeping, coming–of-age
drama won the Best Director Award at the 1991 Istanbul Film Festival.
Post-screening panel discussion with Mevlut Akkaya (Moon and Stars Project), Kerem Bayrak (film consultant, NYC) and Carole Woodall (NYU) Program curated
and co-presented by the Moon and Stars Project |
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SHORTS:WOMEN, IMMIGRATION AND DISPLACEMENT October 25, 6PM: Meantime in Beirut by Merdad Hage (Lebanon, 2002, 29 minutes, BetaSP) |
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| Lamice,
a Lebanese woman and Canadian citizen, returns to Beirut to decide
whether or not she wants to renovate her family's dilapidated apartment
and take up residence. She soon discovers that the past is never far
away in the beleaguered city, where memories of her war-torn childhood
haunt her. Through her struggle to find a builder, she lives out the
challenges faced by post-civil war Lebanon. In Arabic with English subtitles. |
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| The
Way Out by Samia
Maskaldji (Algeria/France 37 minnutes, 35mm) |
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| Unmarried
Leila, a young Algerian woman, passes time with her son, Nabil, by
playing guessing games on the beach in their small French town. But
their peaceful way of life slowly unravels as Leila sinks into a depression
as mysterious as the sea that surrounds them. The playful "Who
are you?" becomes a question that hangs with growing uncertainty
between mother and son. In French with English subtitles. |
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| Foreigner
by Danielle
Arbid (Lebanon/France 2002, 45 minutes, 35mm) |
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| Margot
is an immigrant from a country on the other side of the Mediterranean
Sea. At 78, she still walks across Paris every day to iron clothes
at the apartments of the well-to-do. Margot seldom meets her employers,
yet she absorbs their world like a child in a dollhouse. In French with English subtitles. |
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Post-screening panel discussion with Rabab Abdulhadi (NYU), Laura Bier (NYU) and Anahid Kassabian (Fordham University) Program co-presented
by the Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality, NYU |
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November 8, 6PM: Terra Incognita by Ghassam Salhab (Lebanon/France, 2002, 120 minutes, 35mm) |
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Beirut
is a city that has been destroyed and rebuilt at least seven times.
What lives, what stories could one create, after the most recent
disaster in Lebanon? Soraya is a guide who takes tourists on the
trails of ancient civilizations as well as sites of recent destruction
from the Lebanese civil war. Unable to commit, she surrenders herself
to passing lovers. Her friend Leyla sails between mysticism and
atheism. Nadim, an architect, tries to reinvent his city while Tarek
wonders why he ever returned to his country. The four friends are
stuck in the present, afraid to look back and even more afraid to
face the future. Post-screening
panel discussion with filmmaker Ghassan
Salhab, Nana Asfour (film critic, NYC) and Moukhtar
Kocache (Lower Manhattan Cultural Council) |
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November 22, 6PM: Low Heights by Ebrahim Hatamikia (Iran, 2002, 115 minutes, 35mm) |
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Against
the resonant backdrop of September 11, 2001, a nerve-frayed man
orchestrates a hijacking to fly his child and pregnant wife out
of Iran and provide them with a better life. His scheme includes
filling the aircraft with his raucous extended family by telling
them he has secured them jobs at a British oil company. A huge box
office hit in Iran, this wild, fast-paced tragicomedy explores different
facets of the country's disillusionment and despair with energy,
humor and insight. Filmmaker Ebrahim Hatamikia, who started out
making propaganda films during the Iran-Iraq war, displays in this
film his growing criticism of the Islamic Republic and a world order
that encroaches on human dignity and freedom. Post-screening
panel discussion with Godfrey Cheshire (critic, NYC) and Roxanne
Varsi (NYU) |
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December 6, 6PM: The Black Panthers (in Israel) Speak by Eli Hamo and Sami Chetri (Israel, 2003, 53 minutes, BetaSP) |
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| The
uprising of the Black Panthers in the early 1970s had a radical effect
on Israeli society. It signaled an awakening of Mizrahi cultural consciousness
that continues to this day. The movement took the Mizrahi/class struggle
out of its local and nationalist Jewish framework, linking it to the
civil rights struggle in the United States, Third World Marxism, and,
for the first time, to the Palestinian struggle in Israel. In this
film, key players in the movement talk about the Mizrahi struggle
in the 1970s and now. In Hebrew with English subtitles. |
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| Drowning
by Bullets by Philip
Brooks and Alan Hayling (France, 1992, 52 minutes VHS |
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| This
thorough exposé investigates the 1961 killing of some 200 peaceful
Algerian protesters by police in Paris during the Algerian war. The
massacre was subject to an aggressive cover-up and media blackout,
so that it is now barely remembered. As eyewitness accounts from police,
journalists, and protesters recreate the events of that bloody night,
the film also tells the larger story of how France’s war in
Algeria was used to justify racism, brutality and disregard for the
most basic civil rights. In French with English subtitles. |
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| Post-screening
panel discussion with filmmaker Sami
Shalom Chetrit, Ammiel Alcalay (Queens College), Mustafa
Bayoumi (Brooklyn College) and Ella Shohat (NYU) |
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December 13, 6PM: Bedwin Hacker by Nadia El fani (Tunisia/Morocco, 2002, 103 minutes, 35mm) |
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| The
first Tunisian film with a high-tech theme, Bedwin Hacker
opens with a computer hacker in a Tunisian oasis who hijacks the foreign
airwaves to broadcast a message in Arabic: " In the third millennium,
other periods, places and lives exist. We are not mirages." A
French surveillance department sets out to track "Bedwin Hacker."
Julia, alias Agent Marianne, recognizes the signature as that of an
old rival and sends her boyfriend, back in his native Tunisia, on
reconnaissance. In her debut feature, filmmaker Nadia El Fani works
against stereotypes of North African women in domestic roles and presents
an intriguing cast of subversive female characters. In Arabic and French with English subtitles. |
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| Khmissa
by Molka Mahdaoui
(Tunisia/France 2000, 14 minutes, 35 mm) |
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| La
Marsa, Tunisia, a wealthy suburb, a luxurious house. A woman is preparing
to commit suicide with sleeping pills before her husband returns from
a business trip, when the doorbell rings. Khmissa, an old Bedouin
who is collecting stale bread in the area is at the door. She rings
a second time… In Arabic with English subtitles. |
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| Post-screening panel discussion with director Nadia El Fani and leading actress Sonia Hamza, Mona Altahawy (Women’s e-News) and Emna Zghal (artist, NYC) | |||||||||
