Hopefully for the Best by Raed Helou (Palestine, 2004, 42 min, DVCam) U.S. Premiere

Synopsis:

Director Raed Helou describes Ramallah during the tense winter before the US invasion of Iraq as “calm, like snow on graves, and angry as an old woman who has lost everything.” The curious monotony of life during an uprising is the subject of the peripatetic camera that roams the rain-slashed streets of Ramallah. In brief encounters with Ramallah’s street sweepers, bakers and hummus makers, anxiety simmers below the surface, but everyone seeks a bit of “normal” life in the early morning, before political realities take hold of the day.
In Aribic w/English subtitles.

Followed by Mashallah

Introductory remarks by Ryan LaHurd, President, Near East Foundation
Post-screening panel discussion with filmmaker Raed Helou and Hamid Dabashi (Columbia University). 

Filmmaker’s Bio:

A native of Gaza, Raed Helou moved to the West Bank in 1994, living between Ramallah and Jerusalem. Mr. Helou began his career as a cameraman and has worked as a freelancer with most of Many Arab and foreign television stations, including al-Jazeera, Nile TV, BBC, Channel 4, SAT 1, TV 5. He has made a number of documentary films, including Gaza Tea Boy (1998) and Local (2002) with Ismail Habash and Imad Ahmed. Hopefully for the Best is Mr. Helou’s most recent film.

Festivals and Awards:

• First prize, Ramallah Film Festival, 2004
• Palestinian Silver Award, Jerusalem Film Festival, 2004
• Minneapolis Arab Film Festival, 2004

Reviews:

The main award [at the Ramallah Film Festival], which came with a year at the National Film and Television School in London with travel, accommodation and living expenses provided by a private English donor, went to a truly remarkable film. Raed Al Helou's Hopefully for the Best is a personal, hypnotic and minimalist journey through Ramallah… He wanted, he says, to make a film that spoke to his refusal to accept the way he has to live, that was about love and feelings, not about the situation. The result is a testament to cinema and a signpost for his fellow film-makers.
—Sheila Whitaker, The Guardian (U.K)

Print Source:

Raed Helou
Email: rhelou29@hotmail.com