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Chronicles of a Refugee Episode V – “The Talk of Return” By Perla Issa, Adam Shapiro and Aseel Mansour (USA, 2008, 78 min, DigiBeta)
November 5, 2008 7:30 PM
Cantor Film Center, New York University, 36 East 8th Street, New York City
The Talk of Return looks at the issue of right of return in terms of what has been done to achieve it over the years. Through interviews and archival footage, the episode explores the work of the PLO and various civil society organizations in the past, while also looking at how refugees today are responding to the lack of institutional progress on the issue
Adam Shapiro is a documentary filmmaker, human rights activist and Palestinian rights activist. Currently he is filming a documentary on Palestinian refugees all over the world to be released in time for the 60th anniversary of al-Nakba. He is also working with a colleague in an independent effort to help find durable solutions for the Palestinian refugees of Iraq. He last served as Country Director in Afghanistan for the international human rights organization Global Rights. Adam is a Ph.D. candidate in International Relations at American University, and holds a MA in Politics from New York University and a MA in Arab Studies from Georgetown University. He is a founding member of InCounter Productions which produced the award-winning documentary film, 'About Baghdad' (Spring 2004). He has also directed and produced 'darfur diaries: message from home' (Fall 2005), 'becoming nadya' (short film, 2007) and is currently working on 'Kabul Dolls' (2009). His films have screened at film festivals all over the world and have been broadcast on television in the Middle East, Europe and the US. Adam is co-author of the book, "darfur diaries: stories of survival" (Nation Books). In Palestine, Adam was a co-founder of the International Solidarity Movement and lived and worked in the Occupied Palestinian Territories for three years. He serves on the Advisory Board of UMMA, and was named an Honorary Veteran for Peace in 2002.
Perla Issa is a documentary filmmaker and human rights activist based in Beirut, Lebanon. She has volunteered with the ISM in the Occupied Palestinian Territories and with Samidoun in Lebanon during the 2006 summer war. She has worked on the documentary series “Arabs and Terrorism” (2007), and has produced short films on displaced refugees from Nahr El-Bared. Perla has also volunteered teaching in the Shatila refugee camp in Beirut. She holds a MA in Arab Studies from Georgetown University and a MA in Mechanical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Perla is a Palestinian refugee.
Aseel Mansour is an award winning Palestinian filmmaker and photographer currently living and working in Dubai at Microsoft. He has directed and produced a number of short films and has been selected to attend international film institutes on account of his work. Aseel holds a BS degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Jordan
Filmmaker's Biography
Hala KHALIL was born in 1967 in Egypt and graduated in directing from the Cairo Academy in 1992. Her award-winning short films include The Kite. She made her feature directing debut with The Best of Times (2004), which won awards at the Arab Film Festival, Rotterdam, the Rabat Film Festival and the Egyptian Film Critics’ Association.
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