Columbia University's Department of Middle East and Asian Languages and Cultures put together a program of current films by Palestinian film makers in their Dreams of a Nation Festival held in January 2003 in New York. Organized comments below are to accommodate those who want to show the Palestinian story to those who may not know it. These films are a body of work which show Palestinian culture, history of the Nakba and the dispossession Palestinians have faced since 1948 as well as reactions of people who hang onto their lives, their values and their determination to be Palestinian in spite of being today's largest group of refugees and an occupied people, facing lack of resolution in this long and seemingly unending oppression. Contact:  Staff members at info@dreamsofanation.org  for more information.

*This reviewer's selection of top films for telling the Palestinian story. Cross referenced by name only. Check with Arab Film Distribution, www.arabfilm.com / 1-888-591-FILM to get most of the released films below unless otherwise noted.

*FORD TRANSIT. dir. Hany Abu-Assad. Fiction. 80 min. (Palestine, 2002). A portrait of the day-to-day reality of a Palestinian taxi driver caught between checkpoints and political discussions. In his circumambulating of roadblocks and innovation of short cuts, his passengers make up a heterogeneous company-ranging from ordinary people to local celebrities such as politician Hanan Ashrawi and filmmaker B.Z. Goldberg (promises). HUMOROUS portrayal of serious matters. GOOD FOR GENERAL PUBLIC.

**RANA'S WEDDING JERUSALEM, ANOTHER DAY. dir. Hany Abu-Assad. Fiction. 87 min. (Palestine, 2002) Rana, a young Palestinian woman, sneaks out of her father's house at daybreak. She is supposed to with her father to Egypt, but she doesn't want to leave. She wanders through East Jerusalem and Ramallah, looking for her boyfriend. Upon finding him, she decides to try to marry him that very day. While abnormal things like roadblocks and barriers, soldiers and guns have become the reality of Palestinian life, normal things like romance or wedding become fiction. A Palestinian "My Big Fat Greek Wedding," (Official Selection: Cannes Film Festival 2002) HUMOROUS portrayal of serious matters. EXCELLENT FOR GENERAL PUBLIC.  

*DIVINE INTERVENTION. (Yad Elahiyya) dir. Elia Suleiman. Fiction. 92 min. (France/Palestine, 2002). A love story takes place between two Palestinians: a man living in Jerusalem and a woman living in Ramallah. While boredom stultifies his community, Israeli checkpoints get in the way of his romance. Barred from crossing checkpoints, the lovers' intimate encounters take place on a deserted lot right beside the checkpoint. They are able to preserve their intimacy in the face of a siege, a complicity of solemn desire begins to generate violent repercussions and, against the odds, their angry hearts counter-attack with spasms of spectacular fantasy. (Winner Jury Prize -Cannes International Film Festival 2002 and FIPRESCI Prize, Cannes International Film Festival 2002. Denied entry into 2003 Academy Awards for recognition in the Best Foreign Film Category because Suleiman, a Palestinian, does not come from a recognized nation. ) BEST ARTISTIC RENDERING OF PALESTINIAN DAILY LIFE. NEEDS DISCUSSION FOR GENERAL AUDIENCE UNDERSTANDING. (Distributor: Call 212-675-0300 for information about availability–See showing schedule attached)

PALESTINE, A PEOPLE'S RECORD. dir. Kais al-Zobaidi. Documentary. 110 min. This extraordinary record of Palestine from 1917 to 1974, with its compelling archival footage, still stands as a major film testament to the modern history of Palestine.

DEBRIS. (Radm) dir. Abdel Salam Shehadeh. Fiction. 18 min. (Palestine, 2001). Debris is not simply the story of a farmer whose house is bulldozed and whose farm is destroyed, Debris is a fantasy – characters dream of flying far away in order to touch the sky, to break out of the despair of reality. Debris is the story of an entire generation who inherited humiliation and ignominy. It is a story of men crying. . .

CHRONICLE OF A DISAPPEARANCE. dir. Elia Suleiman. Fiction. 88 min. (France/Palestine, 1996) What does it mean to be Palestinian in the second half of the twentieth century? Film maker Elia Suleiman returned to the land of his birth to answer that question. Born in Nazareth in 1960, well after the establishment in 1948 of the State of Israel in historic Palestine, Suleiman lived for twelve years in self-imposed exile in New York. He returned to find his roots in a culture that had been uprooted. Chronicle of a Disappearance is a personal meditation on the spiritual effect of political instability on the Palestinian psyche and identity. A preview of Suleiman’s Divine Intervention. "An exceptionally subtle and intelligent film." The Village Voice (Best First Feature Award: 1996 Venice Film Festival) (Arab Film Distribution–www.arabfilm.com/888-591-FILM)

THE MOON SINKING. (Ofol al Qamar) dir. Ahrnad Habash. Fiction. 50 min. (Palestine, 2001 ). This is a story about the final days in the lives of seven people before the collision of the moon into the Earth. It is about the daydreams of a young man, the silence of a lonely widow, the rambling of a village idiot, the anxiety of a boy with a toothache, the cravings for freedom of a prisoner on a hunger strike, the fantasies of a young woman in love and the plans for a better future of a couple about to immigrate.  

FORD TRANSIT

CROSSING KALANDIA. dir. Sobhi al-Zobaidi. Documentary. 52 mine (Palestine, 2002). A video journal reflecting the life of a Palestinian family and a Palestinian town during one year of the intifada. Kalandia is the name of a refugee camp between Ramallah and Jerusalem, but more recently it has become the location of one of the most heavily traveled Israeli checkpoints in the Palestinian territories. Filmed between May 2001 and August 2002, Crossing Kalandia offers a unique perspective on recent events in Palestine.

STAYING ALIVE. (Bidna Natish), dir. Ghada Terawi. Documentary. 28 min. (Switzerland/Palestine, 2001). An examination of the motives of Palestinian youths who risk their lives to throw stones at Israeli soldiers. Why don't they fear death or injury? Why don't they fear death? How to view what is happening around them? What political thoughts drive them to go and possibly fight to their deaths? Parts not quite believable. Casual handling of life and death matters.

OUR NIGHTS AND OUR MORNINGS. dirs. lbdaa Video Workshop. 4 min. (Palestine, 2001). During the summer of 2001, a three week intensive video workshop was conducted with youth ages 11-13, at Ibdaa Cultural Center in Dheisheh Refugee Camp in Bethlehem. The youth were involved in every step of the process from developing an idea to story-boarding, shooting and editing. They made 3-short videos including Our Nights and Our Mornings, which is an experimental piece exploring their dreams and thoughts upon waking in the morning.

FOUR SONGS FOR PALESTINE. (Arbata Aghani Li Filasteen) dir. Nada EI-Yassir. Fiction. 13 min. (Palestine, 2001) Every day is a bad-news day in a tiny place in this world called Palestine. Death has become very much part of daily life on the West Bank and Gaza. A Palestinian woman goes through her daily routines of eating, drinking, and feeding her son while news of the conflict permeates her mundane chores. (Competition Selection: 2001 Wilnterthur Short Film Festival)

THE FRUSTRATION OF NEVER REACHING RESOLUTION 

DIVINE INTERVENTION

THIS IS NOT LIVING. (Hay Mish Eishi), dir. Alia Arasoughly. Documentary. 42 min. (Palestine, 2001). A film portrait of 8-Palestinian women from different social and religious backgrounds exploring how they live during war and imagine peace. These are the ordinary lives which the news often renders invisible by lack of coverage. They speak with passion, bewilderment, anger, and outrage while trying to create lives of dignity and productivity and to exist without becoming bundles of fear. (9th Festival lntemazlonale Cinema Donne, Prize & Jury Honorable Mention) 

ARTISTICALLY SIGNIFICANT PORTRAITS

LONELINESS. BOREDOM AND FRUSTRATION

**SONGS ON A NARROW PATH: STORIES FROM JERUSALEM. dir. Akram Safadi. Documentary. 52 min. (Italy/Belgium/France, 2001) Elegantly filmed-portrait of people in Jerusalem showing the lives of three people who embody the city: Reem, an artist, Ali, an African-Palestinian political prisoner, and Farouq, who lives on memories ofca glorious past. For them, Jerusalem is a dream that troubles the mind and spirit between recurring violence and simple survival. (Awards: Torino 2001, Lussas 2001, Nyon 2001). WRITER'S CHOICE. Akram Safadi, a child of the camps, brings talent and insight to his pictorial documentation of the Palestine he knows very well.

NIGHT OF THE SOLDIERS. (Layl al-Junud), dir. Muhammad al-Sawalmeh. Documentary. 15 min. A beautifully filmed impressionistic glimpse into the experience of Palestinians in Ramallah living under military siege.

FERTILE MEMORY. (Adhakira Al-Khasba) dir. Michel Khleifi. Fiction/Documentary. 99 min.(Belgium/Palestine, 1980). Written in 1978, Fertile Memory was the first film to be made by a Palestinian director inside Israel's pre-1967 borders. Fertile Memory recounts the lives of two very different Palestinian women: Farah, a widow living with her children, and Sahar, a West Bank novelist. Their differing lives belie their shared status as Palestinians under Israeli rule and as women. Yet despite these contrasts, both mother and intellectual share the same struggle for freedom and dignity .(Official Selection, Finalist for the Prix de la Camera d'Or, Cannes 1981)

IN SEARCH OF PALESTINE. Docu-biography. Edward Said.

NAIM & W ADEE' A. dir. Najwa Najjar. Documentary. 20 min. Home movie style. (Palestine, 1999). A documentary exploring social life in Jaffa before 1948 through a portrait of a Palestinian couple, Wadee 'a Aghabi and Naim Alar, constructed through oral histories presented by their daughters and relatives. (Prize Winner, 2000 Hamptons Internat'l Film Festival)

*BLANCHE'S HOMELAND. (Watan Blanche) dir. Maryse Gargour. Documentary. 28 min. (France, 2001) This intimate film, evocative and poetic, follows the steps of an elderly woman named Blanche, born in Jaffa, Palestine, where her parents were landowners, and who was exiled because of the 1948 war. Her life became a series of exiles, from Jaffa to Beirut to the US. Reflecting on her history. Blanche rebels against the amnesia of the world concerning the fate of the Palestinians, and through dialogue with relatives of the younger generations of exiled Palestinians, bears witness to the tenacity and permanence of Palestinian identity. BEST OF THIS SECTION.

TRAVEL AGENCY. dir. Nabila Irshaid. Experimental/Documentary. 8 min. (Austria, 2001 ). This short film -made up of Super-8 footage of a family visit to Palestine was taken by the director's father in the 70's. The piece looks at a world lost. By revisiting and reformulating these images as tourist advertisements, an image of Palestine emerges. We experience a Palestine that may be the fiction of nostalgia or one which tells the truth of loss through the absurdities of commercial language.  

RETURNING TO PALESTINE

JERUSALEM'S HIGH COST OF LIVING. dir. Hazim Bitar. Documentary. 52 min. (Palestine/US, 2001). A few weeks after the beginning of the final stage in the Palestinian-lsraeli peace process, a Palestinian-American film maker embarks on a journey back to his city of ancestry, Jerusalem. Instead of finding his Israeli neighbors mobilizing for peace, he encounters unexpected hostility. Days later, an uprising breaks out after Sharon's incursion into the Noble Sanctuary Mosque. The film maker finds himself a witness to the tragedy of Palestinian Jerusalemites who are gunned down by Israeli soldiers before his very eyes.

GOING HOME. (Al Aouda), dir. Omar AI-Qattan. Documentary. 50 min. (Palestine/UK, 1996). Major Derek Cooper witnessed the fmal days of the British Mandate as an officer in the British anny responsible for the protection of the Arab city of Jaffa. His experiences there in 1948 affected him so deeply that he continued to work on behalf of Palestine's refugees for most of his life. The film tells the story of his return to Palestine/Israel in the summer of 1995.

*A NUMBER ZERO. (Ala Serer). dir. Saed Andoni. Documentary. 27 min. (Palestine, 2002). The film maker returns to his hometown of Bethlehem during the Israeli army invasion of the city in April 2001. He goes to a barber to cut his hair and find that the barbershop represents a microcosm of the community as people come to the shop in order to seek refuge from the warring world outside. The shop's regular patrons strive for a measure of normalcy in their conversations and the enactment of their usual rhythms of life. Well-done depiction of Palestinian daily life. EXCELLENT FOR DISCUSSIONS and insight into life in Bethlehem today.  

INTRODUCTION TO THE END OF AN ARGUMENT. dir. Elia Suleiman & Jayce Salloum. Documentary. 45 min. (US, 1990). Using clips from feature films, cartoons and network TV, this unique video provides a rare critique of the portrayal of Arabs in American and European media. Collaborating images of Valentino, Barbara Eden, Golda Meir, Elvis Presley and Mr. Magoo are juxtaposed with text and location-footage shot on the West Bank. It also points to the negative influence of Arab stereotypes on US views and foreign policy.

LOCAL. (Mahali) dirs. Imad Ahmed, Ismail Habash, Raed AI Helou. Documentary. 52 min. (Palestine, 2002). The three film makers who work as TV news cameramen in Ramallah are caught in their offices when the Israeli military occupies the city in March 2002. This film is a chronicle of the days they spent inside, under curfew, as the siege of Arafat's compound dragged on. It follows the mundane realities of trying to live under a military curfew with humor and dignity and ends with their escape from the office.

*JENIN, JENIN. dir. Muhammad Bakri. Documentary. 54 min. (Palestine, 2002). A few days after the April 2002 invasion of the Jenin Refugee Camp by the Israeli military, a camera crew films at the site capturing the camp at a time when the people are still numb from their experience. The film less a report about events, and more of a description of the emotional reactions of the inhabitants. Depicting resistance, heroism, bitterness and victory of spirit despite death and destruction, this film is heart wrenching.

UNDERSTANDING PALESTINIAN CULTURE 

**TALE OF THREE JEWELS. (Hikayatul Jawahiri Thalath) dir. Michel Khleifi. Fiction. 107 min. (Palestine, 1995). A mixture of realism and allegory set against the backdrop of the Palestinian uprising in Gaza. Youssef, a 12 year-old boy, tries to win the love of Aida, a gypsy girl. Aida offers her heart, on the condition that he finds her grandmother's lost jewels. Youssef is so smitten with Aida that he embarks on a mystical pursuit, leading him to a wise old man, a mysterious scroll, death and resurrection. (Director's Fortnight: Cannes 1995) EXCELLENT and worthy of discussion and multiple viewing.  Becoming a cult film.

THE MILKY WAY. (Darb al Tabanat), dir. Ali Nassar. Fiction. 104 min. (Palestine, 1997). This film deals with Palestinian villagers during 1964, the final year of lsraeli military occupation in The Galilee. Showing their struggle to survive under military rule, this is a rich, knowing portrait of a world filled with humor, cruelty, derailed dreams and small sensual pleasures.

THE MOUNTAIN. (AI Jebel), dir. Hanna Elias. Fiction. 35 min. (Palestine/US, 2002). A girl from a small village is betrothed by her father to a well-to-do lawyer. She prefers another man, but would risk death if she ran away to marry him. Her grandmother and mother agree to assist her attempt to climb the mountain and escape. (Grand Prix Award Henry Longlois Film Festival). A bit grating for an American audience.  

*THE SATELLITE SHOOTERS, dir. Annemarie Jacir. Fiction. 16 min. (US/Palestine, 2001 ). Using the conventions of the Western genre, The Satellite Shooters satirically tells the story of Tawfiq, a young Palestinian boy in Texas trying to find his place in America, and The Kid, a local "Christian" gunslinger. Tawfiq and The Kid embark upon a mission to change the world. But things don't turn out like they do in the movies. (Official Selection: 2002 Tous Courts International.) CHALLENGES OF BECOMING AMERICAN. EXCELLENT FOR DISCUSSIONS IN CHURCHES.  

* *DIARY OF A MALE WHORE. (Yawmiyat Ahir), dir. Tawfik Abu Wael. Fiction. 14 min. (Palestine, 2001) A young Arab refugee who lives in Tel Aviv falls leads an unsavory life. His physical experiences save him from hunger, but also bring back memories of his childhood and village. WELL DONE. Don’t be put off by the title.

HAIFA. dir. Rashid Masharawi. Fiction. 75 min. (Palestine/Netherlands, 1995). A man living in Gaza uses the name Haifa and dreams of returning to the city of the same name. He become the local fool, but he sees and understands much about the hopes.and aspirations of his refugee camp neighbors: A kindly friend, Abu Said, hopes for an improvement in the political situation, since this means release of his eldest son from prison. Abu Said's wife already has her eye on a bride for the boy. A younger son, cynical and rebellious, believes in nothing, while their 12-year-old daughter is a romantic, dreaming of the future. Acting not up to the standards of some of the other offerings in this selection. (1995 Cannes Film Festival)

SHATTER HASSAN. dir. Mahmoud AI Massad. Fiction/Documentary. 40 min. (Jordan/Netherlands, 2001 ). An Arab fairy tale goes awry in the Netherlands when the invincible hero, "Hassan-the-Smart", becomes a nameless junkie. The director (in a voice-over and through the nostalgic images of Amsterdam) projects his feelings of being lost in this fairy tale character. Eventually, the narrative becomes the story of the director trying to retrieve his lost childhood by attempting to come to terms with the sense of belonging nowhere. This is a story about being homeless, being far away from home, having lost your own country, your culture, your identity.

*JEREMY HARDY VS. THE ISRAELI ARMY. dir. Leila Sansour. Documentary. 52 min. (UK/Palestine, 2002). British comedian Jeremy Hardy makes a rash decision to travel to Palestine in March 2002 just before the invasion of Bethlehem and the siege of the Nativity Church. He joins a campaigne to protect Palestinian farmers against the hostility of settlers but finds himself caught up in the events of the invasion. He decides to return later, but this tIme -in a manner of speaking -to take on the Israeli army. GREAT USE OF HUMOR TO EXPLAIN A SERIOUS ISSUE. View of peace activists trying to help.

HANAN ASHRAWI: A WOMAN OF HER TIME. dir. Mai Masri. Documentary. 50 min. (UK/Lebanon,1995). In the stormy aftermath of the Oslo Accords signed between Israel and the PLO in 1993, former Palestinian spokeswoman Hanan Ashrawi emerged as a formidable negotiator and a persuasive voice on the international stage. Beyond the rhetoric and the polished public appearances, what drives Ashrawi? In a very personal account, Palestinian director Mai Masri profiles Ashrawi, exploring the challenges facing the Palestinians in their struggle to build an independent state."A passionate film that unveils a long hidden reality."- Le Monde. (Best Documentary Prize, Palermo Film Festival 1997)

IN SEARCH OF PALESTINE, dir. Charles Bruce. Docu-biography. 52 min. (UK, 1998). Although made for public television in 1998 and narrated by the intemationally-renowned critic and author, Edward Said, this documentary still has not been shown nationally on American television. The film examines the painful history of Palestinians, as well as contemporary realities on the ground at the end of the Oslo process, though Said's reflections on traveling to Israel and Palestine. The experience leads to his articulation of a prescient view of the limitations and insufficiencies of Oslo, shortly before the re-ignition of the Intifada.  

These films are currently being archived at Columbia University’s Department of Middle East and Asian Languages and Cultures. Many are available as noted. Others are not yet available for circulation.