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Empty Desert

  • TIFF Bell Lightbox - Cinema 2 350 King Street West Toronto, ON, M5V 3C6 Canada (map)

57 min
Silvia Boarini, Linda Paganelli
Documentary  
2016 - Italy

North American Premiere

 Our story starts here. In a place that doesn't exist on any maps. It's in the Negev, Israel and it's called Al Araqib.
 The Al Turi maintain that the lands they live on, in Al Araqib, have belonged to them since before the time of the Ottoman Empire. Yet since the creation of Israel, their land ownership rights have been denied by the very state of which they are now full citizens. On 27th July 2010 state authorities razed the village of Al Araqib to the ground, since then it had been demolished by the state and rebuilt by the people some 97 times.
The Al Turi share their stories and hopes for the future with us. They talk of the difficulties of being 'unrecognized', of the paradox of being considered 'invaders' by a state that has existed for a shorter time than their village, and of a development drive that they fear will leave them worse off.

Copresenters:


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Breaking the Generations: Palestinian prisoners and medical rights

26 min
William Parry, Caroline Rooney
Documentary Short
2016 - United Kingdom

North America Premiere

Breaking the Generations: Palestinian prisoners and medical rights' is a topical human rights documentary that explores how Israel’s widespread and systematic use of arrest and detention is a key tool of Israel’s military occupation and colonization, designed to crush resistance and to spread fear in individuals, families and communities. It examines this policy further by exploring what the consequences of this are for the health of Palestinian prisoners, who face widespread, institutionalized medical negligence inside Israeli prisons. It further raises the question of the complicity of the international community in this ongoing state of affairs. The film features interviews with Palestinian prisoners and their families and with leading humanitarian physicians and lawyers.

Given the recent and growing number of high-profile hunger strike campaigns, and the Israeli government’s unethical response to this, by legislating force-feeding in the summer of 2015, this is a topical film that explores a central element of systematic control through the topic of physical and mental health.


Frame and A Tree Has Been Planted in Your Name

6 min
Aaron Rotenberg
Experimental Short
2015 - Canada, Palestine

North American Premiere

Two-part piece that first investigates the destructive legacy of early European photography in Palestine and its continued erasure of the Palestinian narrative to this day. The second part is a photographic analysis and personal accounting of complicity in the Jewish National Fund's "Canada Park" built over the village ruins of Imwas, Yalu and Beit Nuba.

 

Earlier Event: September 24
Boycott, Censorship and the Arts
Later Event: September 24
Speed Sisters