TIFF Lightbox, Cinema 2

Film Details: 22.35 minutes | Directed by Yuula Benivolski | Homegrown Shorts | Documentary (Under 60 Minutes), Experimental | 2025 | Canada, Palestine | Not a premiere | Awards (selected): Milwaukee Underground Film Festival – Juror's Award for Best of Fest; DOXA Documentary Film Festival — nominated, Best Short Documentary; screened at In the Making, Barbican, London 

Synopsis: Yaqoub Al-Natsheh (Abu Waheed) has worked with glass since he was a child; his family's glassmaking history traces back to the 13th century. Traditional family recipes were replaced by melting down recycled glass after Israel's separation wall carved up the West Bank. His studio sits 50 feet from the Ibrahimi Mosque, site of the 1994 massacre of 29 Palestinian men during morning prayer; since then Hebron has seen a growing presence of illegal settlers and occupation soldiers. The filmmaker shot Abu Waheed at work in May 2022; the following morning, journalist Shireen Abu Akleh — cousin of a friend on the shoot — was killed by an occupation sniper despite wearing press identification. The title comes from Abu Waheed's own description of how his glass designs come to him at night before he shapes them at the furnace the next day.