TIFF Lightbox, Cinema 1
Film Details: 105 minutes | Directed by Maiken Baird | Documentary (60+ Minutes) | 2026 | USA | North American Premiere | Award: CPH:DOX 2025 — Al-Jazeera Co-Production Award
Synopsis: Told in Palestinian-American scholar and intellectual Edward Said's own voice, this sweeping archival documentary traces the evolution of his political awakening, personal struggles, and reckoning with a life of exile. It is the first documentary granted full access by the Said family and estate, featuring never-before-seen material from the family archive, the Said archive at Columbia University, decades of unseen home movies, rare television appearances, documentaries, and lectures. Spanning seven decades — from Said's childhood in Jerusalem in 1935 to his death in 2003 in New York City — the film follows a man celebrated as a prophet and vilified as a terrorist, America's most outspoken critic of the West and Palestine's fiercest advocate, inviting audiences to question who has the right to tell their own story.
Co-presenters: ACLA, Charles Street Video, Regards Palestiniens, Independent Jewish Voices, Watermelon Pictures
Panel: Edward Said in these Times — Saturday, October 3, 2026, 5:15 PM