TPFF would like to recognize and thank the government supporters:
The Toronto Arts Council and the Ontario Arts Council.

UNC would like to recognize and thank the Government supporters:
Government of Canada and Ontario Creates

TPFF would also like to thank the generous Gold Sponsors:
Penny Appeal Canada, Medical Aid for Palestine, and GFA Realty ltd.

We're excited to announce the live music line-up. Get to know your local artists.

THE BAND COMBINED HALA AND MOHAMMED ON STAGE 

Guitarist Gaby Al-Botros , Pianist Johnny Bahri ,  Bassist Salim Zahra, Percussionist Kareem El-Tyeb 

VENDORS

Co-Presented by

89 minutes
Ehab Tarabieh
Documentary
2019 - Palestine, Israel
North American Premiere

Hebrew and Arabic with English Subtitles

“Of Land and Bread” offers an unmediated view of life under Israel’s occupation. The film is a series of vignettes from B’Tselem’s Camera Project, which provides video cameras and training to Palestinian volunteers in the West Bank to document their own lives under the Israeli occupation. Edited together by director Ehab Tarabieh, the collection of films provides a raw depiction of Palestinian daily life governed by Israeli state violence - carried out by uniformed soldiers and police, and by Israeli settlers acting under their protection and with the backing of the state. It is a story of a vulnerable life, with no political rights or the right to protest, a life on the receiving end of the project of dispossession of land and resources, which is the Israeli occupation, and where one’s only defense is the camera.

This film is recommended viewing for non-Palestinians to better understand the realities of life under settler-colonialism.

WINNER
DMZ Docs, Honorable Mention
Off Cinema International Documentary Film Festival, 3rd Place
Oslo Human Rights Film Festival, Honorable Mention

OFFICIAL SELECTION
Ji.hlava IDFF
Hong Kong Int'l Documentary Film Festival
OFF Cinema International Documentary Film Festival
Oslo Human Rights Film Festival

Learn More: Of Land and Bread

Co-Presented by

TPFF in collaboration with Rabet presents a discussion inspired by the artistic actions of the Palestinian uprising. This panel will feature Palestinian artists who use their various crafts to highlight Palestinian narratives and mobilizes people, both online and on the ground, towards Palestinian liberation. These artists will share how art, more than ever, is a vital organizing and communication tool - reaching greater audiences and broadening global solidarity. The discussion will examine how art is engaged in political movements; how Palestinian artists are assumed to be political activists; the barriers Palestinian artists face in production processes; and how art communities can show constructive allyship with Palestinian artists and Palestinian liberation.

Join us on Saturday 09/25/2021 at 2:00 PM EST / 9:00 PM Palestine Time ONLINE for a Live discussion with Filmmaker Razan Al-Salah, Writer / Poet Mariam Barghouti, Artist Malak Matar, and Singer / Songwriter Maysa Daw, as we discuss the different mediums through which they have impacted change in their communities.

This Panel will be Live Streamed on TPFF Virtual Festival Platform. RSVP now (Free)

About the PIPD and Rābet The Palestine Institute for Public Diplomacy (PIPD) is an independent, non-governmental organization that aims to shift discourse and policy with movements and decision-makers around the world through people’s engagement and advocacy. PIPD is based in Palestine and is led by a board of prominent Palestinians from the private sector, academia, and civil society. Our small team is spread internationally between Palestine, the U.S., Canada, Jordan. Rābet is the digital platform of The PIPD. Rābet is a digital space for Palestine by Palestinians, which listens, engages and uplifts. Rābet celebrates the beauty and diversity of Palestinian identity, society, culture, food, art and politics, while challenging the systems of oppression and injustices that we face as a people.

TPFF presents its third annual program designed specially for youth. This hands-on craft workshop led by Amnna Attia will teach the artistic and cultural tradition of Palestinian tatreez, including the intricate motifs, storytelling preserved in every stitch and the techniques required to make them come to life. . Participants will embroider fabric with colourful Palestinian symbols and continue practicing their skills at home afterwards. All materials are provided and no previous experience is required.

Amnna Attia is a Toronto-based artist studying at the Contemporary Arts Department at Etobicoke School of the Arts. Attia explores her Arab-Palestinian heritage through digital art and embroidery. Her interest in her personal heritage sparked a passion for learning about other cultures, exploring their customs, and what makes them unique including styles of artistic expression. Attia has curated for the Albright Knox Museum’s 2021 The Presence of Absence exhibition and The Fearless Artist Pop Up Gallery. Her work has been exhibited in group shows at the Gladstone Hotel, Albright Knox Museum, Art Gallery of Mississauga, the Neilson Park Creative Centre, and the Virtual Art Gallery of Experiences Canada. Her work has been published in Ultraviolet Magazine, the Growth Virtual Zine, Arts Etobicoke Impact Report, Toronto Six Hundred Magazine, Original Magazine and will soon be published in the Toronto Public Library and Opaline Magazine.

72 minutes
Lina Soualem
Documentary
2020 - France, Algeria, Switzerland, Qatar
Ontario Premiere

French and Arabic with English Subtitles

Palestinian director Lina Soualem explores the Algerian side of her family in her internationally acclaimed documentary. Her paternal grandparents have decided to separate. Together, they had come from Algeria to Thiers, a small town in the middle of France, more than 60 years ago. Side by side they have experienced this chaotic life of immigrants. For Lina, their separation is an opportunity to question their long journey of exile, their silence, as well as their identity.

Awards
First Feature Award at CINEMED, Best Arab Documentary at El Gouna

Past Festivals
World Premiere: Visions du Réel
Ajyal Film Festival - Doha Film Institute
IDFA, International Documentary Filmfestival Amsterdam, 2020

Learn More: Their Algeria

71 minutes
Raed Duzdar
Documentary
2019 - Palestine
North American Premiere

Arabic with English Subtitles

This poignant film is based on the oral histories of Palestinian elders from Jaffa, an important economic and cultural hub in the region before the Nakba. These storytellers, most living in exile, were born and raised in Jaffa before 1948. Their memories describe a thriving daily life in Jaffa - a once vibrant city characterized by its neighborhoods, markets, sports club and cinemas, which hosted a robust cultural and social scene and was internationally known for its citrus industry and economic influence. The elders also share testimonies of what became of their lives when the city came under attack in 1948 and they were forced to flee their beloved hometown. Jaffa, a vibrant city before the Nakba, "its profession was exporting oranges and one day it was demolished.... and her profession became ..... exporting refugees"

Co-presented by

60 minutes
By CAMP (Shaina Anand with Ashok Sukumaran, Shereen Barakat, Nida Ghouse, Mahmoud Jiddah, Mahasen Nasser Eldin, and Aarthi Parthasarathy)
Experimental Documentary
2009-2011 Palestine, India
Canadian Premiere

Arabic and English with English Subtitles.

Eight Palestinian families living in Sheikh Jarrah, Silwan, Beit Hanina and the Old City use their rooftop CCTV cameras, "tripods made of stones", to look out into their neighbourhood - inquisitiveness, jest, memory, desire and doubt pervades the project of watching. Sometimes the voice looks for an image, at other times image provokes voice, or they separate into distant landscapes and innermost thoughts, as Palestinian residents of the Old City and East Jerusalem evaluate occupation and the nature of their distance from others.

The CCTV footage was collected in October 2009 in Al Quds/Jerusalem, at a time of provocations in and around the Al Aqsa compound in the Old City. Twenty-eight Palestinian families living in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood of East Jerusalem were served eviction notices; three families, including the Al Kurd, Al Hanoon and Al Ghawi families were evicted a few months ago. In the hilly neighbourhood of Silwan, 88 houses were to go, to make way for the City of David theme park. And at the boundaries of Greater Jerusalem, in Bethany and Abu Dis, gerrymandering by way of the separation wall had thrown many Palestinian residents outside Jerusalem’s boundaries. The
testimonies of the eight families narrated over the landscape that they are filming live bring us a first-hand, visceral documentation of this city and its various neighbourhoods that are at the flashpoint of the uprisings today.

Past Festivals
The film has been screened in museums and film festivals worldwide, including at the Jerusalem Show, Flaherty Seminar, Sharjah Biennial and at the opening exhibition of the Palestine Museum.

Learn More: The Neighbour Before The House

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