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

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

Co-Presented By