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