David Osit’s compelling film offers a portrait of Musa Hadid, the affable mayor of Ramallah, the historically Christian city that serves as the administrative center of Palestine. Hadid has day-to-day concerns to handle, from increasing tourism to planning the annual Christmas celebrations, but the darker realities of life under occupation are never too far away. […]
US PREMIERE | In a dilapidated corner of Alexandria, an exceptional community of young female weightlifters is trained by the grumpy yet charismatic Captain Ramadan. His precarious but prestigious makeshift gym has been a breeding ground for Egypt’s world champions and Olympic athletes. Filmmaker Mayye Zayed intimately follows Zebiba and her coach in their challenging quest […]
INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE | Filmmaker Mor Loushy (Censored Voices) examines the powerful pro-Israeli lobby AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee), known for bipartisan loyalty in Washington, DC. Throughout its 60-year history, AIPAC has thrived on maintaining order in its ranks, but Loushy gains interviews with disaffected insiders who have deep-seated reservations about the policy-making under Prime Minister […]
Nasrin Sotoudeh never stood down from a tough battle as a human rights attorney in Iran. Fans of filmmaker Jafar Panahi will remember her appearance in his subversive film Taxi. Now she’s serving a prison sentence of 38 years for representing women who protested the country’s mandatory hijab law. This immersive portrait weaves extensive filming with […]
NYC PREMIERE Filmmaker Dror Moreh proved himself an expert navigator of powerful figures in his Oscar®-nominated film The Gatekeepers, about the leaders of Israel’s Shin Bet security agency. Now he employs his talents to probe the American-led negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians in 2000. The main insiders on camera are six top American diplomats who testify […]
LEARNING TO SKATEBOARD IN A WARZONE (IF YOU’RE A GIRL) DIR: Carol Dysinger In the war-torn city of Kabul, a class of young girls from disadvantaged neighborhoods learns to read, write—and skateboard—in director Carol Dysinger’s love letter to a place she has filmed in for the last fifteen years. Courtesy of Lifetime Films/A&E IndieFilms. (USA/UK, […]
FIRE IN PARADISE DIR: Drea Cooper, Zachary Canepari On the morning of November 8, 2018, a seemingly small fire broke out in Butte County, California near the town of Paradise. Over the course of a few short hours, it grew into the country’s deadliest wildfire in over a century, killing 85 people and destroying Paradise. […]
NYC PREMIERE Filmmaker Dror Moreh proved himself an expert navigator of powerful figures in his Oscar®-nominated film The Gatekeepers, about the leaders of Israel’s Shin Bet security agency. Now he employs his talents to probe the American-led negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians in 2000. The main insiders on camera are six top American diplomats who testify […]
Israeli attorney Lea Tsemel has defended Palestinians in court for five decades, from nonviolent demonstrators to armed militants. To many Israeli Jews, Tsemel is a controversial figure, even a traitor, willing to defend the enemy, but she remains steadfast in her belief that her clients’ crimes are acts of resistance that must be heeded. Directors […]
Winner of the Toronto International Film Festival’s People’s Choice Award, The Cave takes us to a subterranean landscape that feels akin to the post-apocalyptic world of Mad Max. Warlords have made the earth’s surface uninhabitable in Syria, so medical workers led by the female Dr. Amani have created a hospital underground the city of Ghouta, […]