October 26, 2021

A Broken House

Artist Mohamad Hafez rebuilds monuments, neighbourhoods, and cities of his beloved Syria, working through his longing for home.  This screening will be followed by a Q&A with Director Jimmy Goldblum. This short is part of the program SHORTLIST BLOCK #1: UNJUST SYSTEMS Courtesy of POV Shorts/The New Yorker This film contains the following accessibility options […]

October 19, 2021

Shadow of Paradise

NYC PREMIERE Lush hand-painted imagery accompanies Sahar al-Sawaf’s reflective film on her family’s fading memories and legacy in post-Desert Storm Iraq.  – DeWitt Davis This screening will be followed by a Q&A with Directors Sahar al-Sawaf and Thomas Helman. This short is being played as part of the SHORTS PROGRAM:  Lamenting Loss All guests & staff […]

October 19, 2021

THE DEVIL’S DRIVERS

NEW YORK CITY PREMIERE The Devil’s Drivers has the white-knuckle suspense of a 1970s car-chase thriller, while also immersing us in life in the occupied territory of Palestine’s West Bank. Filmed over eight years, the drivers Hamouda and his cousin Ismail smuggle Palestinian workers by car into Israel where labor is in high demand. If […]

October 19, 2021

ON THE OTHER SIDE

US PREMIERE In 2004, director Iván Guarnizo’s mother was abducted by FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) for 603 days during its conflict with the Colombian state. Before her death, Ivan’s mother spoke fondly of one particular guerrilla, an acknowledgment he and his brother struggled to understand. Retracing paths from their mother’s journal, the brothers […]

October 19, 2021

GRANDPA WAS AN EMPEROR

WORLD PREMIERE Yeshi Kassa, great-granddaughter of Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie, investigates what happened to her beloved father after the 1974 coup that landed most of her family in prison. Looking at a rarely examined slice of history, the film delves into Selassie’s complex legacy, including how he came to be considered a divine being by […]

October 19, 2021

EDNA

NYC PREMIERE In the ruined lands near the Transbrasiliana motorway in Brazilian Amazonia, Edna has witnessed massacres perpetrated by the military dictatorship. Edna weaves her memories into the narrative through her diary, entitled “Story of My Life,” reflecting on the life of guerrillas, the disappeared, deforestation, and survival. Director Eryk Rocha’s lyrical hybrid narrative draws […]

October 19, 2021

BROTHERHOOD

US PREMIERE A strict and radical Islamist preacher tries to indoctrinate his sons—with mixed results—in this cinematic and immersive portrait of rural life in Bosnia. The three young brothers are left on their own to work as shepherds when their father is sent to prison for terrorist connections. In his absence, the young men take […]

November 6, 2020

HUNGER WARD

This unflinching look at the human-caused famine in Yemen follows health care workers Dr. Aida Alsadeeq and Nurse Mekkia Mahdi as they work to save the lives of hunger-stricken children in two therapeutic feeding centers, against the backdrop of a forgotten war. (Courtesy of RYOT / Vulcan).   This film has English language closed captioning available. […]

October 29, 2020

THE HUMAN FACTOR

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 to […]

October 5, 2020

‘TIL KINGDOM COME

Congregation in a Jewish temple with arms held up.

In this provocative look at strange political bedfellows, Israeli filmmaker Maya Zinshtein (Forever Pure, DOC NYC 2016) investigates the political alliance between American evangelicals and Israel’s right wing, and their influence on the Trump administration’s foreign policy. Why do American church leaders encourage parishioners to make donations to Israel, even from poor communities? Because they […]