Boston Palestine Film Festival

:: 2008 Festival

:: 2007 Festival

FESTIVAL FILM PROGRAM 2007
:: BPFF Audience Survey Results 2007 (PDF) - Original Survey :: Purchase Festival Merchandise - T-shirts, Posters and Order Films :: Sept 29, 2007: Special Performance by Simon Shaheen :: Festival Opening Reception :: School of Museum of Fine Art (Watch Video) :: Sept 30, 2007: Retrospective with Actor and Director Mohammed Bakri (Radio Interview) :: Oct 7, 2007: Festival Closing Reception :: Casablanca Restaurant :: Download & Print: FESTIVAL PROGRAM BROCHURE (PDF) .......................................................................................................................................................................... FILM SCREENING SCHEDULE September 29 \| 30 :: October 1 \| 2 \| 3 \| 4 \| 5 \| 6 \| 7
SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 29th
.......................................................................................................................................................................... Coolidge Corner Theatre :: 12pm
	GOING FOR A RIDE? by Nahed Awwad Palestine, 2003, 15 min Winner of the Second Prize (Palente) at the Ramallah International Film Festival, 2004. In April 2002, Israeli Army bulldozers crushed between 600–700 civilian cars in Ramallah, for no apparent reason. When the vehicular rampage was over, Artist Vera Tamari featured the smashed cars in an art installation, ironically incorporating the absurdity of the destruction into her own creativity. Awwad’s film poignantly juxtaposes all this with photos depicting the role these cars once played in the everyday life of their erstwhile owners.
	ARNA’S CHILDREN by Juliano Mer Khamis Palestine, 2003, 84 min Director will be present. >> Watch Film Trailer Tribeca Film Festival 2004 Best Documentary Feature “A must-see documentary…a devastating group portrait of the legacy of occupation.” –Variety. A Jewish woman who once fought for the founding of Israel, Arna Mer Khamis went on to establish a theater group in the Jenin refugee camp, where she taught Palestinian children to express themselves through art. From 1989 to 1996, Arna’s son Juliano, an actor, worked with and videotaped the children during rehearsals and performances. After Israel’s 2002 attack on the refugee camp, Juliano returns to see what has become of the promising young actors he and his mother once mentored. Both Films - Price: $9 General / $6 Coolidge Members
.......................................................................................................................................................................... Kendall Square Cinema :: 3pm
	THE PRICE OF FREEDOM by Martin Ginestie Palestine, 2007, 19 min U.S. PREMIERE. Considered by many to be the Nelson Mandela of Palestine, political leader Marwan Barghouti languishes in an Israeli jail. Through archival footage and interviews with political figures, journalists, and activists, this short documentary explores the potential role a freed Barghouti might someday play in Palestine’s future—and raises questions about the true motives for his imprisonment by the Israeli government.
	BELONGING by Tariq Nasir USA, 2006, 68 min *Director will be present.* The wars of 1948 and 1967 saw the territorial expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, changing their lives forever. Belonging is about the experience of being made a refugee—the loss of an ancestral home, the deep-rooted attachment to one's land that refuses to die—as told by two generations of a surviving Palestinian family. It is a powerful story of displacement and loss, of longing and belonging. >> Film Website Both Films - Price: $9
SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 29th (Continued)

.......................................................................................................................................................................... FESTIVAL OPENING EVENTS Museum of Fine Arts :: 7:15pm
	LEILA KHALED: HIJACKER by Lina Makboul Sweden, 2005, 58 min *Director will be present.* Winner: Tri Continental Film Festival 2007 India Grand Jury Award Nöjesguiden 2006 Best Film Award Lena Hellman Memorial Fund Tempo Film Festival Stockholm “Leila Khaled Hijacker is a fascinating journey of a woman”- Jewish Independent “An astonishing testimony on violence and femininity is born from the meeting held between the two women in Amman, in the house of Leila Khaled.” - Le monde diplomatique In 1969, Palestinian Leila Khaled made history by becoming the first woman to hijack an airplane. As a Palestinian child growing up in Sweden, filmmaker Lina Makboul admired Khaled for her bold actions; as an adult, she began asking complex questions about the legacy of her childhood hero. This fascinating documentary is at once a portrait of Khaled, an exploration of the filmmaker's own understanding of her Palestinian identity, and a complex examination of the nebulous dichotomy between "terrorist" and "freedom fighter." >> Film Website Price: $9 General / $8 Members & Students
	8:30pm SPECIAL PERFORMANCE BY SIMON SHAHEEN FESTIVAL OPENING RECEPTION The School of the Museum of Fine Arts, 230 The Fenway, Boston Performance by Simon Shaheen, Palestinian oud and violin virtuoso, live music by Aboud Albert Agha (oud and singer), and Anastassia Zachariadou (Kanun, Flutes), Walid Zairi (Bass and Oud), and Tupac Mantilla (Precussion). Come enjoy food by Casablanca Restaurant, live music and the company of many of our featured directors, actors and speakers. (8:30pm - 12am) MFA Price: $20 (Students $15 at the door only) >> Video of Festival Opening Reception with Special Performance by Simon Shaheen. By Ghenwa Hakim, The Arabic Hour. (40 mins)
SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 30th

.......................................................................................................................................................................... Coolidge Corner Theatre :: 12pm
	LEMONADE by Hicham Kayed Lebanon, 2004, 12 min Winner: Gold Prize, Cairo International Film Festival for Children, 2004 Palestinian brothers endeavor to transcend their predicament as refugees by spending their school break productively, selling lemonade. Inspired by a true story, Lemonade is the outcome of a youth storytelling project run under the auspices of the Al-Jana Resource Center in Lebanon, and was written, cast and edited with the participation of young residents of the Palestinian refugee camps in Beirut.
	STILL LIFE by Diana Keown Allan USA/Lebanon, 2007, 23 min U.S. PREMIERE. Director will be present. The life of an elderly refugee living in exile is examined with the help of a series of personal photographs that survived his expulsion in 1948 from current day Israel. Through the photos, and the memories captured therein, we experience the intimate remnants of a history now largely invisible.
	JUST MARRIED by Ayelet Bechar Israel, 2005, 71 min Director will be present. Part of UK Traveling Jewish Film Festival Israel’s 2003 “Citizenship Law” states that residents of the Palestinian territories may not enter the Jewish state, even if married to an Israeli. So what happens when a Palestinian falls in love with another Arab—one who happens to live in Israel? Deftly managing to be intimate without being intrusive, Bechar’s award-winning documentary follows the plight of two couples who fall into this legal void and who struggle with myriad uncertainties after deciding to marry despite the prohibition against their living together in Israel. Among many breathtaking and heart wrenching scenes is one, worthy of Orwell, in which an Israeli official delineates the exact application process a couple must follow—only to casually mention how their application will then be denied. All Three Films Price: $9 General / $6 Coolidge Members
SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 30 (continued)

.......................................................................................................................................................................... Retrospective with Actor and Director Mohammed Bakri >> Exclusive: Radio Interview with Mohammed Bakri by Sherif Fam :: This Week in Palestine, WZBZ Boston, Sept 23, 2007. Kendall Square Cinema :: 3pm
	PRIVATE by Saverio Costanzo Italy, 2004, 90 min Actor Mohammed Bakri will be present. >> Watch Film Trailer Winner: FIPRESCI Jury Award - The International Federation of Film Critics Golden Leopard Award- Best Director - Locarno Bronze Leopard Award- Best Actor, Mohammed Bakri - Locarno Film Festival "The young Italian director Saverio Costanzo puts an unnervingly intimate twist on the costs of military occupation in this aptly claustrophobic drama." - L.A. Weekly “Private's vision of domestic dread is more raw and real than anything Hollywood fantasy can offer…this is powerful stuff, performed with conviction.” –Mathew Leyland, BBC A psychological drama about a Palestinian family of seven, suddenly confronted with a volatile situation in their home that mirrors the larger ongoing conflict between Palestine and Israel. Price: $9
.......................................................................................................................................................................... Kendall Square Cinema :: 5pm
	JENIN JENIN by Mohammed Bakri Palestine, 2002, 54 min Director will be present. >> Video Interview with Mohammed Bakri, Democracy Now Winner of 2002 Best Film, Carthage International Film Festival, and International Prize for Mediterranean Documentary Filmmaking & Reporting Previously banned in Israel, Jenin Jenin captures testimony from residents of the beleaguered Palestinian city in the wake of the Israeli army's “Operation Defensive Shield.” The incursion targeted Jenin’s refugee camp which suffered massive destruction and was the scene of fierce resistance. Witnesses relate what human rights organizations would later call violations of international law amounting to Israeli war crimes. Jenin Jenin is dedicated to Iyad Samoudi, the producer of the film. On June 23, as Israeli forces besieged Yamun, Samoudi was shot and killed.
	SINCE YOU LEFT by Mohammed Bakri Israel, 2005, 60 min Director will be present. Palestinian-Israeli actor/director Bakri returns to the grave of his former mentor, writer and communist Emile Habibi, and attempts to account for the political transformations that have occurred in Israel/Palestine—as well as transformations in his own thinking—in the years since the author’s death. This is a powerful autobiographical essay by one of the most prominent Palestinian citizens of Israel, whose turbulent relationship with the state and with Zionist culture inevitably informs his outlook as an artist and as a political thinker. Both Films - Price: $9
MONDAY OCTOBER 1st

.......................................................................................................................................................................... SPECIAL PROGRAM ON YOUTH MEDIA Harvard Film Archive :: 7:00pm
	PALESTINE YOUTH MEDIA USA/Palestine, 2006-2007, 120 min U.S. PREMIERE. Creative media projects and video shorts (5-10 mins each) by Palestinian youth (ages 10 and up) living in refugee camps in the West Bank. Weaving together original stories, drama, photography and video these youth express their own perspectives on Palestinian history, culture and life under occupation, as well as their dreams and aspirations. This special program showcases selected work emerging from digital storytelling workshops conducted in 4-6 Palestinian refugee camps by US-based groups Voices Beyond Walls and the US-Palestine Youth Solidarity Network. VOICES BEYOND WALLS :: Dreaming in Palestine Selected Shorts 2006-2007 :: Yafa Cultural Center, Balata Camp, Nablus, 2006 Memories of Nakba (3:28) Boycott Israel (6:09) Nablus Tragedy (6:43) :: Not to Forget Center, Jenin Camp, Jenin, 2006 Anna Asfor (1:34) Flowers in Zababde (7:16) :: Lajee Center, Aida Camp, Bethlehem, 2007 Hope of Freedom (11:03) The Necklace (7:42) :: The Ramallah Computer Clubhouse, Al-Ammari & Kalandia Camps, Ramallah, 2007 Victory (7:35) :: The Freedom Theatre, Jenin Camp, Jenin, 2007 Um Falastin (5:39) Masrah Al-Hejara (5:55) US-Palestine Youth Solidarity Network :: Digital Resistance Selected Shorts 2007 :: Ibdaa Cultural Center, Dheisheh Camp, Bethlehem, 2007 Restrictions on Society (3:25) The Life of Refugees in the Camps (4:05) :: Lajee Center, Aida Camp, Bethlehem, 2007 The Day of Injury (4:08) Suffering of the Palestinian People (3:21) Discussion with workshop organizers follows the screenings. FREE Screening :: Harvard Film Archive Carpenter Center, 24 Quincy St., Cambridge. MBTA: Red Line to Harvard
TUESDAY OCTOBER 2nd

.......................................................................................................................................................................... Harvard University :: 6:30pm
	USA vs. AL-ARIAN by Line Halvorsen USA, 2007, 99 min >> Watch FIlm Trailer Winner of the Audience Prize at the Tromsø International Film Festival “Though unquestionably biased, eye-opening docu "USA vs Al-Arian" throws the spotlight on a justice system shanghaied by the Patriot Act, leaving a deeply sympathetic family frayed but not quite broken. Branded the most dangerous man in the U.S., Tampa-based computer science professor Sami Al-Arian came through a six-month trial with no charges sticking, but the judge ignored the jury and Al-Arian is still in jail. Norwegian helmer Line Halvorsen constructs a damning portrait of the case by focusing on the trial's emotional toll. Docu picked up the Tromso fest's audience prize, signaling further fest play before possible cable pickup.” - Jay Weissberg of Variety In 2003, university professor and civil rights activist, Sami Al-Arian was accused of giving material support to a terrorist organization and held for two and a half years in solitary confinement. When al-Arian was acquitted of the most serious charges, with jurors voting 10 to two for acquittal on the rest, it was seen as a stinging rebuke against an overreaching Justice Department. However, the FBI decided it wasn’t finished with Al-Arian. What follows is a rollercoaster ride that Robert Fisk called “a burlesque of justice which has…largely failed to rouse the sleeping dogs of American journalism.” USA vs. Al-Airan is a close portrait of a Palestinian-American activist and his family as they resiliently face an all-out campaign by the U.S. Government, in one of the first major tests cases of the USA PATRIOT Act. FREE Screening at Harvard University :: Langdell South, 1563 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge. Also playing Monday October 1st, 7:00 PM at Boston College (Higgins 300).
.......................................................................................................................................................................... Harvard University :: 8:30pm
	ALL THAT REMAINS by Nada El Yassir Israel, 2005, 52 min Arab Bedouins once peopled the entire Negev Desert, which accounts for 60% of historic Palestine. Since the creation of Israel in 1948, the majority was uprooted. Those who remain are either being rounded up into one of seven townships; or living in one of 46 “unrecognized villages” without the basics of water, electricity, schools, roads or medical services. The film explores the struggle of the Bedouins of the Negev against Israeli policies that aim to strip them of their land and their way of life. All That Remains powerfully documents their efforts at peaceful resistance. FREE Screening at Harvard University :: Langdell South, 1563 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge.
	RAINBOW by Abdel Salam Shehada Palestine, 2004, 39 min Rainbow documents the killing and structural devastation in Rafah, caused by Israel’s Operation Rainbow in May 2004. Filmmaker Shehada explores his own difficulty in coming to terms with his role as a news cameraman during the Intifada. This film offers a rare glimpse of life in Gaza after the cameras stop rolling. Introduced by Darryl Li, Harvard University and Yale Law School, Alliance for Justice in the Middle East (AJME). FREE Screening at Harvard University :: Langdell South, 1563 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge. Also playing Monday October 1st, 7:00 PM at Boston College (Higgins 300).
WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 3rd

.......................................................................................................................................................................... Harvard University :: 6:30pm
	THE IRON WALL by Mohammed Alatar Palestine, 2006, 57 min >> Watch Film Trailer "The best description of the barrier, its routing and impact is shown in the film The Iron Wall." – President Jimmy Carter After 1967 and the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, the aim of Israel’s settlement movement became clear: create facts on the ground that make the creation of a Palestinian state impossible. Israel’s almost surgical placement of The Wall renders this long-held Zionist intention inescapably—and quite literally—concrete. Introduced by Nimer Sultany, SJD Candidate, Harvard Law School and Justice for Palestine. FREE Screening at Harvard University :: Langdell South, 1563 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge. Also playing Tuesday October 2nd, 7:45 PM at Boston College (Cushing 001).
	CONFRONTING THE WALL: ART AND RESISTANCE IN PALESTINE by Alan Greig USA/Palestine, 2007, 29 min Director will be present. Refusing to leave their home, a Palestinian family must face the dramatic—and absurd—development of Israel’s building its Apartheid Wall around them, creating a virtual cage in which they must live. The family resists peacefully by creating a mural that covers the Wall. FREE Screening at Harvard University :: Langdell South, 1563 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge.
.......................................................................................................................................................................... Harvard University :: 8:30pm
	I WON’T RUN by Christopher Pastor USA, 2007, 4 min U.S. PREMIERE. A music video reflecting the artist’s distinctive perspective on the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, providing commentary on the media’s unbalanced reporting. FREE Screening at Harvard University :: Langdell South, 1563 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge.
	OCCUPATION 101 by Sufyan and Abdallah Omeish USA/Palestine, 2005, 90 min >> Watch Film Trailer Winner: "Golden Palm" Award and "Best Editing", 2007 Beverly Hills Film Festival 2006 Artivist Best Feature Film Award, Human Rights Category. Best Feature Film Award, River's Edge Film Festival. Best Documentary Feature Award, The Dead Center Film Festival. Audience Award for Best Documentary, East Lansing Film Festival. John Michaels Memorial Award, Big Muddy Film Festival. “A visual revolution is born.” –In Focus A thought-provoking and powerful documentary film on the current and historical root causes of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Occupation 101 presents a comprehensive analysis of the facts and hidden truths surrounding the conflict and dispels many of its long-perceived myths and misconceptions. The film also details life under Israeli military rule, the role of the United States in the conflict, and the major obstacles that stand in the way of a lasting and viable peace. We hear about first-hand on-the-ground experiences from leading scholars, peace activists, journalists, religious leaders and humanitarian workers whose voices have too often been suppressed in American media outlets. Introduced by Maryam Monalisa Gharavi, Doctoral Candidate, Harvard University and Alliance for Justice in the Middle East (AJME). FREE Screening at Harvard University :: Langdell South, 1563 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge.
	DRYING UP PALESTINE by Peter Snowdon and Rima Essa Palestine, 2007, 28 min U.S. PREMIERE. A portrait of the stresses and strains imposed on Palestinian society by Israel's almost total control over access to water resources in the West Bank, told in the words of ordinary people. FREE Screening at Harvard University :: Langdell South, 1563 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge. Also playing Tuesday October 2nd, 7:45 PM at Boston College (Cushing 001).
THURSDAY OCTOBER 4th

.......................................................................................................................................................................... Museum of Fine Arts :: 6pm
	OPEN HEART by Claire Fowler Palestine, 2006, 22 min >> Watch Film Trailer In this documentary, Claire Fowler follows a dramatic life or death crisis; a baby must have surgery to repair a congenital heart defect, to get help his West Bank family must journey to Jerusalem by way of several checkpoints. A gut-wrenching examination of a life-or-death crisis made worse by the ever-present infrastructure of military occupation. Introduced by Dr. Walid Yassir, Chief of Pediatric Orthopaedics and Scoliosis surgery at Tufts New England Medical Center, and Dr. Marwan El Masri, Palestine Children's Relief Fund (PCRF).
	HARDBALL by Suha Arraf Palestine/Israel, 2006, 52 min U.S. PREMIERE. Sakhnin is a small Arab town inside Israel where life is far from normal. Despite hardships, Sakhnin, like the rest of the world, is mad about football and has produced an edgy, hungry football team that managed, against all odds, to win Israel's national cup in 2004. As the drama of the new football season unfolds, Hardball reveals why the underdog team has attracted such a devoted and fervent following among thousands of Arab fans across the country. Both Films - Price: $9 General / $8 Members & Students
.......................................................................................................................................................................... Museum of Fine Arts :: 7:45pm
	EXILES IN JERUSALEM by Muayad Alayan Palestine, 2005, 20 min Director will be present. Jerusalem has been inflected with two separation walls in the last 60 years: one erected between 1948 and 1967 wars, the second being built now. Through the accounts of his father and his best friend, in this film the director shows how these walls continue to cast lives into exile.
	9 STAR HOTEL by Ido Haar Israel, 2007, 78 min Wolgin Award for Best Documentary, Jerusalem Film Festival "More anthropology than agitprop, a portrait of life among the young, poorly educated men who are caught between Israeli exploitation and Palestinian Authority corruption. Their bleak prospects are as painful as their determination to survive is inspiring. The movie has been a surprise hit in Israel, where it won Best Documentary at the Jerusalem Film Festival" - Ella Taylor, The Village Voice. An extraordinary exposé of the grueling routine faced by Palestinian construction workers who must cross the border before sunrise each morning to secure jobs that pay subsistence wages. Both Films - Price: $9 General / $8 Members & Students
FRIDAY OCTOBER 5th

.......................................................................................................................................................................... Museum of Fine Arts :: 5:30pm
	THE COLOR OF OLIVES by Carolina Rivas Mexico, 2006, 97 min "With its contemplative tone and haunting images, The Color of Olives may be the most peaceful documentary ever to arrive from a war zone" - Jeannette Catsoulis, The New York Times. Mexican filmmaker Caroline Rivas documents the plight of the Aamer family, whose lives have changed dramatically with the building of The Wall. Divided from both their farmland and their village, their home has become an island dominated by electrified fences, locked gates, and a constant swarm of armed soldiers. Rivas captures the strong sense of connection—to their olive trees, to their friends and supporters, even to their two small donkeys—that sustain this unsinkable family. Price: $9 General / $8 Members & Students
.......................................................................................................................................................................... Museum of Fine Arts :: 7:30pm
	LA ULTIMA LUNA by Miguel Littin Chile, 2005, 105 min *Director will be present.* "Littin excels at sketching out some underlying forces and effects of the period. There are nice touches, as in having one hanger-on, hiding out from the growing conflict, who claims to have ridden into Damascus with Lawrence and his (momentarily) triumphant Arabs" - Ken Eisner, Variety. Veteran Chilean director Miguel Littin depicts the life of his Palestinian grandparents before they emigrated to Chile. Set in 1914 and filmed on location in the West Bank, La Ultima Luna explores personal notions of place and belonging while chronicling a fascinating chapter in history, marked as it was by burgeoning tensions between Palestinian and Jewish families. Co-presented with Boston Latino International Film Festival Price: $9 General / $8 Members & Students
SATURDAY OCTOBER 6th

.......................................................................................................................................................................... Museum of Fine Arts :: 12pm
	EMERGING PALESTINIAN DIRECTORS Palestine Summer 2006 by Palestinian Filmmakers Collective and Akka Films, Palestine, 2006, 35 min Price: $9 General / $8 Members & Students A mosaic of 13 short films, all less than three minutes in length and restricted to one shot, which reflect the mood of Palestinians in the Summer of 2006.
	Make a Wish by Cherien Dabis (Palestine, 2006, 12 min) A young Palestinian girl will do whatever it takes to buy a birthday cake.
	Bethlehem Bandolero by Larissa Sansour (Palestine, 2004, 5 min) A quirky journey through Bethlehem as the filmmaker “duels” The Wall.
	Kemo Sabe by Rana Kazkaz, (USA, 2007, 12 min) Yussef, a six year old Arab-American boy wants to be the Cowboy, not the Indian.
	The Way Back Home by Ghada Terawi (Palestine, 2006, 33 min) Artists in the diaspora share their feelings and memories of Palestine.
	The Seventh Dog by Zeina Durra (UK/USA, 2005, 20 min) A comic short about the lives of Arabs in New York City following 9/11.
.......................................................................................................................................................................... Kendall Square Cinema :: 3pm
	HAPPY DAYS by Larissa Sansour Palestine, 2006, 3 min Happy Days is a video that exposes everyday Palestinian life under Israeli occupation. Sansour juxtaposes these images with a sitcom soundtrack from the seventies to underline both the apathy of the western public to media coverage of the conflict and the blurry boundary between that news and entertainment.
	A PALESTINIAN WOMAN by Andrew Courtney and Emily Perry USA, 2006, 24 min U.S. PREMIERE. Directors will be present. This documentary short film gives the viewer an individual view of the conditions that isolate Palestinians within their communities. It is filmed next to the separation barrier, a.k.a. Apartheid Wall, which Israel continues to build in occupied Palestine. Outspoken and eloquent Terry Boulatta, mother, teacher and community activist, shows us how the Wall chokes her neighborhood in East Jerusalem, and separates it from adjacent Palestinian communities.
	THIS BODY IS A PRISON by Dylan Bergeson Palestine, 2007, 45 min >> Watch Film Trailer Winner: Best Picture: Northwest Projections Film Festival, Bellingham Best Picture: Plomondon Independent Film Festival, Toledo This Body is a Prison, shot on video over four months, captures the reality of the psychological trauma Palestinians are suffering from by living under Israeli occupation. It manages to convey existence in a world where complexity is denied by violence, where everyday life is a struggle, and yet, through that struggle, art and education persist. All Three Films - Price: $9
.......................................................................................................................................................................... Kendall Square Cinema :: 5pm
	DRIVING TO ZIGZIGLAND by Nicole Ballivian USA/Palestine, 2006, 92 min U.S. PREMIERE. Director will be present. >> Watch Film Trailer A chronicle of a day in the life of a Palestinian cab driver in Los Angeles, Driving To Zigzigland, portrays the social struggle of the Arab immigrant in post-9/11 America. A film audition typecasts Bashar to play an Al Qaeda terrorist role. Bashar has twenty-four hours to make enough money to pay his bills. For the remaining hours left until tomorrow, an unceasing flow of passengers ride in his taxi and give the Arab cabbie the run-around on issues that deal with suicide bombers, George Bush, Rai music and world geography. All the while, Bashar’s nostalgia for Ramallah poses the question of whether or not the American Dream is an idea really worth fighting for. Shot in Los Angeles and Palestine, based on true stories. Price: $9
SUNDAY OCTOBER 7th

.......................................................................................................................................................................... Museum of Fine Arts :: 3:30pm
	PALESTINE REVOLUTIONARY CINEMA A special program of six vintage short films from 1969 to 1980, curated by Emily Jacir. >> Article by Emily Jacir, The Electronic Intifada, Feb 17 2007 AWAY FROM HOME by Qais il Zobaidi, Syria, 1969, 11 min THE VISIT by Qais il Zobaidi, Syria, 1970, 10 min
	CHILDREN NONETHELESS by Khadija Abu Ali, Palestine, 1980, 25 min
	THEY DON'T EXIST by Mustafa Abu Ali, Palestine, 1974, 25 min
	KOFR SHOBA by Samir Nimr, Palestine, 1972, 34 min
	BORN OUT OF DEATH by Monica Maurer, Palestine, 1981, 9 min Price: $9 General / $8 Members & Students
.......................................................................................................................................................................... Museum of Fine Arts :: 5:45pm
	PALESTINE BLUES by Nida Sinnokrot Palestine, 2006, 73 min *Director will be present.* Best Feature Film New Orleans International Film Festival Best Documentary AMAL Euro Arab International Film Festival Best First Feature DOCUSUR International Film Festival The demolished house that is the site of the death of American peace activist Rachel Corrie is only the first of the troubling markers in the landscape charted by Palestine Blues, as the New York director travels the route along the security wall. A bereft farmer grieves for his ancient orchard as the bulldozers lay it to waste but a new movement in nonviolent resistance grows in its place. >> Film Website Price: $9 General / $8 Members & Students
.......................................................................................................................................................................... Museum of Fine Arts :: 7:30pm
	DRIVING TO ZIGZIGLAND by Nicole Ballivian USA/Palestine, 2006, 92 min U.S. PREMIERE. Director will be present. >> Watch Film Trailer A chronicle of a day in the life of a Palestinian cab driver in Los Angeles, Driving To Zigzigland, portrays the social struggle of the Arab immigrant in post-9/11 America. A film audition typecasts Bashar to play an Al Qaeda terrorist role. Bashar has twenty-four hours to make enough money to pay his bills. For the remaining hours left until tomorrow, an unceasing flow of passengers ride in his taxi and give the Arab cabbie the run-around on issues that deal with suicide bombers, George Bush, Rai music and world geography. All the while, Bashar’s nostalgia for Ramallah poses the question of whether or not the American Dream is an idea really worth fighting for. Shot in Los Angeles and Palestine, based on true stories. Price: $9 General / $8 Members & Students
	9:30pm FESTIVAL CLOSING RECEPTION Casablanca Restaurant, 40 Brattle St, Harvard Square, Cambridge. Come mark the conclusion of the festival by celebrating with the organizers as well as many of the featured directors and speakers. (9:30pm-12am) Admission: $15 General / $10 Students (tickets available at the door), included for VIP Festival Pass holders.