This weekend two award-winning films--the Oscar-nominated documentary FIVE BROKEN CAMERAS and HABIBI, an internationally-lauded feature film--will be screened at Cinemapolis to conclude the week-long Palestinian Environmental Film Festival (PEFF).
Five Broken Cameras will be shown, Saturday, 4pm, and Sunday, 7:20pm. The film, co-sponsored by FLEFF and PEFF, intertwines the autobiographical testimony of Palestinian farmer and filmmaker Emad Burnat with the story of collective nonviolent resistance in his West Bank village of Bil’in. Rabbi Brant Rosen praises Five Broken Cameras as “one of the most important films on Palestine and Palestinians you will ever see. It’s also brilliantly constructed and deeply, almost unbearably moving.” Beth Harris, associate professor of Politics at Ithaca College, will lead a discussion after the 4pm showing of the film. She has met with Palestinian activists in Bil’in, as well as other Palestinian villages resisting Israel’s confiscation of their land and construction of the Separation Wall.
Sponsored by FLEFF, PEFF and Jewish Studies, the feature film Habibi will be shown Sunday, 4pm and 9:20pm. Director Susan Youssef explains, “Habibi, a story of forbidden love, is the first fiction feature set in Gaza in over 15 years. The film is a modern re-telling of the legendary tragic romance ‘Majnun Layla’, which was set in seventh century Arabia, when a poet named Qays fell in love with Layla.” Habibi was awarded Best Arab Feature Film at the Dubai International Film Festival, and Youssef was identified by Filmmaker Magazine as one of "25 New Faces to Watch." After the 4pm screening of Habibi, Kevin Lacey, director of the Arabic and Near Eastern Studies Program at Binghamton University, SUNY, will lead a discussion. As a professor of both classical and contemporary Arabic literature, Lacey can provide a cultural context for the film.
This year PEFF focuses on “(Im)mobility in Palestine,” examining how the continuing military occupations of the West Bank and Gaza are creating unsustainable economic, social and physical environments. The documentaries and feature film explore courageous efforts and innovative strategies to break the siege and struggle for freedom.
For more information, please contact PEFF student director Ava Carmeli, ava.carmeli@gmail.com.
https://www.ithaca.edu/intercom/article.php/2013040421533167