PALESTINIAN PERSPECTIVES VI

Remembering the Nakba (1948)

A selection of documentaries about the Nakba and its aftermath.

Two film screenings:

May 11-12 2010 Cinéma du Parc cinemaduparc.com 3575 av. du Parc, t. 514 281-1900

MAY 11 9pm (admission: 8$)
OVER THEIR DEAD BODIES: TANTURA, THE FORGOTTEN MASSACRE
Director: Arab Lotfy - Egypt-Lebanon 2008 -112 min. - eng. subt.
This film explores testimonies from surviving residents of Tantura, a Palestinian village just south of Haifa, which was “cleansed” by Jewish Haganah forces in May 1948. Many Palestinians were killed and hundreds were imprisoned. Those who survived fled to the nearby village of Fureidis, which was spared destruction when Jewish residents of nearby towns interceded on its behalf. Other survivors became refugees in the West Bank, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria. Arab Lotfy lives in Cairo, has made 30 films since graduating from Egypt’s High Cinema Institute in 1976, and has conducted workshops on women’s issues in Jordan and Canada.

MAY 12 9pm (admission: 11$ / 8$ for youth and elders)
ZAHRA
Director: Mohammed Bakri - Palestine, 2009 - 63 min. - fr. subt.
Zahra, a Palestinian native of a village in Galilee, is the central character in this documentary which tells the story, through a lyrical narrative, of how the Palestinian population of Israel has been radically transformed from a majority to a disenfranchised minority in their own homeland. Mohammed Bakri is a distinguished Palestinian actor and filmmaker whose documentary “Jenin, Jenin” won Best Film at the 2002 Carthage International Film Festival.

ARTHUR BALFOUR AND ME
Director: Charlotte Cornic - U.K. 2007 - 11 min. - original english version, fr. subt.
This is a personal story about how the actions of a politician born in 1848 on a sumptuous family estate in Scotland continues to affect the life of a young woman born in a refugee camp in Lebanon in 1971 and now seeking asylum in Glasgow. Based in Glascow, Charlotte Cornic sees documentaries as a powerful tool for change and community empowerment. She directed “Arthur Balfour and Me” in collaboration with Fatima Helow with the support of Scottish Screen and British Film Council.

STRANGER IN MY HOME
Director: Sahera Dirbas - Palestine 2007 - 37 min. - eng. subt.
The story of eight Palestinian families who have been turned into refugees in their own city. After forty years they recall the events that occurred in the Moghrabi Quarter of Jerusalem during the war of 1967. Each family goes to West Jerusalem to see the house which was taken from them in 1948. Sahera Dirbas was born in Haifa in 1964, has published three books about destroyed Palestinian villages, and works as a freelance TV producer & independent researcher for foreign TV networks.

With the support of: Cinéma du Parc, CJPP (Coalition pour la Justice et la Paix en Palestine), Tadamon, AMP-MAP (Medical Aid for Palestine), NCCAR-CNRCA (National Council on Canada-Arab Relations), PAJU (Palestinian and Jewish Unity), Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema, CJP-UQAM