2011

Subtitled Chronicle of a Present Absentee, this humorous, heartbreaking film (the final installment in a trilogy that includes Chronicle of a Disappearance and Divine Intervention) is set among the Israeli Arab community and shot largely in homes and places in which Suleiman’s family once lived. Inspired by his father’s diaries, letters his mother sent to family members who had fled the Israeli occupation, and the director’s own recollections, the film spans from 1948 until the present, recounting the saga of Suleiman’s family in elegantly stylized episodes.

Saz: The Palestinian Rapper For Change covers a transformative year in the life of rapper Sameh Zakout, who transitions from the obscurity of working in a Ramleh auto repair shop to international fame and sold-out concerts in London.

Three men scarred and shaped by the conflict, a Christian, a Muslim, and a Jew, dedicate their lives to building peace between Palestine and Israel, inspired by the philosophies of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi.

The Shu'afat refugee camp lies on the edge of Jerusalem.  Carrying blue Jerusalem IDs, but now separated from the city by the wall and a checkpoint, residents of the camp find themselves caught between Jerusalem and the West Bank.  Deprived of civil services, the camp has become an over-crowded, no-man's land plagued by garbage, drugs, and violence.  Out of the daily struggle for survival and identity rises G-Town, a young rap group bringing voice to life in the camp and defining the Jerusalem style of Palestinian hip hop.

There are parallel universes in the city of Jerusalem. Aside from "Eged" - the national Israeli bus system, there is a Palestinian public bus service. It picks up people traveling from Eastern Jerusalem to other Arab neighborhoods and the borders of Palestine.

Set in a Palestinian neighborhood in Jerusalem, Lesh Sabreen? tells the story of two young lovers as they navigate dreams and dead-ends in their socially-conservative and Israeli-controlled community. The film illustrates the several layers of authority, from the patriarchal social norms and taboos, to economic pressures and the military occupation, continually facing young Arab Jerusalemites. Sabreen and Ayman dream of being together. But without true economic opportunities, Ayman will never be able to care for Sabreen in a way that her father would approve.

In 1948, following the UN partition plan for Palestine, a war broke out between Arabs and Jews. In April 1948 a young teacher, Hind al-Husseini came across a large group of young children outside the Holy Sepulcher church in Jerusalem. They were survivors of a massacre in Deir Yassin, a village on the outskirts of Jerusalem. Hind al-Hussein established an orphanage in her Jerusalem home for these children. Today Dar al-Tifl al-Arabi is the largest Palestinian orphanage, and it includes a school and a college with more than 1500 pupils/students.