Tag Archives: Film

Watch My Neighbourhood, the story of Sheikh Jarrah

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A remarkable, nonviolent struggle against settlement expansion in East Jerusalem

Mohammed El Kurd is a Palestinian boy growing up in the neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah in the heart of East Jerusalem. When Mohammed turns 11, his family is forced to give up part of their home to Israeli settlers, who are leading a campaign of court-sanctioned evictions to guarantee Jewish control of the area.

Shortly after their displacement, Mohammed’s family and other residents begin holding unarmed protests against the evictions, determined not to lose their homes for good. In a surprising turn, they are quickly joined by scores of Israeli supporters who are horrified to see what is being done in their name. Among them is Jewish West Jerusalem resident Zvi Benninga and his sister Sara, who develop a strong relationship with Mohammed and his family as they take on a leading role in organizing the protests.

Through their personal stories, My Neighbourhood goes beyond the sensational headlines that normally dominate discussions of Jerusalem and captures voices rarely heard, of those striving for a future of equality and pluralism in the city.

My Neighbourhood follows Mohammed as he comes of age in the midst of unrelenting tension and remarkable cooperation in his backyard. Highlighting Mohammed’s own reactions to the highly volatile situation, reflections from family members and other evicted residents, accounts of Israeli protesters and interviews with Israeli settlers, the film chronicles the resolve of a neighbourhood and the support it receives from the most unexpected of places.

My Neighbourhood is directed and produced by Rebekah Wingert-Jabi, who documented Mohammed’s story over two years, and acclaimed filmmaker Julia Bacha. It is the latest production by Just Vision, an award-winning team of Palestinian, Israeli, North and South American filmmakers, journalists and human rights advocates dedicated to telling the stories of Israelis and Palestinians working nonviolently to achieve freedom, dignity, equality and human security in the region.

MAY 17, 2020
CENSORED! Al Jazeera’s Documentary on the Israel Lobby-USA

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Massachusetts Peace Action, 5/11/20

Screening of a one-hour summary of the 4-part Al Jazeera investigative report that was never allowed to air, followed by Q&A. 2:00 pm – 3:30 pm Eastern

The film was made by Al Jazeera during 2016, but was censored because Qatar, the gas-rich Gulf emirate that funds Al Jazeera, came under intense Israel lobby pressure not to air the film.

The film exposes the efforts of Israel and its lobbyists to spy on, smear and intimidate US citizens who support Palestinian human rights, especially BDS – the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement. It shows that Israel’s semi-covert black-ops government agency, the Ministry of Strategic Affairs, is operating this effort in collusion with an extensive network of US-based organizations.

We will stream the video on Zoom, but for better video clarity we recommend that you watch it on Youtube. We will join the Zoom meeting for opening remarks and we will give you the Youtube link and tell you when to press “Play”. We’ll then return to the Zoom meeting for the Q&A.

Register at https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZEkduCqrzIjGNAS464q1DBeEFc_hjYH5Z4B; you will receive video and phone codes to join the meeting by email.

Second in a series of online meetings sponsored by Massachusetts Peace Action’s Palestine/Israel Working Group

December 6, 2018
Film: 5 Broken Cameras

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The Marquee Cinema, Union South
1308 West Dayton Street , Madison
7:00 pm

Join UW Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), the UW Middle East Studies Program, and the Wisconsin Union Directorate Film and Society & Politics Committees for a screening of the documentary Five Broken Cameras.

The documentary will be followed by a moderated discussion and Q&A with Professor Nevine El Nossery. Five Broken Cameras follows the resistance of one Palestinian farmer and his village against encroachments by the Israeli army.

September 16, 2017
Film: Bar Bahar/In Between

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Vilas Hall, Room 4070
UW Campus
7:00 pm [Map]

Bar Bahar/In Between is a controversial film made by a Palestinian citizen of Israel, and produced and marketed as an Israeli film.

Israel | 2016 | DCP | 102 min. | Arabic, Hebrew with English subtitles
Director: Maysaloun Hamoud
Cast: Mouna Hawa, Sana Jammelieh, Shaden Kanboura
Criminal lawyer Laila, DJ/bartender Salma and religious student Nur are three Arab Israeli young women sharing an apartment in Tel Aviv. When Nur’s conservative fiancé encourages her to leave her studies and the city to marry him, her more secular roommates face their own struggles to balance modernity with tradition. Unfolding in a city where the protagonists are partly seen as outsiders, In Between candidly and movingly depicts their special friendship and unique bond.

The film has been praised as an honest portrayal of the contradictions facing Palestinian citizens of Israel (especially women), and criticized as a stereotyped and one-sided view of traditional Palestinian culture and of the town of Umm Al-Fahm that advances the Israeli agenda and glosses over the underlying facts of Israeli relations with Palestinians of all types.

There will be a discussion following the film.

Co-sponsored by the UW Middle East Studies Department and the Cinemathique film society.

Umm al-Fahm is a Palestinian town in an area of of Israel known as the Little Triangle with 300,000 Palestinian Israelis. Netanyahu is talking about transferring the Little Triangle from Israel to a future Palestinian state in return for the annexation of illegal Jewish settlements in the West Bank. See “Netanyahu alarms Palestinians with talk of land swap” by Jonathan Cook.

May 4, 2017
Film: “Tickling Giants”

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Free speech is not settled law,
and democracy is not easily won

 

Elvehjem Building L150
455 N Park St
University of Wisconsin-Madison
6:00 PM – 9:00 PM CDT

Please join the University of Wisconsin-Madison Middle East Studies Program for a showing of Tickling Giants, a powerful story of the “Jon Stewart of Egypt” and the price of laughter in the Mideast (LA Times).

There will also be a short graduation ceremony for certificate students afterward.

ABOUT THE FILM
In the midst of the Egyptian Arab Spring, Bassem Youssef creates the satirical show, “Al Bernameg,” which quickly becomes the most viewed television program in the Middle East, with 30 million viewers per episode. But, in a country where free speech is not settled law, his show becomes as controversial as it is popular. Despite increasing danger, Bassem employs comedy, not violence, to comment on hypocrisy in media, politics, and religion. Tickling Giants follows the “Al Bernameg” team as they discover democracy is not easily won.

October 6, 2016
Film: Pinkwashing Exposed: Seattle Fights Back!

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UW-Madison Multicultural Student Center
Red Gym – 2nd Floor
716 Langdon St, Madison, Wisconsin
7:30 pm

Sponsored by UW-Madison Students for Justice in Palestine.

Film screening of the documentary Pinkwashing Exposed: Seattle Fights Back!, which follows queer activists fighting against Israeli pinkwashing propaganda in their community, providing a strategic primer on intersectional social justice activism.

After the film we will have a friendly discussion about how queer issues and Palestinian issues intersect, and the different opinions and thoughts on the film.

GoFundMe Request by Rafah Filmmaker Fida Qishta

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Fida Qishta, who visited us in Madison in 2014 and 2015 to show her powerful first film Where Should the Birds Fly, has been in film school in California. She is looking for donations to help fund her thesis film Equally Damaged. Please consider a donation via the gofundme link or check. As of today, she is still in need of $2,000.

We still have copies of Where Should the Birds Fly for sale, and one that we can loan for showings. If anyone is interested, let me know.

Thanks,
Barb O.

Dear friends,

I hope you are all doing well. I’m almost done with my Master program in Film and Media Production and will be graduating in September.

I’ll start filming my final thesis film Equally Damaged on July 22nd. Please check my go fund me campaign and give it a kick. Share it, and send it to your friends and mailing list.

https://www.gofundme.com/247ak64

If you’d like to send a check please make it out to me and send it to:

    Fida Qishta
    3409 West Alameda Ave, Apt B
    Burbank, CA 91505

Best, Fida

Director Statement
Growing up in Palestine is pretty hard. A Mid-East conflict zone, every day was a challenge, even life in my close-knit neighborhood was subject to conflicts and destruction. The landscape was constantly changing as homes and streets were destroyed. I always wondered, when I was young, what could make people stop killing each other. I realized as I grew up that the war machine is like a bubble, each side is separated from the other, and neither one is willing to acknowledge the other’s point of view. As a child, I thought the whole world was like my neighborhood. The first time I traveled, it opened my eyes to the world, and I saw things differently from when I was growing up. I felt cheated of normality. This is why I wanted to make a film that shows the damage that conflicts and wars cause on both sides that are involved. People in front of or behind the gun are damaged, and that is what I want to get across with this film. War and conflict can strip away humanity, and yet I believe that love and forgiveness are possible and worth fighting for.

Please help me fund the production of Equally Damaged. I will submit it as my master’s thesis project at the New York Film Academy and will enter it in film festivals. The film is a short , it will run 15-30 minutes. With the resources of the New York Film Academy, I can make Equally Damaged for $10,500.

Thank you to all of you.
Best, Fida

*****************++*****************
“You are far more powerful than you have ever imagined.
If you accept this knowledge and base your actions on it, you will be happier than ever before.
You will be able to do things you have only dreamed of doing and achieve anything you want in life.” Ibrahim ElfiqiI (Elfiky)

March 15, 2015 Rafah Filmmaker Fida Qishta at First United Methodist Church

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(See Funding Campaign for Filmmaker Fida Qishta)

Sunday, March 15
First United Methodist Church
Fellowship Hall
203 Wisconsin Avenue
Madison [Map]
7:00 pm

Join us for “Dessert and a Movie” at this year’s Rachel Corrie commemorative event with Rafah filmmaker Fida Qishta and her ground-breaking Where Should the Birds Fly? The event is free and open to the public, but donations to cover costs will be appreciated. Desserts, including baklawa, and coffee and tea will be served. Please RSVP to dwallbaum (at) gmail.com with the number of attendees.

March 16 will be twelve years since Rachel Corrie was crushed to death in Rafah by an Israeli bulldozer as she tried to stop the demolition of the Nasrallah family home. Just last week, the Israeli Supreme Court confirmed a lower court decision that the Israeli army bears no responsibility for her death; for more info and a statement from Craig and Cindy Corrie visit the Rachel Corrie Foundation for Peace and Justice. Portions of Where Should the Birds Fly were filmed in and around the area where Rachel died.

Don’t miss your chance to see this powerful film and meet the remarkable woman who made it.

Co-sponsored by the Madison-Rafah Sister City Project, Playgrounds for Palestine-Madison, First United Methodist, Memorial United Church of Christ in Fitchburg, and Pilgrims of Ibillin.

Fida Qishta will also be showing Where Should the Birds Fly? in the Janesville area at

    Milton United Methodist Church
    241 Northside Drive, Milton, WI [Map]
    Sunday, March 15 at 1 pm

There will be a discussion with Fida after the film, and refreshments will be served. Admission is free, but donations are appreciated. Sponsored by the Milton United Methodist Church and the Madison-Rafah Sister City Project.

From the film’s web site:

“Where Should the Birds Fly? is the first film about Gaza made by Palestinians living the reality of Israel’s siege and blockade of this tiny enclave. It is the story of two young women, survivors of Israel’s Operation Cast Lead. Mona Samouni, now 12 years old and the filmmaker, Fida Qishta, now 27, represent the spirit and future of Palestinians.

The film is a visual documentation of the Goldstone Report. But it is so much more. It reveals the strength and hope, the humanity and humor that flourishes among the people of Gaza. Few films document so powerfully and personally the impact of modern warfare and sanctions on a civilian population.

The film itself breaks the blockade. Filmmakers in Gaza have never had the opportunity to make a full length, professional documentary of their reality. Fida Qishta, born and raised in Rafah, Gaza, began her filmmaking career as a wedding videographer, and soon moved on to working with international human rights observers in Gaza, documenting day to day life under siege. Her commentary on the siege was published in The International Herald Tribune. Her video reports of Operation Cast Lead were published widely including in the UK newspaper The Guardian and in their weekly news magazine The Observer.

Fida founded The Life-Maker’s Centre, Rafah, Gaza. She was the manager and a teacher at this free facility for 300 children affected by war. The center continues to provide a safe place to play and offers counseling and English language tutoring.”

March 13, 2015
Rafah Filmmaker Fida Qishta at the Memorial Union

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Friday March 13
Memorial Union
UW-Madison Campus
6:30 pm [Map]

Gaza film-maker Fida Qishta will speak and show her groundbreaking film “Where Should the Birds Fly”, the first film about Gaza made by Palestinians living the reality of Israel’s siege and blockade of this tiny enclave.

Sponsored by UW-Madison Students for Justice in Palestine, with support from the Madison-Rafah Sister City Project.

For more info: Facebook — UW-Madison Students for Justice in Palestine
Film trailer: Where Should the Birds Fly

March 7 – 13, 2014
Film Omar at Sundance Cinema

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1010863_fr_omar_1378206363758The Oscar-nominated Palestinian film Omar is showing at the Sundance Cinema 608 in Hilldale Mall.

The US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation says: “Omar opened in more than 40 US cities this past Friday. If it is playing in your city, please ask your supporters to watch it this week to help keep it in theaters longer and make it a box office success. The film has an 89% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Learn more about the film from this New York Times piece and like it on Facebook!”