Programme 15
Naqlah (2017)
Director: Yousef Al Bagshi
Kuwait
Narrative | 8 min
Arabic with English subtitles
During a devastating war, a young orphan living with his mother tries to put an end to the pain he suffers because of his disability. Suddenly paranormal activity disrupts the world he lives in. Were his actions the cause?
Petals (2018)
Director: Ghofran Gouda
United Kingdom
Narrative ǀ 8 min
English with Arabic subtitles
Petals is inspired by a true story. Three of Emily's sons go to war. She loses two of them, and the third goes missing. After the war, she contacts the military authorities and the Red Cross for help in finding her third son. Will she finally get an answer?
Preemptive Listening (Part 1: The Fork in the Road) (2018)
Director: Aura Satz
United Kingdom
Experimental | 9 min
English
For the first part of a project on sonic obedience and disobedience, which uses the trope of a siren, trumpeter Mazen Kerbaj has composed a new siren sound using circular breathing, and actor and activist Khalid Abdalla has written about the siren as the emblematic sound of resistance, oppression and lost futures during the Arab Spring.
Prototype (2017)
Director: Wesley Fawcett Creigh
United States of America
Experimental | 6 min
English
Sourced from experiences both real and imagined, Prototype is an experiment in collaboration across age groups that tackles the complex topics of border culture and politics. To make this film, local artists, educators and youth groups worked together to explore the themes of MOCA Tucson’s fall 2017 exhibition Nothing to Declare: Transnational Narratives.
See More Glass (2018)
Director: Ali Heraize
Canada
Narrative | 11 min
English
Michael, a war veteran, grapples with a heavy conscience as his relationship with his wife and family deteriorates. Unable to stay home, reminded of his pain at every corner, he seeks solitude on a beach, only to meet a girl who offers him a gift that helps him confront his past.
Baghdad Photographer (2017)
Director: Mejd Hameed
Iraq
Experimental ǀ 4 min
No dialogue
Baghdad Photographer examines the wars that have taken place in Iraq and their effect on society, here represented by the family. Without victory in the war, the killing and aftermath generate more tragedy in a continuous series of disasters, which result in broken families and more orphans with no clear future.
Shouted from the Rooftops (2017)
Director: Beri Shalmashi
The Netherlands
Narrative | 7 min
Kurdish with English Subtitles
This romantic story is set in the heart of a war-torn Kurdish town. When Sherin leaves to fight, her anguished lover, Ferhat, stays behind awaiting her return.
The Color Remains the Same (2015)
Director: Ali El-Darsa
Canada
Experimental | 13 min
Arabic with English subtitles
Using a cell phone camera as a witness, perhaps an unreliable one, the director calls into question his experiences in Beirut after a 14-year absence. He explores the aesthetics of celebration and conflict and the ways they overlap after a World Cup game and a car explosion that occurred simultaneously in 2014.
White Time (2012)
Director: Radfan Alqirsh
United States of America
Experimental | 9 min
English
A montage of various media, White Time weaves together fictional narrative, documentary/news footage and illustration to depict the inner struggle of reclaiming personal identity in politically hostile times.
Video Home System (2018)
Director: Sharlene Bamboat
Canada
Experimental | 19 min
English
Video Home System traces the convergence of popular culture and politics in Pakistan during the 1980s and 1990s. This video showcases connections between pop culture and nationalism and traces how bootleg economies kept the cinema industry alive during periods of censorship.
Missing My Home (2014)
Director: Amjad Kawish Farajie
Iraq
Experimental ǀ 5 min
Arabic with English subtitles
I miss my home... remembering my childhood, my toys, my memories… searching for them on Google Earth! Listening to the voices in my head: my mother's wailing, my father’s crying... Looking for my infancy that has been tarnished and damaged by wars, and for the dream of the boy over there.
A Room Without Mirrors (2018)
Director: Kwang-Ju Son
South Korea
Experimental ǀ 11 min
Korean with English subtitles
A Room Without Mirrors tells the story of a hidden bunker, personified as a fictitious political prisoner with no memory of the past. During years of interrogation, the Agency forces the bunker to fabricate a history. This film considers how memory cannot reconstruct the original images of the past, but it can trace how the past is signified or forgotten.
First day of school (2018)
Director: Aram Abdulrahim
Syria
Narrative | 8 min
Arabic
The war in Syria is portrayed through the eyes of two children who are attending their first day of school. Their fates intersect.
Love (2017)
Director: Waddah Alfahed
Syria
Documentary ǀ 12 min
Arabic with English subtitles
After two and half years of war and the siege in Homs, an old couple return to their home and discover the damage the war has caused. While going deeper into the ruins of the city, they uplift us with their unique story and love.
Souvenir in Exile (2018)
Director: Almokhtar Karboua
Algeria
Documentary | 31 min
Arabic with English subtitles
After the Nazi invasion of France in 1940, the pro-Vichy government arrested a group of anti-Nazi rebels and interned them in a detention centre in southern Algeria. Among these exiles at Ein Askar camp in Djelfa was a global intellectual figure who experienced an incident that had a great impact on her life.