Arab Films Selected for Lincoln Center's New Directors/New Films Series
Curated by New York’s Film Society of the Lincoln Center and the Film Department of the Museum of Contemporary Art (MoMa), the New Directors/New Films series ‘has earned an international reputation as the premiere festival for works that break or re-cast the cinematic mold.’ It kicks off today, March 26th, and runs through April 4th.
Two films from emerging young Arab filmmakers will be featured in this series.
FALLING FROM EARTH
Chadi Zeneddine, Lebanon/France, 2007
“A true cinema poet, Chadi Zeneddine’s poignantly surrealist debut film pays tribute to four lonely people trying to survive their own private wars in Beirut. These seamlessly woven chapters each reflect their own particular time and place. In 1958, a solitary little girl exchanges her world of toys and make-believe for a camera that captures the harsher reality outside. In 1975, a security official grieving over the loss of a loved one finds solace in the graffiti he reads and scrawls in a men’s room. In 1982, a woman dances and weeps, waiting in vain for a missing lover. And in the present, Joussef has a magical encounter. Falling From Earth is a moving elegy for a lost homeland from a director whose talent and sensitivity imbue every frame.”
SLINGSHOT HIP HOP 
Jackie Reem Salloum, USA, 2008
“While America’s image abroad has been battered of late, its music remains a unifying force in global culture. New York filmmaker Jackie Reem Salloum’s first feature documentary on Palestinian rap, is an exuberant mix of live-action and animation. Beginning in Lyd, Israel, where Tamer Nafar heard Tupac Shakur and, influenced by Shakur’s protest lyrics and fierce rhythms, formed DAM, the first Palestinian hip hop group, the filmmaker travels to West Bank communities and to Gaza to record what, in spite of poverty and military checkpoints, DAM hath wrought. That includes PR (Palestinian Rapperz), whose members hope someday to meet fellow rappers outside the confinements of Gaza; and the female rapper Abeer and the group Arapeyat, who are redefining gender roles in their societies. Slingshot Hip Hop is a rousing testament to the power of music and the aspirations of youth.”
Details on the screenings at New Directors/New Films.
