12th Annual Arab Film Festival (16-28 October 2008)

FEATURE FICTION FILMS

All My Life (Dir. Maher Sabry / Egypt/USA / 2008 / 120min)
Amours D’ Enfants (Dir. Fares Khalil / Lebanon / 2008 / 107min)
Bahraini Tale (Dir. Bassam Al Thawadi / Bahrain / 2007 / 96min)
Burned Hearts (Dir. Ahmed El Maanouni / Morocco / 2007 / 84min)
Captain Abu Raed (Dir. Amin Matalqa / Jordan / 2007 / 110min)
Falling from Earth (Dir. Chadi Zeneddine / Lebanon / 2007 / 70min)
Four Girls (Dir. Hassin Al Halibi / Bahrain / 2008 / 144min)
Out of Coverage (Dir. Abdellatif Abdulhamid / Syria / 2008) -Out of Competition
Paloma Delight (Dir. Nadir Mokneche/ Algeria / 2007/ 134min)
The President’s Chef (Dir. Saeed Hamed / Egypt / 2008) -Out of Competition
Samira’s Garden (Dir. Latif Lahlou / Morocco / 2007 / 110min)
Seventh Heaven (Dir. Saad Hendawy / Egypt / 2008 / 100min)
The Shadow of Silence (Dir. Abdullah Al Muheisen / Saudi Arabia / 2006 / 96min)
The TV Is Coming (Dir. Moncef Dhouib / Tunisia / 2006 / 95min) -Out of Competition
Waiting for Pasolini (Dir. Daoud Aoulad-Syad / Morocco / 2007 / 100 min) -OPENING -Out of Competition
The Yellow House (Dir. Amor Hakkar / Algeria / 2008 / 84min)

FEATURE NON-FICTION

33 Days (Dir. Mai Masri/ Lebanon / 2007 / 70 min)
Amina (Dir. Khadija Al-Salami / Yemen / 2008 / 52min)
Dancers (Dir. Celame Barge / Egypt / 2007 / 51min)
Gaza Souvenirs (Dir. Samuel Albaric / France / 2006 / 46min)
Life after the Fall (Dir. Kasim Abid / Iraq / Documentary / 2008 / 155 min)
Made in Egypt (Dir. Karim Goury / Egypt / France / 2006 / 69min)
Memory of a Woman (Dir. Lassaad Oueslati / Tunisia / 2008 / 52min)
Recycle (Dir. Mahmoud Al-Massad / Jordan / 2007 / 78 min)
Refugees for Life (Dir. Hady Zaccak / Lebanon / 2008 / 48min)
Roundabout Chatila (Dir. Maher Abi Samra / Lebanon / 2005 / 50min) -Out of competition
Seeing through the Sand (Dir. Noor Al-Dabbagh / Saudi Arabia / 2008 / 50min)
Slingshot Hip Hop (Dir. Jackie Salloum / Palestine / 2008 / 89min)
Storm from the South (Dir. Walid Al Awadi / Kuwait / UAE / 2006 / 52min)
Waiting for the Day (Dir. Meyar al Roumi / France/Syria / 2003 / 50min) -Out of competition
War, Love, God, Madness (Dir. Mohamed Al-Daradji / Iraq / 2008 / 72 min) -Out of competition
The Way North: Maghrebi Women in Marseille (Dir. Shara K. Lange. / France / 2007 / 58min)

SHORT FICTION

Alienation (Dir. Fady Copty / Palestine / 2007 / 8min)
Arafat & I (Dir. Mahdi Fleifel/ Palestine/UK / 2008 / 15min)
At the Day’s End (Dir. Sherif El Bendary / Egypt / 2007 / 15min)
Before the Wind Blows (Dir. Samer Najari / Canada / 2006 / 18min)
Bint Mariam (Dir. Saeed Salmeen Al Murry / UAE / 2008 / 25min)
The Cistern (Dir. Lassaad Oueslati / Tunisia / 2006 /12min) -Out of Competition
Clean Hands Dirty Soap (Dir. Karim Fanous / Egypt / 2007 / 25min)
Dead Fish (Dir. Malik Amara / Tunisia / 2008 / 19min)
Flou (Dir. Youssef Britel / Morocco / 2007 / 6min)
Free to Fly (Dir. Sajeda Abousaif & Alabbas Saed / Jordan / 2008 / 6min)
I Am Ready (Dir. Omar Saleh / Jordan / 2008 / 12min)
Karma (Dir. Faisal Alibrahim / Kuwait / 2007 / 10min)
Messaoud (Dir. Omar Mouldouira / Morocco / short fiction / 2006 / 8 min)
The Maid (Dir. Heidi Saman / Egypt / 2008 / 19min)
Neighbors (Dir. Gina Asfou
r / Palestine / 2008 / 13 min)
Noor (Dir. Eyas Salman / Palestine / 2008 / 20 min)
Pickled (Dir. Razi Najar / Palestine / 2008 / 16 min)
Tenbak (Dir. Abdullah Hassan Ahmed / UAE / 2008 / 26min)
Tough Crowd (Dir. Iman Zawahry / USA / 2007 / 9min)
The Shooter (Dir. Ihab Jadallah / Palestine / 2007 / 7min)
The View (Dir. Hazim Bitar & Rifqi Assaf / Jordan / 2008 / 16min)
A Winter Day’s Visits (Dir. Ismaeel Hamdy / Egypt / 2007 / 37min)
Ya Hala Wood (Dir. Hazim Bitar / Jordan / 2008 / 10min)
The Young Lady and the School (Dir. Mohamed Nadif / Morocco / 2008 / 10min)
The Young Lady and the Teacher (Dir. Mohamed Nadif / Morocco / 2007 / 16min)

SHORT NON-FICTION

Against the Light (Dir. Koutaiba al Janabi / UK/Czech Republic / 2007 / 15min)
A Candle for the Shabandar Cafe (Dir. Emad Ali / Iraq / 2007 / 23min) -Out of competition
Deadly Playground (Dir. Katia Saleh / Lebanon / 2007 / 23min)
Doctor Nabil (Dir. Ahmed Jabbar / Iraq / 2007 / 15min) -Out of competition
Leaving (Dir. Bahram Al Zuhairi / Iraq / 2007 / 23min) -Out of competition
Merely a Smell (Dir. Maher Abi Samra / Lebanon / 2007 / 11min)
Mimoune (Dir. Gonzalo Ballester / Spain/ Morocco / 2006 / 11min)
Nights and Days (Dir. Lamia Joreige / Lebanon / 2007 / 17min)
Not My Turn Yet (Dir. Rabee Zureikat & Hazim Bitar / Jordan / 2008 / 6min)
Open Eyes (Dir. Jana Sintschnig / USA / 2007 / 7min)
Out of the Frame (Dir. Nizar Annadawi / Iraq / 2007 / 22min)
A Palestinian Mural (Dir. Norma Shiheiber/ USA / 2008 / 12 min)
(Posthumous) (Dir. Ghassan Salhab / Lebanon / 2007 / 28min)
A Stranger in His Own Country (Dir. Hassanain Al Hani / Iraq / 2007 / 10min) -Out of competition
When Walls Speak (Dir. May Odeh / Palestine / 2008 / 16 min)

The Arab Film Festival is deeply saddened by the loss of Lebanese filmmaker Randa Chahal Sabag.

Award-winning filmmaker Randa Chahal Sabag passes away in Paris
By Jim Quilty
Daily Star staff
Wednesday, August 27, 2008

BEIRUT: Tripoli-born filmmaker Randa Chahal Sabag died in Paris on Monday after a years-long struggle with breast cancer. At a mere 55 years of age, Sabag’s passing is nothing if not premature.

Like many filmmakers from Lebanon and the wider Middle East, where the film industry is either non-existent or financially proscribed, Sabag’s is a small oeuvre. With a half-dozen international film festival prizes under her belt, it is also a critically significant one.

Sabag began her career with documentary film but she’d started to turn her attention to feature films by the 1990s, though she retained a documentary-maker’s nose for contentious subject matter.

Her 1997 drama “Les Infideles” is a case in point. It tells a story of the relationship between a French diplomat and a former Islamist who agrees to turn over the names of his erstwhile colleagues if the French government will release an imprisoned friend. Made for French television, the movie dwells on the passionate attraction between the former militant and the (married) diplomat, and the ensuing seduction of one by the other. (…)

Her greatest commercial and critical success came in 2003 and the release of “The Kite,” which was nominated for the Golden Lion at the 2003 Venice Film Festival and won three other prizes – the Grand Special Jury Prize, the Cinema for Peace Award and the Laterna Magica Prize.
Set in an anonymous Qunaytra-like South Lebanese village, the film recounts the story of an arranged marriage between Lamia, a 15-year-old Lebanese Druze girl, and her Israeli Druze cousin. The drama unfolds under the watchful eyes of a pair of Israeli Arab border guards, one of whom is played by Lebanese composer-actor-playwright Ziad Rahbani.

Read Full Daily Star Article Here

FALAFEL, the film by Lebanese filmmaker Michel Kammoun, was released last week in theaters across France. FALAFEL was the Centerpiece Film of the very first Arab Film Festival in Los Angeles in 2007, and all of us at AFF congratulate Kammoun on the general release of his film.

In this English-language interview with France 24, Kammoun explains how the film reflects the schizophrenic lives of young Lebanese people as they try to enjoy light-hearted fun while knowing that potential political danger is always lurking beneath the surface.

The Arab Film Festival is deeply saddened by the loss of Yousef Chahine, the most celebrated filmmaker of the Arab World.

Yousef Chahine died on Sunday July 27th in Cairo, Egypt at the age of 82 after being in a coma for the last month due to a brain hemorrhage. Mr. Chahine was born as Gabrielle Yousef Chahine in Alexandria on Jan. 25, 1926 to a Greek mother and a Lebanese father.

After studying at Alexandria University for one year, Mr. Chahine moved to the USA for two years to study film and dramatic arts at the Pasadena Playhouse in Pasadena, CA. After his return to Egypt, he focused his efforts on filmmaking. In 1950, he directed his first film, “Baba Amin”. To date, Mr. Chahine is accredited with over 40 films, spanning five decades with a multitude of genres. His films tackled everyday topics of poverty, the working class, as well as controversial political issues in Egypt and the Arab World.

Mr. Chahine’s creativity and artistic talents will be celebrated for years to come. As a leading filmmaker in the Arab World, his work has been an inspiration to many artists. His talents have immensely contributed to the success of the Arab film industry, which has produced a body of work that has allowed the creation of the Arab Film Festival and our mission to enhance public understanding of the Arab World, its culture and people to American audiences.

During his long career, he made more than 40 films. The last, “Chaos,” was premiered at the Venice Film Festival in 2007.

The Arab Film Festival would like to commemorate Yousef Chahine’s contribution to Arab Cinema and the world at large with the Lifetime Achievement Award, which will be presented during the 12 Annual Arab Film Festival in October.

To learn more about Yousef Chahine, visit www.youssefchahine.us

By Elaine Pasquini

Michel Shehadeh (Staff photo P. Pasquini.)

“I’m definitely going to put everything I can into this project,” Michel Shehadeh told the Washington Report in a recent interview. “I want to make the Arab Film Festival not just an Arab-American cultural event, but an American cultural event and an integral part of the art and culture scene as seen through Arab lenses and eyes.”

Sitting in the film festival’s office in San Francisco’s hip South Park district, the new AFF executive director spoke excitedly about his goals and ideas for the United States’ oldest independent Arab film festival. “I want to institutionalize and stabilize the film festival in terms of revenue and financial resources and make it the focal point of Arab films,” he explained. “It is our job to bring quality and award-winning films to American audiences, and we need more than the Arab-American community to attend. Our aim is to reach the general public.”

Shehadeh served six years as the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee’s western regional director, but the Palestinian from the West Bank town of Birzeit is perhaps best known for his 20-year persecution by the U.S. government which ended last year, when the Board of Immigration Appeals dismissed all charges against him (see Jan./Feb. 2008 Washington Report, p. 45).

More than 100 films from Arab countries, as well as Europe, the United States and Canada, have been submitted for the 12th annual festival, which will run Oct. 16-31 in San Francisco, Berkeley, San Jose and Los Angeles. “This overwhelming response from so many countries contributes to the diversity of the festival,” Shehadeh noted. “There is a renaissance in Arab filmmaking with the first independent Jordanian film, first Saudi and first Bahraini. People are becoming more interested in seeing films and stories coming from the Arab world made by Arabs in both the U.S. and Europe. It’s happening and it is an exciting time for us.”

Elaine Pasquini is a free-lance journalist based in the San Francisco Bay Area.

As the world mourns the loss of beloved Egyptian director Youssef Chahine, we recognize his great talent for telling Egyptian stories to the outside world, as well as pushing the social and moral boundaries within his own society. What we should not overlook is also Chahine’s important role as a mentor to many of today’s best Egyptian filmmakers.

Egyptian director Khaled Youssef’s life and career has been touched by the indelible impact of teacher Youssef Chahine, and in Chahine’s wake, he must continue to fight his own struggle within Egyptian society. In this month’s Egypt Today, we see the degree of influence that Chahine had on Youssef’s work.

Read the full article on Khaled Youssef here.