Pomegranates and Myrrh

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Venue TIFF Bell Lightbox Cinema 1. Date and time: 02/22/12 at 7:00pm. Director(s): Najwa Najjar. Release Year 2009. Film length: 95 min. Film website or trailer: Click here. Awards: Youssef Chahine grand prix de cinema at Festival International de Cinéma d'Auteur de Rabat; Audience Award Best Arab Film Doha Tribeca Film Festival; Prize Television de Calicia Amal Film Festival Spain; Script Winner Screenplay Development Fund Amiens, France; Cinema in Motion San Sebastian Film Festival;. Box office: 416.599.TIFF (8433). Country of origin: Palestine. Toronto Premiere, Ashraf Farah (Zaid) in attendance. Description: Najwa Najjar’s feature length debut is set in present day Ramallah. Wedded bliss ends abruptly for dancer Kamar when her husband Zaid is taken prisoner for resisting the confiscation of his family’s land. Defying society’s taboos, Kamar returns to her dance where she is confronted with Kais, a Palestinian returnee from Lebanon and the new dance instructor who takes a special interest in Kamar. Life for Kamar becomes increasingly complicated as Zaid’s sentence is extended and the legal case against the land confiscation faces numerous obstacles placing the annual harvest and the family’s livelihood in danger. This beautiful film captures Kamar’s intensely personal turmoil as she becomes increasingly attached to Kais, and is torn between her desire to dance and society’s expectations of a prisoner’s wife. Buy tickets

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Stray Bullet

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Venue Jackman Hall, AGO. Date and time: 02/22/12 at 2:00pm. Director(s): Georges Hachem (Director in attendance with Ashraf Farah of Pomegranates and Myrrh for post-screening panel). Release Year 2010. Film length: 80 min. Film website or trailer: Click here. Awards: Best Film Murh Arab Award at DIFF 2010; Best Screenplay Cairo International Film Festival 2010, Best Cinematography FIFF 2010. Box office: 416.599.TIFF (8433). Country of origin: Lebanon. Toronto Premiere. Description: Hachem’s debut film is a poignant socio-politically charged drama that unveils a family in turmoil in the midst of wartime tensions. It’s the end of summer 1976 in a northern suburb of Beirut. Noha (Labaki) is engaged to be married and her overbearing family is relieved she will not end up an old maid like her sister. Wedding preparations appear to be going to plan until, on that Sunday, fifteen days before the nuptials, Noha changes her mind. Noha’s self-actualization triggers a cascading set of events that fractures her and her family. Trailer This beautiful film shot in a 1970s grainy aesthetic captured a best cinematography award and will be screened in 35mm format. Related post. Buy tickets

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No shows booked at the moment.

The Kingdom of Women: Ein El Helweh (Mamlakit Al Nisa'a Ein El Hilweh)

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Venue Jackman Hall, AGO. Date and time: 02/22/12 at 7:00pm. Director(s): Dahna Abourahme. Release Year 2010. Film length: 54 min. Film website or trailer: Click here. Country of origin: Lebanon. Canadian Premier. Copresented by Planet in Focus. Description: Copresented by Boston Palestine Film Festival The story of the women of Ein El Hilweh refugee camp between 1982-1984 is an important chapter in the history of Palestinian refugee women in Lebanon. After the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982, the camp was destroyed and its men imprisoned. The film documents the community and organizing spirit of the women during this period, how they were able to rebuild the camp, protect and provide for their families while their men were held captive. Weaving between past and present, animation and daily life, the documentary focuses on seven of these women and honours how women continue to contribute to the survival of the Palestinian community in exile. Buy tickets

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Shout

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Venue Jackman Hall, AGO. Date and time: 02/22/12 at 7:00pm. Director(s): Ester Gould, Sabine Lubbe Bakker. Release Year 2010. Film length: 75 min. Film website or trailer: Click here. Country of origin: The Netherlands. North American Premiere. Copresented by Diaspora Film Festival. Description: Best friends Ezat and Bayan are about to make the journey they have planned since they were children. Born in the Golan-Heights, Israeli-occupied Syrian territory, they’ve lived their lives next to the closed border with their homeland Syria. Now eighteen, they embark on the opportunity to cross the UN-monitored no man’s land to study in Damascus. Feeling a mix of emotions upon their arrival, Ezat and Bayan pursue their ambitions and enjoy their new freedoms in Damascus. What started out as an adventure to an unknown homeland leads to a dilemma that forces them to choose between their past lives in the Golan-Heights and their new lives in Damascus. Buy tickets

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Enemy Alien

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Venue Jackman Hall, AGO. Date and time: 02/22/12 at 9:00pm. Director(s): Aderer, Konrad (Director in attendance). Release Year 2011. Film length: 81 min. Film website or trailer: Click here. Country of origin: United States of America. Canadian Premiere. Copresented by Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival. Description: A Japanese American filmmaker confronts startling echoes of his own family’s World War II internment as he joins the fight to free a Homeland Security detainee. The documentary captures the dramatic two-year struggle to free Palestinian activist Farouk Abdel-Muhti, detained in a post-9/11 roundup of Muslim immigrants. This intimate, revelatory film takes on profound personal and historical implications as Farouk, his son and the filmmaker each pay a personal price for resisting wartime policies. Buy tickets

Full Court Press: Israel, Berkeley and the Divestment Resolution

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Venue Jackman Hall, AGO. Date and time: 02/22/12 at 9:00pm. Director(s): Paxton. Anne. Release Year 2011. Film length: 30 min. Country of origin: United States of America. Canadian Premiere. Description: The University of California at Berkeley recently saw the USA’s first public debates over the merits of a resolution advocating the divestment from companies militarily supporting Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory. Using interviews, film from the Berkeley student senate proceedings, and supporting documentary footage from Palestinian territory and Egypt, the film is an enlightening exploration of the debates and boycott, divestment and sanctions as effective tools for ending the occupation and blockade. Buy tickets

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Children of the Revolution

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Venue Jackman Hall, AGO. Date and time: 02/22/12 at 9:00pm. Director(s): Shane O’Sullivan (May Shigenobu in attendance for Q&A). Release Year 2010. Film length: 90 min. Film website or trailer: Click here. Country of origin: Ireland, Germany, England. North American Premiere. Copresented by Images Festival. Description: Inspired by the student revolutions of 1968, Ulrike Meinhof and Fusako Shigenobu became the leading revolutionaries of their time, as leaders of the Baader Meinhof Group and the Japanese Red Army. Appalled by the killing in Vietnam, they worked with Palestinian freedom fighters to overthrow capitalism through world revolution. Packed with extraordinary archive footage, the film sees journalists Bettina Röhl and May Shigenobu explore the lives of their mothers, Ulrike and Fusako, from very different perspectives. Buy tickets

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No shows booked at the moment.

No shows booked at the moment.

No shows booked at the moment.

No shows booked at the moment.

No shows booked at the moment.

Friday May 13, 9:30pm: TPFF Launch Party featuring Omar Offendum

Friday July 15, 9:00pm: Outdoor Screening - Checkpoint Rock - Christie Pits Park (Toronto)

Wednesday, September 14 · 7:00pm: Slingshot HipHop - Free Outdoor Film Screening (York U)

Thursday, September 22 · 4:00pm: Tribute to Juliano Mer Khamis and the Jenin Freedom Theatre