We are moving stories

“I fell in love with Sahrawi culture when I first met Sahrawis during Fisahara Film Fest, a beautiful desert fest I attended with our film on Syrian refugees. The Sahrawi generosity was so moving to me. They had so little in the refugee camps in Algeria but they were always so sharing and caring.

I felt the urge to extend support and became motivated to raise awareness about Sahrawis’ quest to self-determination and share with the world their resilient struggle through nonviolent resistance and to show how art can be a tool for advancing diplomacy and confronting injustice.”

“Back in 2010, I decided to make a documentary film about the Moroccan occupation of Western Sahara after the violent dismantling of the Gdeim Izik protests in Laayoune by the Moroccan police force. The utter lack of coverage of these events on international media outlets is what compelled me to make a film that would somehow put the country’s issues on the grid.

As soon as I arrived in Western Sahara however, I encountered problems with the Moroccan secret police that blackmailed and threatened my Saharawi husband’s family who live in the territory, and I was forced to abandon the documentary project. Shaken but still determined, I decided to turn to fiction where I could obscure political intent in the narrative without effacing it, and with a loose script in hand I traveled to the Western Saharan refugee camps in Algeria in search of people who would be interested in working with me on a short film. BATTALION TO MY BEAT is the result of this collaboration in the camps.”

“You should watch this film to hear the Sahrawi people’s voice and and helping them obtain justice by spreading their message.”

“I met Bassem in 2012, when he visited The Daily Show. I’m a Senior Producer and I met Bassem when he and some staff members came to observe our show before their show went live. People always ask me what it’s like to be a female producer at a comedy show, so I was at first intrigued because this charismatic guy had shown up with two Egyptian female producers. I was curious what it would be like to be my counterpart in the Middle East. And I was blown away by what all of them were doing. They did the same job I do every day, but with such higher stakes .”

“You should watch this film because it is a great story with characters you can love who are struggling to create something new and meaningful. It also has interesting parallels to our current (American) struggles around democracy. It also will give you two very different but equally valid takes on what democracy means and how it could be lived.”

“Deema is the name of the film’s main character. In Arabic, Deema means ‘a quiet rain’. However, Deema’s past is plagued by a roar that she tries to forget, the loss of a pregnancy. Once she meets Nidal, who she hadn’t seen in years, they fall in love. But their love cannot move forward because of this pain inside of her.

In the same way, the Arab Spring cannot move forward because of the pain of the failed Spring in Syria. Deema needs to go inside herself and listen to the voice inside her heart. A motherly voice guides her on the path to self-forgiveness. Even though the Spring was aborted and she is struggling with these feelings of pain, she must acknowledge it and find peace within.”

“Here we are in 2018, the #metoo is in full swing, women are saying “enough is enough”. It’s amazing, it’s about time, I love it. However, in 2011, because of the girl in the blue bra, women and men all over the Middle East were already chanting “enough is enough”. You should watch this film because #themtoo! But this isn’t really about comparing one’s suffering with that of another. When I see the girl in the blue bra, I see my mother, my sister, my best friend, my neighbor, women all over the world. I see myself. It’s incredibly terrifying and immensely invigorating all at once—the necessary pain in order for the healing and the change to begin.”

“At the beginning of the 2011 Libyan uprising, a Libyan friend of mine living in LA asked me to go to Benghazi with him. At that point, I wanted to see for myself what was occurring during the Arab Spring, so I made the heavy decision to cross that border, and into the dust of revolution.”

“Too often we hear about these unimaginable atrocities yet we go about our day-to-day lives like nothing is happening. There’s an emotional divide between what we intellectually know about the world and how we feel about that knowledge. We wanted to close that gap with this story.”

“I made my film to imagine what it would have been like for my grandmother to return home before she died. The film imagines her return to her hometown Haifa through Google Streetview, which today is the only way she can see Palestine. It’s the only way I can access the land too; Palestinian refugees are restricted from returning to their ancestral homeland from which they are forcefully being displaced since 1948. My choice to use Google Streetview came out of necessity, but I soon realized that the Streetview landscape, its aesthetics and its mainstream use as a touristic tool of “location” consumption, inherently poses our the question of (dis)connection to place. ”

“The film combines “gloss” with substance. It is drawn from raw, organic writing, based on painful truth. It is based on 1000’s of true - yet untold - stories, which makes it very authentic. It is a film written and made with passion that touches people at a deep emotional level. And, as emotional creatures, there’s nothing more beautiful than being touched in that way. It also covers the topic of children’s human rights, which frankly everyone should sit up and take note of!”

“AT DAWN deals with current day Israel-Palestine. It’s about Innocence and love mixed with violence and racism. It’s about growing up in the Middle East. People around the world see my country through the news on a daily basis, but the way it is presented is always through a certain kind of perspective. I wanted to show the diversity of this conflict through a different point of view, one that would make people think and reflect on their own lives and society.”

“I believe most audiences have been misinformed and the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. People must see the reality as it is and understand the harm this occupation is causing to both peoples. As well, audiences must know that separation into two states, one Palestinian and one Jewish is the only viable solution to this conflict. If audiences are aware of this information, perhaps more pressure can be put on leaders on both sides.”

“I met Atalya Ben-Abba when she was in high school, trying to come to terms with her eventual conscription as a soldier. She was a strong-willed young woman who was considering becoming a combat soldier. When her brother — my partner — told me that she had decided to refuse military service and would be sent to prison, I was in awe of her courage. After hearing her articulate her objection to the occupation of the Palestinian territories and seeing her charisma through the camera, I knew it was a story that should be amplified. I seek to elevate the actions of Atalya and the growing movement of youth objectors as a stimulus for all of us – regardless of nationality – to act boldly on our visions of justice. ”

“This subject represents one of the longest running injustices of the modern era and there are more and more Jews who can’t check their values at the door and who are speaking out to end it. The film gives them a voice.”

“This film brings a nuanced and refreshing look on the West Bank settlements and on the Israeli society. It exposes an angle that hasn’t been tackled so far: second generation settlers, that were born into this reality. ”

“The film is an adaptation of a short story of my late mother. It set in the 70’s but it’s still very relevant to our days. The main subjects of the film – first love and the military role in the coming of age experience – are themes that I’m curious about and always eager to explore.”

“This film actually is a showcase of all my hopes for a better Iran. The little girl in my film who has just started to talk, stands for her rights and speaks of the violence that she has tolerated. Even though her aunt tries her best to conceal the domestic violence, the blue rain in the final scene indicates that the truth won’t be hidden forever.”

“On top of my personal drive to document the current dire conditions we are facing in the East and the ongoing humanitarian crisis that has been spreading in the West with a concerning rise in xenophobia, my aim is to not let the personal histories of the refuges sink and get lost under the general history writings of the Syrian War.”