Yom al-Ard
Monica Maurer, 2019, 15’19
In Arabic with English subtitles
Yom Al Ard (2019) is a portrait about the fragmentation of the land, the experience, and the people of Palestine, showcasing the systematic efforts to disperse, fragment, and destroy the audiovisual memory and collective identity of Palestinians. It is composed of rare footage shot in the Galilee (Nazareth, Deir Hanna, and Sakhnin) in celebration of the 5th Land Day Anniversary on March 1981 that has recently been restored and digitized. The film pays homage to the transversal unity of the people, their collective energy in the defense of Palestinian identity- unimaginable today – and to their charismatic leader, the five times Mayor of Nazareth and poet Tawfik Zayyad.
Monica Maurer is a German filmmaker and writer with a degree in Sociology and Communication Sciences, after which she started directing and producing films independently. In the early 1970s she worked in television making documentaries about Zavattini, the Tavianis, andBernardo Bertolucci. She did TV features, wrote for several newspapers, and was Assistant Director of SALOMÈ (1972). In her projects, Monica focuses on political activism. All her films won awards and screened worldwide, including PALESTINE RED CRESCENT (’78), CHILDREN OF PALESTINE (’79), THE FIFTH WAR (‘80), BORN OUT OF DEATH (‘81), and PALESTINE IN FLAMES (‘88). Monica was a jury member in many festivals including Leipzig, Bilbao, Munich, and Santiago de Chile. She co-founded the Arab Documentary Film Festival, Al Ard, in Cagliari, and is also a board member of AAMOD, the archive of the labor movement in Rome, and is responsible for its CineforumPalestina.
Stitching Palestine
Carol Mansour, 2017, 78′
In Arabic with English subtitles
Stitching Palestine portrays twelve Palestinian women contemplating their lives, memories, and identities before the exile. Twelve women from different generations and different walks of life—artists, lawyers, housewives, activists, architects, and politicians—share the story of their homeland and their experiences of the dispossession. The narrative of these intriguing life stories is weaved together like embroidery.
Directed by Carol Mansour, Stitching Palestine is a story of resistance, heritage, and sisterhood that binds the personal with the collective.
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