Arabic film fest makes strides toward cultural understanding

According to its directors, the Arabic
Film Festival is a student-run initiative
that’s committed to fostering crosscultural
communication through film.
All the films are chosen to represent an
aspect or issue relevant to Arab life that
is underrepresented or misrepresented
by American media coverage.

“The only purpose we have right now
is to advocate a deeper understanding
of Arab culture and art through the use
of film,” said Paul Messplay, festival
screening director.

The festival aims to offer people a different
perspective of Arabic culture than
what is usually seen. Many of the films are
documentaries, which allow audiences a
peek into everyday, human experiences
of people in cultures often portrayed in
a bad light or not portrayed at all.

“I was responsible for acquiring the
films from various distributors and
then selecting the ones that I felt would
be good candidates for the festival,”
Messplay said.

Messplay chose eight films of various
genres from seven different countries
for the festival. Countries represented
are Yemen, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iraq,
Lebanon, Morocco and Israel/Palestine.

“A New Day in Old Sana’a” is the
first feature to ever come out of Yemen.
Directed by Bader Ben Hirsi, the film
is a romantic tale of a young man
betrothed to the daughter of a wealthy
and powerful judge. When the man
falls in love with a street dancer, he
must choose between familial duty
and following his heart.

From Lebanon comes “In the
Shadows in the City,” documentary
filmmaker Jean Khalil Chamoun’s first
narrative film. In the film, a family
escapes civil war between Muslims and
Christians in the countryside, only to
find themselves equally in danger in
Beirut. Chamoun creates an intense
overview of the conflict, and the story
is told through the struggles of the
film’s adolescent protagonist.

Showing for the first time on
the U.S. East Coast is “Encounter
Point.” The film is a Palestinian and
Israeli documentary directed by Ronit
Avni.

The documentary follows a former
Israeli settler, a Palestinian ex-prisoner,
a bereaved Israeli mother and
a wounded Palestinian’s bereaved
brother as they risk their lives to
advocate nonviolent conflict resolution.
The film examines what drives
these peace-seekers and the thousands
of others like them to overcome their
anger and grief to work toward a
grassroots campaign for solution.

Now in its fourth year, the festival
is sponsored by the Office of International
Education, the School of World
Studies and the Honors College.

“With all of their help and support
we are able to provide a free festival
to the public,” Messplay said. “We
have had over 3,000 people attend the
festival over the past three years, with
more people attending every year.”

For the past three years, festival
founders Jaime Bennett-Stansbury
and Hanan Abed ran the show. This
year the festival duties have been
passed on to Messplay and Hannah
Mazkour, sophomore international
studies students.

The festival takes place Friday,
Sept. 21, at 6:30 p.m. and Saturday,
Sept. 22, at 1 p.m. at the Grace Street
Theater, 934 W. Grace St. All films
are shown with English subtitles and
are free and open to the public. For
more information, visit http://www.
arabicfilmfestival.com.

Film schedule:

Friday
6:30 p.m. “These Girls”
(Egypt, 2006, 68 minutes)

7:45 p.m. “A New Day
in Old Sana’a” (Yemen,
2005, 86 minutes)

Saturday
1:00 p.m. “Saudi Solutions”
(Saudi Arabia,
2006, 77 minutes)

2:30 p.m. “Sari’s Mother”
(Iraq, 2001, 21 minutes)
“The Road to Kerbala”
(Iraq, 2005, 53 minutes)

4:00 p.m. “In the Shadows
in the City” (Lebanon,
2000, 102 minutes)

5:45 p.m. Reception

6:15 p.m. “Encounter
Point” (Palestine/Israel,
2007, 85 minutes)

7:50 p.m. “Le Grand Voyage”
(Morocco, 2005, 108
minutes)