Insurgent Transmissions: A Palestine Film Series
Insurgent Transmissions is a film series highlighting the varied Palestinian experience. Made by contemporary Palestinian makers, the films depict the many ways that Palestinians resist occupation in their daily lives and filmmaking practices. Beginning with Annemarie Jacir’s touching family drama, Wajib, the programming will unfold as a series of transmissions: Jacir chooses the second film, and each subsequent filmmaker will select the next film in the series. The films in Insurgent Transmissions highlight the works of contemporary Palestinian filmmakers, amplifying their voices through their films and the films they see as most urgent in this moment of cultural erasure and genocide.
This monthly series is presented by Mizna at Bryant Lake Bowl April–July 2024. Ticket fees go towards supporting the featured Palestinian filmmakers, sliding scale of $5–15. Additional opportunities to support urgent grassroots fundraisers in Gaza will be available at the screening.
ACCESSIBILITY: To make these events accessible, masks are STRONGLY ENCOURAGED. Unfortunately we cannot require masks because Bryant Lake Bowl serves food and drinks inside the screening space. Films will be in Arabic with English subtitles.
Tickets
APRIL SCREENING
On April 24, 2024, at 7pm, join us for a screening of Wajib by Annemarie Jacir. In addition to ticket fees going to support the featured Palestinian filmmakers, we will be raising money for Crips for Esims for Gaza, an initiative which has been raising money to keep people in Gaza connected despite a months-long internet blackout.
ABOUT THE FILM
Abu Shadi (Mohammad Bakri) is a divorced father and school teacher in his mid-60s who lives in Nazareth with his daughter. Now that she is about to be married, the aging patriarch is anticipating life on his own. In preparation for the wedding, his architect son, Shadi (Saleh Bakri), who lives in Rome, travels to Nazareth to help the family. As Shadi and his father spend a day together hand-delivering wedding invitations to each guest in keeping with local Palestinian custom, the tense details of their fragile relationship come to a head, while each faces the reality of their very different lives. Performed brilliantly by actual father and son Mohammad and Saleh Bakri, Wajib demonstrates Annemarie Jacir’s filmmaking mastery through its style and subtleties.
MAY SCREENING
On May 29, 2024 at 7pm, join us for a screening of Infiltrators by Khaled Jarrar. In addition to ticket fees going to support the featured Palestinian filmmakers, we will be raising money for Crips for Esims for Gaza, an initiative which has been raising money to keep people in Gaza connected despite a months-long internet blackout.
ABOUT THE FILM
The checkpoint is closed. “Detour, detour!” shouts a taxi driver, announcing the beginning of yet another uncertain search for a way around the barriers curtailing Palestinian movement in the West Bank. Infiltrators is a visceral “road movie” that chronicles the daily travails of Palestinians of all backgrounds as they seek routes through, under, around, and over a bewildering matrix of barriers.
JUNE SCREENING
On June 26, 2024 at 7pm, join us for a screening of Foragers by Jumana Manna. In addition to ticket fees going to support the featured Palestinian filmmakers, we will be raising money for Middle East Children’s Alliance’s efforts in Gaza, an initiative which has been responding to the urgent needs of Palestinian civilians in Gaza.
ABOUT THE FILM
Foragers depicts the dramas around the practice of foraging for wild edible plants in Palestine/Israel with wry humor and a meditative pace. Shot in the Golan Heights, the Galilee and Jerusalem, it moves between fiction, documentary and archival footage to portray the impact of Israeli nature protection laws on these customs. The restrictions prohibit the collection of the artichoke-like Akkoub and Za’atar (thyme), and have resulted in fines and trials for hundreds caught collecting these native plants. For Palestinians, these laws constitute an ecological veil for legislation that further alienates them from their land while Israeli state representatives insist on their scientific expertise and duty to protect. Following the plants from the wild to the kitchen, from the chases between the foragers and the nature patrol, to courtroom defenses, Foragers captures the inherited love, joy and knowledge in these traditions alongside their resilience to the prohibitive law. By reframing the terms and constraints of preservation, the film raises questions around the politics of extinction, namely who determines what is made extinct and what gets to live on.
JULY SCREENING
Our July screening will take place July 24, 2024 at 7pm. In addition to ticket fees going to support the featured Palestinian filmmakers, we will be raising money for Middle East Children’s Alliance’s efforts in Gaza, an initiative which has been responding to the urgent needs of Palestinian civilians in Gaza.
Stay tuned for information on our July screening!
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