Our first shorts evening features five short films exploring memories of a lost homeland, and one that is kept alive in stories, daydreams and dancing. From the abstract Wall Piano to the compelling documentary Recovery, this evening showcases a variety of contemporary Palestinian stories, based around themes of dreams, loss and memory.

Wall Piano

Wall Piano takes us into a daydream of a child who lives under the shadow of a separation wall. Part music video, part magical realism, Wall Piano shows children from Qalandia refugee camp dreaming of the apartheid wall as something other than an immovable barrier controlling their lives.

Coming Home

Coming Home is an intimate portrait of Freedom Dabka Group, a group of Palestinian-American performers who use the traditional Dabka dance as a means to connect to their community, their culture, and each other.

A’lam

Nassim visits his best friend May, before she moves to the United States. They spend their last night together in Jerusalem, involving tricky encounters and difficult conversations.

Mariam

Mariam is an ode to Zaid, a closeted young Arab-American teen who deals with a one-dimensional angry father, takes care of his grandfather suffering from Alzheimer’s, but also struggles with understanding his identity, duty to his family, fear of rejection and the impossibility of his acceptance to his family and culture.

Recovery

As if we were strolling through its streets and attending its very first shows and screenings, director Rashid Masharawi takes us on a tour of Jaffa, the birthplace of his parents and grandparents, who were forced into exile in 1948. Recovery is a cinematic experience that attempts to cloud the border between time and space as we are taken on a tour of photos from 1930 to 1948, allowing Masharawi’s nostalgia to breathe a new life into the static images portrayed.