Telling Stories, Memories and Belongings The epic oral traditions of storytelling in the Arab world continue to survive and evolve through transmission and performance, informing Arabic literature and influencing storytelling throughout the world - including in Australia.
Produced by Bankstown Area Multicultural Network Inc and created by young Muslim women from Western Sydney.
This November, the Arab Film Festival is travelling across Australia for the first time. The national tour kicks off in Sydney before heading to Melbourne, Canberra, Brisbane and Adelaide.
We open this week with a fantastic program of films from across the Arab world. Sexy thrillers, light-hearted comedy, hard-hitting political drama and funky shorts will throw you head first into contemporary Arab experience.
Get your tickets now and make sure you don’t miss the official opening night - film and party.
Come see a film and be entertained at the 5th Arab Film Festival which opens on Thursday 2 July, 2009 at the Riverside Theatres, Parramatta with the first Jordanian feature film to be screened in Australia, Captain Abu Raeed. Winner of the Audience Award at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, this drama delves into the lives of everyday people when a lonely janitor working at Amman Airport is mistaken for a pilot.
Sunday 5 July, 2pm
Films and forum that explore social justice, artistic expression and cultural activism
Screenings include Huriyya and Her Sisters + My Journey + The Secret World. Huriyya and Her Sisters Australia / 2009 / 8 mins
Huriyya and Her Sisters is a short animation produced by Bankstown Area Multicultural Network Inc (BAMN) and created by young women [...]
Ein Shams was once the capital of Pharaonic Egypt and a sacred location marked by the visit of Jesus and the Virgin Mary. Now it has become one of Cairo’s poorest and most neglected neighbourhoods.
Khadija finds solace in the spiritual beauty of the moving word. Mariam discovers wisdom in the most fantastical of places. Assia wants to stop bombs falling on children. And Fatima? She wants to know what will become of Huriyya.
An American flag flies at the head of five identical jeeps heading straight for the city of Beirut. A man sits on the rear brandishing a heavy machine gun. Khaled’s camera captures this moment, and many moments after that, and thus the stories of fear, violence, repression and corruption begin. A feature action-drama set at the height of the Syrian presence in Lebanon - and an insight into Beirut’s underbelly.
Australian Premiere and the first Jordanian feature film to be screened in Australia. Winner of the Audience Award at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, this crowd-pleasing Jordanian feature film is a gentle yet hard-hitting drama set in Amman, Jordan.
Ibrahim El-Batout was born in Portsaid, Egypt. He graduated from the American University in Cairo in 1985, majoring in physics. El Batout’s infatuation with the camera started in the Video Cairo Production House. Later, he worked for a year at the British television station TV-Am, located in Cyprus.
Basheer Al Majed was an actor in the long feature Ahlaam, which he received a Best Actor award at the Festival of Carthage in Tunisia in 2006.
Hany Abu-Assad directed his first film in 1998, The Fourteenth Chick from a script by writer Arnon Grunberg. Later films include the short Nazareth 2000 (2000) and the feature film Rana’s Wedding (2002).
Samir Habchi, born in Lebanon in 1961. He completed a Master of Fine Art at the Institute of Theatre and Cinematography in Directing in the Ukraine, USSR. He returned to Lebanon to write, direct and produce feature films and television.
Amin Matalqa is a writer and director who grew up in Jordan dreaming of becoming a filmmaker although he has spent more than half of his life in Ohio where he attended school and college.
