This year’s festival has two main themes. The first is refugees. The second will be covered in a subsequent post.
The human waves of refugees escaping the Middle East have been at the forefront of our minds as we have prepared this year’s festival. While Palestinians have been refugees for decades and generations have endured life without a homeland, the sheer scale of human suffering experienced now by the Syrian people and other refugees is beyond comprehension. And for some Palestinian refugees, it has meant being uprooted for a second or third time in the same lifetime.
You may have heard of the young piano player Ayham al-Ahmad of Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp near Damascus, Syria. He’s featured in the film Letters from Yarmouk by Rashid Masharawi and was known for playing his music to alleviate the stress and despair caused by the four-year siege on the camp. The people of Yarmouk didn’t want to leave (again). Yarmouk was all they had to remind them of home in Palestine. But after a valiant effort to remain steadfast, even al-Ahmad finally had to leave Yarmouk.
With these brave and suffering people in mind, BPFF has pulled together a thread of films about refugees and uprootedness that runs through this year’s festival program.
We’ll be speaking with Rashid Masharawi from Palestine later this week, so check back on the blog then.
SWEAT
By Hasan Tanji
Screens Saturday, October 17, at 12:30 pm
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LETTERS FROM YARMOUK
By Rashid Masharawi
Screens Saturday, Oct 17 at 12:30 pm
Director interview coming soon
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APART
By Sami Shehade
Screens Sunday, October 18, at 12:30 pm
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REMEMBER US NOW, WANDERING
By Jennifer Walker Kelley
Screens Monday, October 19 at 5:00 pm
Director in conversation following film
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ROSHMIA
By Salim Abu Jabal
Screens Thursday, October 22 at 5:30 pm
Director interview coming soon
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WE CANNOT GO THERE NOW, MY DEAR
By Carole Mansour
Screens Sunday, October 25 at 12:30 pm
Director Mansour and Producer Khalidi in conversation following film
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ON THE BRIDE’S SIDE
By Antonio Augugliaro, Gabriele Del Grande, and Khaled Soliman Al Nassiry
Screens Sunday, October 25, at 3:00 pm
Director Del Grande in conversation following film
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