The 20th Annual Boston Palestine Film Festival runs from October 16 – 25, 2026.
Friday, October 16
Edward Said: Between Worlds
by Maiken Baird
2026 | Feature Documentary | 108 min
Film Synopsis
Twenty-three years after his death, renowned Palestinian-American scholar, musician, and intellectual Edward Said recounts the untold history of Palestine through sweeping archival footage and recordings. The first documentary made with full access to the Said family and estate, it traces his political awakening, personal struggles, and lifelong reckoning with being forced out of his homeland. Featuring never-before-seen family archives, home movies, rare television appearances, lectures, and materials from Columbia University, the film spans seven decades, from his childhood in Jerusalem to his death in New York City, asking who has the right to tell their own story.
Venue
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
7:00 PM
465 Huntington Ave, Boston MA
Afterparty – Opening Night
Free
Special Event
Event description
Come join us at Time Out Market Boston to celebrate the start of the 20th BPFF! Open to the public, no tickets required.
Venue
Time Out Market Boston
9:30 PM
401 Park Dr, Boston MA
Saturday, October 17
Palestine Shorts: Transitions of the Body and Mind
From Gaza to Bethlehem to Boston, these short narrative films tackle themes of movement, freedom, ingenuity, and mortality in modern day Palestine and its diaspora.
Followed by a Q&A with Kismet director Hanadi Elyan.
2:00 PM | Museum of Fine Arts Boston
Kentucky Gaza
by Omar Rammal
2025 | Documentary Short | 21 min
Film Synopsis
This documentary follows Anwar, who, in a besieged Gaza, turns an irresistible craving for KFC-style fried chicken into a thriving smuggling business, exacerbating the emotional rift between him and his father.
Venue
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
2:30 PM | Shorts Program
465 Huntington Ave, Boston MA
Gaza Bride 17
by Waseem Khair
2025 | Narrative Short | 21 min
Film Synopsis
Saleh, a fisherman from Gaza City, loses his only son after a military vessel intercepts their first fishing trip together and opens fire. Trapped in his grief, Saleh embarks on a psychological journey through trauma, memory, and loss.
Venue
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
2:30 PM | Shorts Program
465 Huntington Ave, Boston MA
No Other Path
by Laila Khilfeh
2025 | Narrative Short | 15 min
Film Synopsis
A Palestinian student in Bethlehem struggles against time and checkpoints on her tense journey back to Nablus, where her concern for loved ones clashes with the limited choices available to her.
Venue
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
2:30 PM | Shorts Program
465 Huntington Ave, Boston MA
Coyotes
by Said Zagha
2025 | Narrative Short | 20 min
Film Synopsis
A Palestinian surgeon drives home after a long night shift, but little does she know that a commute through a desolate West Bank road will change her forever.
Venue
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
2:30 PM | Shorts Program
465 Huntington Ave, Boston MA
Kismet
by Hanadi Elyan
2026 | Narrative Short | 15 min
Film Synopsis
In Boston, a Palestinian immigrant mother counts down the days until she’s reunited with her son, from whom she’s been separated for years, only to experience an unexpected encounter with the Angel of Death.
Followed by a Q&A with Kismet director Hanadi Elyan.
Venue
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
2:30 PM | Shorts Program
465 Huntington Ave, Boston MA
where the light enters
حَيْثُ يَتَسَلَّلُ النُّور
exhibit opening kickoff event
Exhibit runs from October 17 – December 13
Khaled Jarrar
at Unbound Visual Arts
Special Event
Copresented by Unbound Visual Arts
Event Description
This body of work is composed of images of the tree of life, a bird, water, fire, and susurration. They reference Ishtar, the ancient Mesopotamian goddess, while drawing upon a wider symbolic language through which the human body and the earth—Ardh—are understood as interconnected. The images are formed by arranging bullets into grid patterns. The bullet, both weapon and phallic object, evokes patriarchy and colonialism: forces imposed upon the Ardh and upon the people fundamentally connected to it.
Exhibit runs from October 17 – December 13.
Venue
Unbound Visual Arts
6:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Overlook Gallery, 175 Washington St, Brighton, MA
Sunday, October 18
Who Killed Alex Odeh?
by Jason Osder & William Lafi Youmans
2026 | Documentary | 83 min
Film Synopsis
The assassination of beloved Palestinian American activist Alex Odeh in Southern California ignites a 40-year quest for answers, revealing the roots of a dangerous political movement that thrives today. A teacher, poet, and leading voice for peace and justice, Odeh was killed by a trip-wire bomb placed in his office in October 1985. Despite evidence and suspects identified at the time, no one has ever been held accountable.
Using archival footage and contemporary investigation, this documentary traces the extremist forces that may have been behind Odeh’s death and the disturbing ramifications that remain today. Who Killed Alex Odeh premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, where it won the Special Jury Award for Journalistic Excellence.
Trailer
Venue
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
2:00 PM
465 Huntington Ave, Boston MA
7ajar
at MassArt
Special Event
Event description
7ajr School for Creative Research/Resistance is a tuition-free hybrid workshop bringing together artists, students, and community members through online collaboration, in-person meetings, and field research in Ramallah. Using audio, video, and storytelling, participants draw from personal narratives, family histories, landscapes, and archives to explore Palestinian experiences of memory, land, displacement, and solidarity. The resulting works consider separation and return, changing relationships to land, inherited language and memory, and the sensory dimensions of grief and everyday life.
Venue
MassArt Tower Auditorium
6:00 PM
621 Huntington Ave, Boston MA
An Incomplete Calendar
by Sanaz Sohrabi
2026 | Essay Documentary | 77 min
Film synopsis
Forgotten songs and archives tell a different story of the Third World’s political calendar of liberation movements and the fight for oil sovereignty.
Trailer
Venue
MassArt Tower Auditorium
7:00 PM
621 Huntington Ave, Boston MA
Monday, October 19
With Hasan in Gaza
by Kamal Aljafari
2025 | Documentary | 106 min
Copresented by Palestinian Youth Movement
Film Synopsis
A filmmaker’s rediscovered footage from 2001 captures a journey through Gaza, guided by Hasan, while searching for an old prison companion. The tapes reveal intimate moments of Palestinian life during a pivotal time.
Trailer
Venue
Coolidge Corner Theater
6:30 PM
290 Harvard St, Brookline MA
Tuesday, October 20
Traces of Home
by Kamal Aljafari
2025 | Documentary | 106 min
Copresented by Cinefest Latino
Film Synopsis
A filmmaker’s rediscovered footage from 2001 captures a journey through Gaza, guided by Hasan, while searching for an old prison companion. The tapes reveal intimate moments of Palestinian life during a pivotal time.
Trailer
Venue
Brattle Theater
6:30 PM
40 Brattle St, Cambridge MA
Wednesday, October 21
Seeds for Liberation
by Matthew Solomon
2026 | Documentary | 92 min
Film Synopsis
Featuring some of the biggest names in the movement, Seeds for Liberation centers Palestinian voices and experiences, linking the Free Palestine movement with Black, Chicano, and other collective liberation struggles—spanning Gaza to Stop Cop City—and culminating in a shared vision of what true liberation means.
Trailer
Venue
Boston University
6:30 PM
Howard Thurman Center for Common Ground
808 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston MA
Friday, October 23
Chronicles from the Siege
by Abdallah Al-Khatib
2026 | Narrative Drama | 98 min
Film Synopsis
The lives of a group of ordinary people are turned upside down when their city is besieged, forcing each of them to confront impossible choices in pursuit of survival in a war zone. Bodies and minds are equally under attack. and ordinary people are forced to reckon with starvation, inadequate medical treatment, snipers, and bomb blasts. Yet they continue to live, seeking friendship, love, intimacy, and the pleasure of a cigarette. A small group of cinephiles sheltering in their neighborhood video store is confronted with the moral conundrum of whether or not to burn the movies they have rented, and cherish, to keep warm. The mental impact of the siege is boldly expressed in writing on the door of one of the characters,which reads: “I don’t see my life outside the confines of the siege. And I don’t see an end to the siege outside of the confines of my life.”
Venue
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
7:00 PM
465 Huntington Ave, Boston MA
Saturday, October 24
Habibi Hussein
by Alex Bakri
2025 | Documentary | 96 min
Film Synopsis
A Palestinian projectionist embarks on a journey through the West Bank, seeking parts to restore an old movie theater’s projector when a German NGO arrives to renovate it, clinging to hopes of reclaiming his former position.
Trailer
Venue
Coolidge Corner Theater
12:30 PM
290 Harvard St, Brookline MA
Yesterday The Eye Didn’t Sleep
by Rakan Mayasi
2026 | Poetic Drama | 100 min
Film Synopsis
In a valley veiled by fog and tribal codes, two sisters walk into the night not as daughters, but as offerings — where blood, memory, and silence attempt to keep the fire from spreading.
Trailer
Venue
Coolidge Corner Theater
3:00 PM
290 Harvard St, Brookline MA
Sunday, October 25
Palestine Comedy Club
by Alaa Aliabdallah ‘Regash’
2025 | Documentary | 96 min
Film Synopsis
When six Palestinian comedians hit the road to tour a stand-up show across Palestine, their search for humour amidst the injustice of everyday Palestinian life becomes a plea for humanity in the face of brutal war.
Trailer
Venue
Coolidge Corner Theater
4:30 PM
290 Harvard St, Brookline MA
Afterparty
Free
Special Event
Event description
Come join us after the closing film to celebrate the end of the 20th year of the Boston Palestine Film Festival.
Venue
Coolidge Corner Theater
6:30 PM
290 Harvard St, Brookline MA