Re-Imagining Gaza

RE-IMAGINING GAZA
Directed by Local Filmmaker Roger Hill
– appearing in person

The Gaza Strip, a small territory on the Mediterranean largely inaccessible to the outside world, remains an enigmatic and misunderstood place. The Re-Imagining Gaza project seeks to explore and capture the human spirit and contrasting colors of Gaza, socially, culturally, and politically, through a series of cinematic interventions and participatory media. Local filmmaker Roger Hill will showcase short films that were produced in digital story-telling workshops of Palestinian youth in Gaza City and the Jabaliya Refugee Camp in July and August of 2010. Roger is also Director of the film, Lost in the Land of the American, and Co-Director of Tree of Life and Tayara Warakiya (Flying Paper) – films shown in full or in part this evening. Roger was a youth media trainer in Gaza during the summer of 2010. He is the founder of the documentary collective Mental-Rev Productions and will be on hand to discuss the films.

This Evening’s Program

Voices Beyond Walls (Participatory Youth Media) is a selection of short films written, filmed, edited and produced by the members of the Voices Beyond Walls youth media program in Jabaliya Refugee Camp in the summer of 2010. This is a diverse selection of comedy, documentary, and artistic films.

Lost in the Land of the American is about Rana, a Palestinian woman who speaks no English and carries no cell phone, who gets lost in downtown San Francisco during the holiday shopping season and must seek help. (11 Minutes, San Francisco)

The Tree of Life is about a tree where young lovers or “wannabe” lovers go to carve their names, or, if they’re more discreet, the initials, of the ones they love. This film focuses on a generation of Palestinian women in a rural neighborhood of Gaza who discuss love, war, family history, Gaza, and the significance that the tree has played in their lives. (10 minutes)

Tayara Warakiya (Flying Paper) (an excerpt) tells the story of young Palestinians in Gaza as they attempt to break a world record on July 29, 2010, for the most kites flown simultaneously. The film explores the lives of these children, while probing the tradition and symbolism of making and flying kites in Gaza. (11 minutes)

Snacks and drinks will be provided and the audience is encouraged to mingle and have a good time before and after the screenings.

Wheelchair accessible around the corner at 411 28th Street

$5 donations are accepted