Presented in collaboration by Moraine Valley Arab Student Union, Chicago Palestine Film Festival, and Moraine Valley Foundation
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Short Film:
The Olive Tree Said to Me
2022, dir. Naif Salem, 5 min.
Based on the best-selling book by author Naif Salem, discover the beauty of Palestine in this short film through a young girl’s journey as she learns the tradition of the olive harvest.
Feature Film:
A STATE OF PASSION
2024, dirs. Carol Mansour and Muna Khalidi
Palestine, Lebanon; 93 min.
In English and Arabic with English subtitles
After 43 horrific days working round the clock under constant bombardment in the emergency rooms of Gaza’s Al-Shifa and Al-Ahli hospitals, British-Palestinian reconstructive surgeon Dr. Ghassan Abu-Sittah emerged to find himself as a face of Palestinian resistance. With news footage of him pale and shell-shocked reverberating around the world, he spoke of a catalogue of horrors from lacerated bodies, to amputations without anesthetics, orphaned children with no surviving family, and the deliberate targeting of medics and hospital facilities. This was Ghassan’s sixth and most horrific Gaza “war”. Why does he do it? Where does he find the strength to face it again and again? How does it impact his family? How do they process the risks he takes? The answer lies simply in their shared passion: Palestine, a passion they articulate through their support of his perilous humanitarian work.
Proceeds for to the Arab American Academic Excellence Scholarship.
For more information contact Dr. Nina Shoman-Dajani, shoman-dajanim@morainevalley.edu.
