Saturday Shorts

+Shorts Segment
+Filmmakers Present
+Palestine in Focus

Saturday, 11/7 at St. Anthony Main Theatre
11:00 a.m.

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>>Filmmakers ANDREA SHAKER (“disgraced.”), HASAN DUDAR, and KATIE RAUSCH (“The Last of Little Syria”) present for post-screening discussions.

“Solomon’s Stone”

Director: Ramzi Maqdisi
Narrative short, comedy, 25 mins, 2015
Countries: Palestine/Spain
Languages: Arabic/English
US premiere

Principal cast: Ramzi Maqdisi, Kamek Basha, Reem Talahmi, Dauod Totah, Amer Kalil

Synopsis: Hussein, a young Palestinian, receives a letter from the Israeli post office to appear in person to receive a package. When he arrives, he is asked to pay $20,000 in order to collect this mysterious package. Driven by his curiosity, and against the wishes of mother, he sells everything he owns in order to see what is inside. His discovery will change their lives forever. Adapted from the novel Blue Light, by Hussein Barghouty.

Ramzi Maqdisi was born in Jerusalem and is a founding member of the Quds Art collective there. He is also an actor in The Attack (Ziad Doueri), Omar (Hani Abu Assad), Le joure de l’homme (Aurelien Lambert), and his own short film “Solomon’s Stone.” He studied theater at the University of Barcelona and filmmaking at the Catalonia Filmmaking Studies Centre.

Festivals:
Palestine Film Festival Paris, France, 2015
Arab Brazilian Film Festival Sao Paulo, Brazil, 2015

“Growing Home”

Director: Faisal Attrache
Documentary short, 22 mins, 2015
Country: Syria, US
Language: Arabic

Synopsis: Amid Syria’s refugee crisis, which has displaced 9 million people, a Syrian barber struggles to maintain normality in the Zaatari Refugee Camp.

Faisal Attrache is a Syrian-American filmmaker born in Syria and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area. He attended UCLA where he received his bachelor’s degrees in international development and environmental studies. While at UCLA he became interested in film and began acting in various student projects.

“disgraced.“

Director: Andrea Shaker
Experimental, short, 12 mins
Country: US
Premiere

Synopsis: disgraced. is an experimental short film, whose title is derived from Pierre Krähenbül’s (commissioner -general of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA) statement following the bombing of the Jabaliya Elementary A&B Girls’ School, Gaza, 30 July 2014: “Today the world stands disgraced.” Classroom number one was bombed at 4:30 am, while refugees (mostly women and children) were sleeping. disgraced. inquires, through the juxtaposition of comforting domestic sounds with sounds of war, about the responsibility of those witnessing the violence and trauma of war from a place of safety.

Andrea Shaker is a professor of art at the College of St. Benedict | St. John’s University. Her photographic artwork has been exhibited nationally and internationally, including solo and group shows in Minneapolis, Chicago, New York, and Glasgow. Her film short home. not home. screened at the Twin Cities Arab Festival (2013) and the Walker Art Center (2014). It has been aired on Twin Cities Public Television (2015), was on view at the Best Buy Video Bay, Walker Art Center (February – June 2015), and is a part of the Ruben/Bentson Film and Video Study Collection, Walker Art Center.

“The Last of Little Syria”

Director: Hasan Dudar
Producer: Katie Rausch
Documentary short, 23 mins, 2015
Country: US
Languages: Arabic, English
Minnesota premiere

Synopsis: Toledo’s once-thriving Arab enclave “Little Syria” is most defined by those who’ve left: Syrians, Lebanese, and Palestinians. While few still remain, this short documentary captures life in the city’s oldest neighborhood through the eyes of a Lebanese shopkeeper who refuses to leave and calls Ohio home.

Hasan Dudar is a web editor at The Blade, the daily newspaper in Toledo, Ohio. He graduated from the University of California, Berkeley in 2013 with a master’s in long-form journalism. He was born and raised in Toledo.

Katie Rausch is a staff photojournalist with The Blade in Toledo, Ohio. Working as a large-market journalist with a small-town eye, Katie’s storytelling emphasizes both the issues at play in her community and the people behind them. She was awarded the Ohio News Photographers Association’s 2013 Large Market Photojournalist of the Year.

“Ave Maria”

Director: Basil Khalil
Narrative short, 15 mins, 2015
Countries: Palestine/Germany/France
Languages: Arabic/Hebrew/ English
Minnesota premiere

Principal cast: Maria Zreik, Huda al imam, Shady Srour, Ruth Farhi, Maya Koren

Synopsis: The nuns of the Sisters of Mercy Convent, in the middle of the West Bank wilderness, have their daily routine of silence and prayer disrupted when a family of Jewish settlers come knocking at their door for help after crashing into a statue of the Virgin outside the convent.

Basil Khalil is an award winning director born and raised in Nazareth, to a Palestinian father and British mother. After studying for an MA at Screen Academy Scotland, Basil worked on a number of television productions in London. In 2011 Basil was selected by SCREEN International as one of “top 10 Arab filmmakers to watch”. Basil is currently developing his debut feature comedy screenplay.

Festivals:
Festival de Cannes, France, 2015
Sydney Film Festival, Australia, 2015
Palm Springs International ShortFest, USA, 2015
Busan Film Fest, South Korea, 2015
Cervignano Film Festival, Italy, 2015
Encounters Short Film Festival, UK, 2015

Awards:
“Bridging the Borders” first prize; Special mention, Palm Springs, USA, 2015
Best Screenplay, Festival de Court de Grenoble, France, 2015