SCREENINGS//عروض

  • Aesthetics of the Absurd – Screening, Panel & Workshop

    Aesthetics of the Absurd – Screening, Panel & Workshop

    Event Details

    Screening & Panel
    March 1, 2023
    6:00 PM – 9:00 PM EST
    CFMDC, 1411 Dufferin Street, Toronto, ON M6H 4C7

    Join us for a screening of “Life on the CAPS”, followed by a talk with Nehal El-Hadi.

    Screening:

    Life on the CAPS
    • Life on the CAPS

      Country: Morocco
      Director: Meriem Bennani
      Length: 76 mins
      Synopsis: Life on the CAPS is a trilogy of short film by Moroccan artist Meriem Bennani. Set in a supernatural, dystopian future, Life on the CAPS (short for “capsule”) features a fictional island in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. In the world of the CAPS, teleportation has replaced air travel, and displaced populations utilize this mode of transportation to cross oceans and borders.

    Panel:

    Incorporating multi-media and digital techniques into diasporic narratives

    This post-screening discussion will engage viewers in a theoretical and practical discussion of incorporating multi-media and digital techniques into diasporic narratives.

    Speaker:

    Nehal El-Hadi, Writer, Researcher, Editor
    • Nehal El-Hadi

      Nehal El-Hadi investigates the relationships between the body (racialised, gendered), place (urban, virtual), and technology (internet, health).

      She completed a Ph.D. in Planning at the University of Toronto, where her research examined the relationships between user-generated content and everyday public urban life.

      As a scholar, her hybrid digital/material research methods are informed by her training and experience as a science and environmental journalist.

      Nehal advocates for the responsible, accountable, and ethical treatment of user-generated content in the fields of journalism, planning, and healthcare.

      Her writing has appeared in academic journals, general scholarship publications, literary magazines, and several anthologies and edited collections.

      Nehal is the Science+Technology Editor at The Conversation Canada, an academic news site, and Editor-in-Chief of Studio Magazine, a biannual print publication dedicated to contemporary Canadian craft and design. She currently holds a residency at Toronto’s Theatre Centre, where she is developing a live arts event that explores surveillance, privacy, and consent.

      Nehal sits on the Board of Directors of FiXT POINT Arts & Media and Provocation Ideas Festival. She is a member of the Digital Communities Advisory Panel at the Centre for Free Expression. She was previously a Visiting Scholar at the City Institute at York University.


    Workshop
    March 5, 2023
    2:00 PM – 5:00 PM EST
    LIFT, 1137 Dupont St, Toronto, ON M6H 2A3

    Workshop:

    Projection Mapping Workshop

    Join Ilze Briede [a.k.a. Kavi] for a Video Projection Mapping Workshop. Learn the basics of video projection mapping in this introductory workshop. With Resolume, you can manipulate and mix videos in real-time, create complex and dynamic compositions from scratch using built-in effects and, most importantly, how to map your video output on site-specific objects, also known as Video Projection Mapping

    No previous experience with projection mapping is required.

    Facilitator:

    Ilze Briede [a.k.a. Kavi]
    • Ilze Briede

      Ilze Briede [a.k.a. Kavi] is a Latvian/Canadian artist and researcher working across multiple disciplines, including visual art, interactive installation and live performance. Her creative practice and academic research encompass working with live data sets and designing systems to turn data into visceral experiences. An example would be harnessing data from the forest about trees and the environment or the human body through bio-physiological sensing and translating them into immersive narratives. Kavi sees data as a living material that can express its essence and inner truth through creative, technological and artistic interventions. Sometimes, it looks too abstract for the human mind’s eye; however, she believes that the more we are exposed to weird and unusual, the more we stretch our cognitive abilities to embrace the world at large. She is currently pursuing a PhD degree in Computational Art at York University.

  • CINEMA NIGHTS//ليالي السينما: Foragers//اليد الخضراء

    CINEMA NIGHTS//ليالي السينما: Foragers//اليد الخضراء

    Event Details
    May 20, 2023
    7:30 PM – 9:00 PM EDT
    Innis Town Hall Theatre, 2 Sussex Avenue, Toronto, ON M5S 1J5

    Join us for a screening of “Foragers”.

    Foragers//اليد الخضراء
    • Foragers Still

      Director: Jumana Manna
      Length: 64 mins
      Synopsis: Foragers depicts the dramas around the practice of foraging for wild edible plants in Palestine/Israel with wry humour and a meditative pace.  Shot in the Golan Heights, the Galilee, and Jerusalem, it employs fiction, documentary, and archival footage to portray the impact of Israeli nature protection laws on these customs. By reframing the terms and constraints of preservation, the film raises questions around the politics of extinction, namely who determines what is made extinct and what gets to live on.

    Presented in partnership with the Provocations Ideas Festival and the Mosaic Institute.

    PIF Logo
    Mosaic Institute Logo

    Supported by Toronto Arts Council.

    Toronto Arts Council Grants Logo
  • CINEMA NIGHTS//ليالي السينما: Hepta: The Last Lecture//هيبتا: المحاضرة الأخيرة

    CINEMA NIGHTS//ليالي السينما: Hepta: The Last Lecture//هيبتا: المحاضرة الأخيرة

    Event Details
    February 1, 2018
    6:30 PM – 10:00 PM EST
    Innis Town Hall Theatre, 2 Sussex Avenue Toronto, ON M5S 1J5

    Join us for screenings of “Hepta: The Last Lecture”.

    Hepta: The Last Lecture//هيبتا: المحاضرة الأخيرة
    • Hepta: The Last Lecture//هيبتا: المحاضرة الأخيرة

      Country: Egypt
      Director: Hady El Bagory
      Length: 112 mins
      Synopsis: Dr. Shukri Mokhtar is a renowned social psychology specialist, best known for his ability to answer the simplest questions, who decides to give one last lecture about the very simple question: how do we love?

    Supported by Toronto Arts Council.

    Toronto Arts Council Grants Logo
  • CINEMA NIGHTS//ليالي السينما: Razzia//غزية – Ave Maria//السلام عليك يا مريم

    CINEMA NIGHTS//ليالي السينما: Razzia//غزية – Ave Maria//السلام عليك يا مريم

    Event Details
    ​March 30, 2019 7:00 PM – 10:00 PM EDT
    Innis Town Hall Theatre, 2 Sussex Avenue, Toronto, ON M5S 1J5

    Join us for screenings of “Razzia” and “Ava Maria”.

    Razzia//غزية
    • Razzia//غزية

      Country: Morocco
      Director: Nabil Ayouch
      Length: 119 mins
      Synopsis: Casablanca: vibrant and rough, inviting yet unforgiving. Four souls in search of truth, thirty years after a passionate teacher in the Atlas Mountains was put to silence… Through the echo of his shattered dreams, the disillusions of the four characters embody the sparks that will light the city in flames.
      This film is not suitable for children.

    Ave Maria//السلام عليك يا مريم
    • Ave Maria//السلام عليك يا مريم

      Country: Palestine, France, Germany
      Director: Basil Khalil
      Length: 15 mins
      Synopsis: The silent routine of 5 nuns living in the West Bank wilderness is disturbed when an Israeli settler family’s car breaks down right outside the convent just as the Sabbath comes into effect.

    Supported by Toronto Arts Council.

    Toronto Arts Council Grants Logo
  • CINEMA NIGHTS//ليالي السينما: Solitaire//محبس

    CINEMA NIGHTS//ليالي السينما: Solitaire//محبس

    Event Details
    June 16, 2018
    6:30 PM – 9:30 PM EDT
    Innis Town Hall Theatre, 2 Sussex Avenue, Toronto, ON M5S 1J5

    Join us for a screening of “Solitaire”.

    Solitaire//محبس
    • Solitaire//محبس

      Country: Lebanon
      Director: Sophie Boutros
      Length: 92 mins
      Synopsis: Therese, the mayor’s wife in a Lebanese village, joyfully prepares for an overnight visit of her daughter’s suitor and his parents. She excitedly shares the happy news of the engagement with pictures of her beloved brother who was killed by a Syrian bomb 20 years ago and is still bizarrely present in every corner of her house. Only when the long-awaited guests are at her doorstep, she discovers they are Syrian; this engagement will only happen over Therese’s dead body!

    Supported by Toronto Arts Council.

    Toronto Arts Council Grants Logo
  • CINEMA NIGHTS//ليالي السينما: The Day I Lost My Shadow//يوم أضعت ظلي – Rupture//رابتشير

    CINEMA NIGHTS//ليالي السينما: The Day I Lost My Shadow//يوم أضعت ظلي – Rupture//رابتشير

    Event Details
    June 15, 2019
    7:00 PM – 10:00 PM EDT
    Innis Town Hall Theatre, 2 Sussex Avenue Toronto, ON M5S 1J5

    Join us for screenings of “The Day I Lost My Shadow” and “Rupture”.

    The Day I Lost My Shadow//يوم أضعت ظلي
    • The Day I Lost My Shadow//يوم أضعت ظلي

      Director: Soudade Kaadan
      Length: 90 mins
      Synopsis: As winter hits hard in Syria, all Sana wants is to cook a hot meal for her son. When a seemingly simple errand search for gas goes awry, Sana is dragged deeper into the conflict, where people lose their shadows.
      This film is not suitable for children.

    Rupture//رابتشير
    • Rupture//رابتشير

      Country: Canada, Jordan
      Director: Yassmina Karajah
      Length: 18 mins
      Synopsis: Rupture follows the journey of four Arab teens on their quest to find a public pool in their new city on a hot summer’s day. Introducing a cast of first time actors and war survivors who channel their personal experiences of loss and new beginnings through a fictional narrative.

    Supported by Toronto Arts Council.

    Toronto Arts Council Grants Logo
  • CINEMA NIGHTS//ليالي السينما: The Journey//الرحلة – Juha the Whale

    CINEMA NIGHTS//ليالي السينما: The Journey//الرحلة – Juha the Whale

    Event Details
    October 26, 2019
    7:00 PM – 10:00 PM EDT
    Innis Town Hall Theatre, 2 Sussex Avenue, Toronto, ON M5S 1J5

    Join us for screenings of “The Journey” and “Juha the Whale”.

    The Journey//الرحلة
    • The Journey//الرحلة

      Country: Iraq
      Director: Mohamed Al-Daradji
      Length: 82 mins
      Synopsis: Sara enters Baghdad station with sinister intentions for its reopening ceremony. As she braces to commit an unthinkable act, her plans are drastically altered by an unwanted and awkward encounter with Salam, a self-assured and flirtatious salesman.
      This film is not suitable for children.

    Juha the Whale
    • Juha the Whale

      Country: Canada
      Director: Karam Masri
      Synopsis: Juha the Whale is a short coming-of-age fiction film that explores the isolation a refugee mother and her young daughter face as they await the status of their claimant hearing in Toronto, Canada.

    Supported by Toronto Arts Council.

    Toronto Arts Council Grants Logo
  • CINEMA NIGHTS//ليالي السينما: The Poetess//الشاعرة – Brotherhood//اخوان

    CINEMA NIGHTS//ليالي السينما: The Poetess//الشاعرة – Brotherhood//اخوان

    Event Details
    ​January 26, 2019
    7:00 PM – 9:00 PM EST
    Innis Town Hall Theatre, 2 Sussex Avenue Toronto, ON M5S 1J5

    Join us for screenings of “The Poetess” and “Brotherhood”.

    The Poetess//الشاعرة
    • The Poetess//الشاعرة

      Country: Germany
      Director: Stefanie Brockhaus & Andreas Wolff
      Length: 89 mins
      Synopsis: Imagine a European TV channel attracting millions of viewers across countries with poetry readings. This is exactly what Abu Dhabi TV has managed to do for a decade with the show Million’s Poet. After accusing extremists on stage, Hissa Hilal, a Saudi woman, who was shrouded in an abaya – a black cloak – and a niqab, received death threats. And the attention of the West. The German filmmaker Stefanie Brockhaus saw a picture of her in the New York Times and travelled with Andy Wolff to Abu Dhabi a few days later to accompany Hilal at the finals of Million’s Poet.

    Brotherhood//اخوان
    • Brotherhood//اخوان

      Country: Canada, Tunisia, Qatar, Sweden
      Director: Meryam Joobeur
      Length: 25 mins
      Synopsis: Mohamed is deeply shaken and suspicious when his estranged eldest son returns home to rural Tunisia with a mysterious young wife in tow. Every moment in Meryam Joobeur’s wrenching drama is infused with the emotional complexities of a family reunion, and the consequences of past wounds and misunderstanding.

    Supported by Toronto Arts Council.

    Toronto Arts Council Grants Logo
  • CINEMA NIGHTS//ليالي السينما: The Three Disappearances of Soad Hosni//اختفاءات سعاد حسني الثلاثة

    CINEMA NIGHTS//ليالي السينما: The Three Disappearances of Soad Hosni//اختفاءات سعاد حسني الثلاثة

    Event Details
    November 14, 2020 – November 15, 2020
    Virtual

    Join us for a screening of “The Three Disappearances of Soad Hosni”.

    The Three Disappearances of Soad Hosni//اختفاءات سعاد حسني الثلاثة
    • The Three Disappearances of Soad Hosni//اختفاءات سعاد حسني الثلاثة

      Country: Lebanon, France 
      Director: Rania Stephan
      Length: 70 mins
      Synopsis: The Three Disappearances of Soad Hosni is a rapturous elegy to a rich and versatile era of film production in Egypt which has lapsed today, through the work of one of its most revered actress and star: Soad Hosni, who from the early 1960 into the 90s, embodied the modern Arab woman in her complexity and paradoxes.

    Supported by Toronto Arts Council.

    Toronto Arts Council Grants Logo
  • Mokhtabar//مختبر: Short Film Screenings + Panel on “Place Attachment”

    Mokhtabar//مختبر: Short Film Screenings + Panel on “Place Attachment”

    July 11, 2020
    Virtual

    Join us for a screening of Short Films followed by a panel on “Place Attachment”.

    Screenings:

    Fragments
    • Fragments

      Country: Tunisia
      Director: Ghassen Chraifa
      Length: 7 mins
      Synopsis: Life comes as a continuous race against time where everything is programmed in advance. Everything is tied up in a defined chronological order and we are just running to catch up. What would happen if we decide to take a break, if we feel how the present moment goes by?

    Tawargit
    • Tawargit

      Country: Morocco
      Director: Karim Barka
      Length: 3 mins
      Synopsis: A video take of a shadow of young fisherman from the Atlantic coast as a creature from another world. In seeing his shadow in the water, he imagines himself as a fish traveling through water to be wherever he wants.

    Un Passage entre Deux Points
    • Un Passage entre Deux Points

      Country: Tunisia
      Director: Lamis Souliman
      Length: 10 mins
      Synopsis: In a confrontation structure between emotional and spatial alienation, out of a party full with tipsy attendees, an alienated girl fleeing through a path hidden between two stopped points in ‘Time’. She takes her journey moving on the very fine line between the outer reality and a parallel universe. Through the mental sounds and expressive movements of a girl who travels in a circular path between the real world and the self-realm, the film embodies images of optional and compulsory isolation within the life of an expatriate person, in deconstructing for the meanings of fulfilled existence and residential affiliation

    All Come From Dust//من طين
    • All Come From Dust//من طين

      Country: Tunisia
      Director: Younes Ben Slimane
      Length: 9 mins
      Synopsis: A loop of edgeless bend. You were its doom, he was its bloom. You were its tomb, he was its womb. For Heaven and Hell, were words made of fum.

    April 21//٢١ نيسان
    • April 21//٢١ نيسان

      Country: Syria
      Director: Houssam Jlelati
      Length: 3 mins
      Synopsis: During the ongoing war in Syria, and the outbreak of coronavirus disease which resulted in a global quarantine, there are some ideas to get rid of all this noise.

    Summer 2006
    • Summer 2006

      Country: Czech Republic
      Director: Farah Abou Kharroub
      Length
      : 7 mins
      Synopsis: Thirteen-year-old Farah filmed a bomb as it hit Beirut’s airport. Her father filmed the years of fighting in Lebanon every day as a war reporter. Images of the city at war are mixed with images of household peace from Farah’s childhood. This collage, created from footage shot by father and daughter, reveals the unbearable length of a conflict that affected two generations.

    Panel:

    Place Attachment
    Watch

    Our awareness of a surrounding environment, context or space, impacts our idea of identity as individuals, which we translate into materiality. Living within the parameters of a built environment over a stretch of time, we start to observe details and nuances that may have never otherwise caught our attention.

    Moderators:

    Fatma Hendawy
    • Fatma Hendawy Yehia

      Fatma Hendawy Yehia is an Egyptian-Canadian curator, based in Toronto since 2017. Yehia graduated in 2020 from the Master of Visual Studies Curatorial program at university of Toronto. Since 2008, Yehia held different positions at the New Library of Alexandria including Head of Permanent Exhibitions (2010-12). She was the Assistant Curator at the AGYU, Toronto (2021-22). She was Guest Curator at Images Festival 2022, and currently she works as Assistant Archivist at the Art Museum, University of Toronto. Yehia participated in curatorial workshops (including Tate Intensive 2017), residencies (ProHelvetia and ZKU/Berlin) and curated several projects in Egypt, UK, Switzerland, France, Germany, and Canada. Her curatorial practice focuses on investigating censored archives, questioning inaccessible histories, and navigating militarised spaces.

    Lamis Haggag
    • Lamis Haggag

      Lamis Haggag is an Egyptian multimedia artist, living and working between Cairo and Toronto. She received her MFA from The University of Calgary in 2013 and her BFA from Helwan University, Cairo in 2008. She participated in exhibitions and residencies in Toronto, Montreal, Calgary, St. Thomas Ontario, Cairo, Beijing, Dakar, Lagos, Berlin, Incheon and Aswan.

      In addition to her art practice, Haggag is an art instructor, installer and proposal writer. She received various grants and scholarships in Canada from CCA, TAC, OAC, AFA, Interaccess Artist-run Center and the University of Calgary.  Haggag is also the recipient of awards and grants from the Goethe Institute in Lagos, the Goethe Institute in Cairo, Incheon Foundation for Arts and Culture (IFAC) in Incheon, Al Mawred Al Thaqafy for the Arab region, Kamel Lazaar Foundation in Tunisia and various awards from the Ministry of culture in Egypt.

    Speakers:

    May Telmissany, Associate Professor, Department of Communication, University of Ottawa
    • May Telmissany

      May Telmissany is Associate professor of Cinema and Arabic Studies in the Department of Communication, University of Ottawa. She is the former Director of the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures, and founder of the Arab Canadian Studies Research Group (ACANS). She is an established novelist and columnist as well as the author of numerous academic books including La Hara dans le Cinéma Egyptien. Popular neighborhood and national identity, and Counterpoints. Edward Said’s Legacy. Her scholarly articles are published in English, French and Arabic in France, the UK, the USA, Canada, and Egypt.

      Telmissany’s research spans a variety of topics in media and film theories including the representation of the popular neighborhood in cinema, the emergence of minor cinemas and women transnational filmmaking, the political contributions of the diasporic women intellectuals during and after the 2011 Egyptian Revolution, and the impact of SVOD platforms on Arab countries and the Francophonie.

      As a novelist, she published four novels and four short stories collections many of which were translated into several languages.

      Telmissany won two literary awards, in Egypt and in France, and was recently awarded the prestigious medal of Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres of the French Republic, in recognition of her literary and academic achievements.

    Chantal Partamian, Filmmaker
    • Chantal Partamian

      Chantal Partamian is a filmmaker and archivist primarily focused on working with super 8mm and found footage. Partamian’s films have been screened and awarded at numerous festivals and are distributed by Vidéographe, Groupe intervention Vidéo (GIV), and the Canadian Filmmakers Distribution Center.

      In her capacity as an archivist, she dedicates herself to preserving and restoring reels from the Mediterranean region while conducting research on archival practices in conflict areas. Her written works are predominantly featured in the revue Hors-Champs.

    Younes Ben Slimane, Filmmaker
    • Younes Ben Slimane

      Younes Ben Slimane is a tunisian artist and filmmaker.

      His architectural background has a major influence on his approach as an artist. Working through film, video, photography, drawing and installation, he establishes a permanent dialogue between architecture and visual arts, where different mediums coexist and reflect each other potentialities and limitations.

      Younes completed post-graduates studies at Le Fresnoy – Studio National des Arts Contemporains (FR) . His work has been exhibited at the Centre Wallonie-Bruxelles, Institut du monde arabe  in Paris (FR), at the Mucem in Marseille (FR), at the Selma Feriani Gallery in Sidi Bou Saïd (TN), and at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Skopje (MK).

      His films have been selected in international festivals such as Locarno Film Festival (CH) and CPH:DOX (DK). He has received the Tanit d’or at the Carthage Film Festival (TN) and the Studio Collector Prize (FR).

    Co-presented with La Boite

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  • Screening “The Skates//Les Patins”

    Screening “The Skates//Les Patins”

    Event Details
    December 8, 2024
    2:30 PM EDT
    Paradise Theatre, 1006 Bloor Street West, Toronto, ON, M6H 1M2

    Directed by Halima Ouardiri, The Skates will be showing at the Paradise Theatre on Sunday, December 8th as part of the The Uncomfort Zone short films screening.

    Co-presented with Breakthroughs Film Festival.

    Breakthroughs Film Festival Logo

    Screenings:

    The Skates//Les Patins
    • The Skates//Les Patins

      Country: Canada
      Director: Halima Ouardiri
      Length: 13 mins
      Synopsis: Mina loves to skate. Today, her father, recently divorced from her mother, accompanies her to her first figure skating lesson. An ordinary day if something hadn’t happened to the skates.

  • Screening “To A Land Unknown”

    Screening “To A Land Unknown”

    Event Details
    November 30, 2024
    4:20 PM EST
    Innis Town Hall, 2 Sussex Avenue, Toronto, ON, M5S 1J5

    After fleeing a camp in Lebanon, two Palestinian cousins are stranded in Athens, living in an underground limbo. Desperately seeking a way to reach Germany, they find themselves caught in an uncontrollable spiral.

    Co-presented with Muslim International Film Festival

    Screenings:

    To A Land Unknown
    • To A Land Unknown

      Country: Palestine, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Netherlands, Greece, Qatar, Saudi Arabia
      Director: Mehdi Fleifel
      Length: 105 mins
      Synopsis: Chatila and Reda are saving to pay for fake passports to get out of Athens. But when Reda loses their hard-earned cash to his dangerous drug addiction, Chatila hatches an extreme plan, which involves them posing as smugglers and taking hostages in an effort to get him and his best friend out of their hopeless environment before it is too late.

  • Screening “To My Father//إلى أبي” + Director’s Talk

    Screening “To My Father//إلى أبي” + Director’s Talk

    Event Details
    September 29, 2024
    3:00 PM EDT
    TIFF Lightbox 350 King St W, Toronto, Cinema 2

    To My Father is Abdel Salam Shehadah’s poetic and mesmerizing homage to the studio photographers of the 1950’s – 70’s. Set partly in a refugee camp in Rafah, this is a remarkable look back at fifty years of Palestinian and Arab history, through photographs, reportage and the voices of photographers. A photo here is not just a photo: it brings history to life.

    The film, which premiered at the second TPFF in 2009, is a deeply personal and moving film that spotlights the talent of Gaza-born director Shahadah, who has worked all over the world as a director, cameraman and journalist, and filmmaker. Shehada has been directing and producing films and programming for over 30 years – including more than 20 documentary films, which have been nominated and won awards. Shehada also worked for NHK Japan TV.

    Following the screening, TPFF is honoured to host an in-person conversation with Director Shahadah, recently exiled from Gaza, about his reflections as a filmmaker from Gaza. 

    Co-presented with Toronto Palestine Film Festival.

    TPFF logo

    Screenings:

    To My Father//إلى أبي
    • To My Father//إلى أبي

      Country: Palestine
      Director: Abdel Salam Shehada
      Length: 53 mins
      Synopsis: “Those were days when people prettier, when eyes were filled with colour, even in black and white. What has changed – the camera, or the eye?” asks Abdel Salam Shehadah’s poetic homage to the studio photographers of the 1950’s – 70’s. Set partly in a refugee camp in Rafah, the film looks back at fifty years of Palestinian and Arab history, told through the photographs, reportage and the voices of these photographers today.

  • TAFF2020: Screening “Flesh Out//Il Corpo Della Sposa”

    TAFF2020: Screening “Flesh Out//Il Corpo Della Sposa”

    Postponed due to COVID-19.

    April 26, 2020
    7:00 pm EDT
    Virtual

    Screening:

    Flesh Out//Il Corpo Della Sposa
    • Flesh Out//Il Corpo Della Sposa

      Country: Italy
      Director: Michela Occhipinti
      Length: 94 mins
      Synopsis: Verida is due to marry in three months; the marriage has been arranged by her loving parents. According to a tradition still practiced in Mauritania that adheres to accepted standards of beauty, she has to gain weight to attain the kind of well-rounded, fuller figure that will appeal to her future husband. Three months before her marriage, her routine unfolds quietly and steadily as she sets about consuming no fewer than six meals per day and regularly weighing herself to assess her progress. An obedient daughter, she does not for one moment question the goal of twenty kilos her mother has set for her; nor does she put up much resistance to being woken up in the middle of the night to eat one more bowl of milk and another of couscous. But the process gets harder as it progresses and this puts an increasing strain on her, both physically and emotionally. Verida, who has in the meantime attracted the attentions of another man, begins to ask herself if this is what she really wants. Based on actual events, Michela Occhipinti’s feature debut is a meticulous and gentle observation of the polarising tensions that permeate the modern female experience in twenty-first century Mauritania.

  • TAFF2020: Screening “Noura’s Dream//نورة تحلم”

    TAFF2020: Screening “Noura’s Dream//نورة تحلم”

    Postponed due to COVID-19.

    April 23, 2020
    7:00 pm EDT
    Innis Town Hall Theatre, 2 Sussex Ave, Toronto, ON M5S 1J5

    Screening:

    Noura’s Dream//نورة تحلم
    • Noura’s Dream//نورة تحلم

      Country: Tunisia 
      Director: Hinde Boujemaa
      Length: 92 mins
      Synopsis: In the Arab world, we sing about love. From Om Kalthoum to Berber songs, women and men sing of love: its griefs and jealousies, its joys and hopes and romance. But when it comes to the embodiment of this love, the enactment of desire, taboo raises its head and love becomes a sin. With her abusive husband in jail and a coveted divorce pending, hardworking Noura can almost grasp a happy, new life with lover Lassaad – but when the best-laid plans are upended, Noura must tap her unshakable will to fulfill her dream.

    Co-presented with Breakthroughs Film Festival

    Breakthroughs Film Festival Logo
  • TAFF2020: Screening “Talking About Trees//الحديث عن الأشجار” + Panel on “Reviving the Arts in Sudan”

    TAFF2020: Screening “Talking About Trees//الحديث عن الأشجار” + Panel on “Reviving the Arts in Sudan”

    Event Details
    July 24, 2020
    7:00 PM EDT
    Virtual

    Join us for a screening of “Talking About Trees” followed by a Panel Discussion titled “Film is Dead, Long Live Film: Reviving the Arts in Sudan” featuring speakers Nehal El-Hadi, Mr. Mohamed Wahbi and Mazin Osman, moderated by Iman Abbaro.

    Screening:

    Talking About Trees//الحديث عن الأشجار
    • Talking About Trees//الحديث عن الأشجار

      Country: Sudan, France, Chad, Germany, Qatar  
      Director: Suhaib Gasmelbari
      Length: 94 mins
      Synopsis: Four older Sudanese filmmakers with passion for film battle to bring cinema-going back to Sudan, not without resistance. Their ‘Sudanese Film Club’ have decided to revive an old cinema, and again draw attention to Sudanese film history. The film intermittently weaves in clips from their films, many which were lost or banned due to their political leanings. 

    Panel:

    Film is Dead, Long Live Film: Reviving the Arts in Sudan
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    After having witnessed the history of cinema in Sudan in TALKING ABOUT TREES, motivated by the unwavering determination of these four filmmakers, this panel looks forward to examine the role of film and arts in the rebuilding of Sudan. Film in particular holds significant power in fostering community while promoting dialogue. TALKING ABOUT TREES makes us intently aware of lost potential and dreams marred and suppressed by politics and religious extremism and ultimately urges us to reconsider the importance of arts in shaping narratives about Sudan.

    Moderator: Iman Abbaro

    Speakers:

    Nehal El-Hadi, Writer, Researcher, Editor
    • Nehal El-Hadi

      Nehal El-Hadi investigates the relationships between the body (racialised, gendered), place (urban, virtual), and technology (internet, health).

      She completed a Ph.D. in Planning at the University of Toronto, where her research examined the relationships between user-generated content and everyday public urban life.

      As a scholar, her hybrid digital/material research methods are informed by her training and experience as a science and environmental journalist.

      Nehal advocates for the responsible, accountable, and ethical treatment of user-generated content in the fields of journalism, planning, and healthcare.

      Her writing has appeared in academic journals, general scholarship publications, literary magazines, and several anthologies and edited collections.

      Nehal is the Science+Technology Editor at The Conversation Canada, an academic news site, and Editor-in-Chief of Studio Magazine, a biannual print publication dedicated to contemporary Canadian craft and design. She currently holds a residency at Toronto’s Theatre Centre, where she is developing a live arts event that explores surveillance, privacy, and consent.

      Nehal sits on the Board of Directors of FiXT POINT Arts & Media and Provocation Ideas Festival. She is a member of the Digital Communities Advisory Panel at the Centre for Free Expression. She was previously a Visiting Scholar at the City Institute at York University.

    Mr. Mohamed Wahbi
    Mazin Osman, Cultural Curator
  • TAFF2020: Shorts Programme 1

    TAFF2020: Shorts Programme 1

    Event Details
    July 25, 2020
    4:00 pm EDT
    Virtual

    Join us for our first Shorts Programme at TAFF2020.

    Screenings:

    The Sparrow//العصفور
    • The Sparrow//العصفور

      Countries: Palestine, Austria 
      Director: Nasri Hajaj 
      Length: 14 mins
      Synopsis: Based on true stories, The Sparrow, tells a story of life under dictatorship which can be anywhere and anytime. An Arab intellectual has been imprisoned for many years. One night while serving his unlimited period he is asked by the prison warden to tell stories to a five-year-old child in one of the neighboring cells. There he meets the mother of the child, born in prison. Meant to be a perfidious torture by the prison warden, he faces the challenge of how to tell a story to a child that has never seen the sun.

    In Uncle Salem’s Country
    • In Uncle Salem’s Country

      Country: Tunisia 
      Director: Slim Belhiba 
      Length: 14 mins
      Synopsis: Tunisia, September 2013. There is only a fortnight left before the beginning of the school year. Uncle Salem, guardian of a small country school, begins rudimentary maintenance. Anxious about the state of the flag, he decides to go for a new one. Uncle Salem moves towards the city, where the reverberations of a betrayed revolution run through the minds and streets.

    The Old Kalbelouz
    • The Old Kalbelouz

      Country: Algeria
      Director: Imène Ayadi  
      Length: 10 mins
      Synopsis:In Algiers, Ahmed 70 years old wakes up alone at home, he will start a day immersed in his thoughts. Who is he talking to?

    We Were There
    • We Were There

      Countries: Lebanon, Canada 
      Director: Rodrigue Hammal 
      Length: 8 mins
      Synopsis: A father who came to Beirut with his family to start over. A mother who left her native village for her own reasons. Their paths crossed as the city’s fate was about to drastically change.

    Abdullah & Leilah//عبد الله و ليلى
    • Abdullah & Leilah//عبد الله و ليلى

      Countries: Iraq, United Kingdom
      Director: Ashtar Al Khirsan 
      Length: 20 mins
      Synopsis: Haunted by the memories of his childhood in Baghdad, Abdullah has dementia and struggles to communicate with his daughter. As his mind slips and slides between his past and his unfamiliar present, he no longer remembers the life he’s lived in London for the last 60 years and the fluent English language he’s spoken. His British born daughter Leilah, who speaks only English, searches for one last moment of connection

    We Were There
    • We Were There

      Countries: Lebanon, Canada 
      Director: Rodrigue Hammal 
      Length: 8 mins
      Synopsis: A father who came to Beirut with his family to start over. A mother who left her native village for her own reasons. Their paths crossed as the city’s fate was about to drastically change.

    Co-presented by: 

    LIFT logo
  • TAFF2020: Shorts Programme 2 + Panel on “Defying Politics and Pan-Arabism in Cinema”

    TAFF2020: Shorts Programme 2 + Panel on “Defying Politics and Pan-Arabism in Cinema”

    Event Details
    July 25, 2020
    7:00 pm EDT
    Virtual

    Join us for our second Shorts Programme followed by a Panel Discussion on titled “Defying Politics, Towards Pan-Arabism in Cinema: The Role of Transnational Cinemas and Film Festivals in Creating a New Arab Cinema” featuring speakers Walid El-Kachab, Christina Piovesan and Viviane Saglier, moderated by Karam Masri.

    Screenings:

    Towards the Sun//نحو الشمس
    • Towards the Sun//نحو الشمس

      Country: Canada, Lebanon 
      Director: Nour Ouayda 
      Length: 17 mins 
      Synopsis: You are now in the main hall of the National Museum in Beirut. A guard reminds you that you are encouraged to touch the archeological objects. A voice in your headset suggests that you lick the stone. You are now facing a hole in the wall on the lower left corner of a mosaic. The voice in your headset indicates that it was made by a sniper. Out of curiosity, you dial 1-9-9-1 to listen to the rest of the story.

    In the Middle//في المنتصف
    • In the Middle//في المنتصف

      Country: Yemen, Qatar, Russia
      Director: Mariam Al Dhubhani 
      Length: 14 mins
      Synopsis: In a rarely seen perspective of war, we follow Ali—a Yemeni soldier on tour in the temporary capital of Aden. Leaving his hopes, dreams, and education behind to join the military, Ali dutifully sits at his checkpoint, performing a mundane task that he is clearly overqualified to do. His story represents the majority of youth in the country, people who are unable to just ‘live’, but instead are forced to continually struggle to survive.

    Four Acts for Syria//أربع فصول من أجل سوريا
    • Four Acts for Syria//أربع فصول من أجل سوريا

      Country: Syria, Germany 
      Director: Waref Abo Qaba
      Length: 14 mins
      Synopsis: Syrian history has been multicultural for centuries. This film is a voyage through Syrian culture until today’s insanity. It is a message of peace and hope for the Syrian people.

    The Return of Osiris//عودة اوزيريس
    • The Return of Osiris//عودة اوزيريس

      Country: Palestine 
      Director: Essa Grayeb 
      Length: 14 mins
      Synopsis: On June 9, 1967, Egyptian President at the time, Gamal Abdel Nasser appeared on television and radio to inform the Egyptian citizens of their country’s defeat. During the speech, he also announced his resignation. For many, Nasser’s speech was the first hint at the full scope of loss and disillusionment with the pan-Arab vision he led. The film weaves together dozens of scenes that feature the speech from Egyptian films and television series produced between 1972-2016. The found footage excerpts were edited to reconstruct Nasser’s speech of resignation according to the original text.

    Compressed//مضغوط
    • Compressed//مضغوط

      Country: Syria, France 
      Director: Ali Dawwa 
      Length: 8 mins
      Synopsis: Compressed highlights the work of Khaled Dawwa, a Syrian artist, who was in one of the Syrian regime’s prisons. He met many young people in the prison, their only guilt and the great crime was that they had dreamed of, and asked for a better future. Released from prison, Khaled, now lives in France. He considers himself a hope for all those who are still in prison and expresses their voice and suffering through his sculptures. For Khaled, love and revolution are inseparable.

    I Have Seen Nothing,​I Have Seen All//لم أرى شيئا, رأيت كل شيء
    • I Have Seen Nothing,​I Have Seen All//لم أرى شيئا, رأيت كل شيء

      Country: Syria, Sweden 
      Director: Yasser Kassab 
      Length: 20 mins
      Synopsis: After talking about the end of the war in Syria and the start of the reconstruction phase, Yaser and his family find themselves compelled to deal with the transfer of graves from public parks in Aleppo. Thousands of kilometers separate Yaser from his parents in Aleppo. With what these two places carry of contradiction is reflecting the way they both deal with what happened.

    Panel:

    Defying Politics, Towards Pan-Arabism in Cinema: The Role of Transnational Cinemas and Film Festivals in Creating a New Arab Cinema

    Given the recent new wave of Arab cinema, bolstered by co-productions and initiatives around the world, particularly in film festivals, this panel aims to examine the recent wave of Arab films in international film festivals through the lens of a pan-Arab renaissance. Recent co-production initiatives, transnational talent development and pan-Arab distribution, in particular, are defying national borders and are reinvigorating and redefining preconceived notions of what constitutes Arab cinema.

    Watch

    Moderator:

    Karam Masri, Filmmaker
    • Karam Masri

      Karam Masri is a Program Consultant for Film & Television at Ontario Creates, the provincial agency that supports the economic development of Ontario’s cultural sectors. Prior to joining Ontario Creates, Karam was the Business Analyst at the Bell Fund, a private fund that supports the creation and development of Canadian digital/TV multi-platform projects. Karam holds two Master’s degrees: an MFA in Film Production and an MBA from the Schulich School of Business. She also wrote & directed the short film “Juha the Whale”, winner of the York Thesis prize.

    Speakers:

    Christina Piovesan, Producer & President of First Generation Films
    • Christina Piovesan

      Christina Piovesan is the founder and principal of First Generation Films, a film and tv production company based in Toronto. Past films include the Cannes Winner Amreeka directed by Cherien Dabis; The Whistleblower directed by Larysa Kondracki, Mouthpiece directed by Patricia Rozema, Paper Year, written and directed by Rebecca Addelman and American Woman directed by Semi Chellas which had its Canadian premiere as a Gala Presentation at TIFF 2019. Her collaboration with Elevation Productions, the production arm of Elevation Pictures, has Christina in post-production on The Exchange directed by Dan Mazer and French Exit directed by Azazel Jacobs. Most recently, Christina was producer on The Nest directed by Sean Durkin which had its premiere at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival

    Dr. Walid El Kachab, Associate Professor, Arabic Studies, York University
    • Walid El Khachab

      Walid El Khachab has published in Cairo four poetry collections in Arabic: The Dead do not consume (Al Mawta La Yastahlekoon, 2001); She who is (Allati, 2013); Sudden Moon (Qamar Mofajei’, 2015), I’timad’s Booth (Koshk I’timad, 2019). In 2022, his monograph about legendary Arab comedian Fuad al-Mohandes The Arachitect of Joy (Mohandes al Bahga) was released at Dar al Maraya publishing house, Cairo. He also translated into Arabic Canadian poet’s Mon Latif Ghattas collection, Les Chants du Karawan, and Canadian poetry theorist Paul Zumthor’s Introduction à la poésie orale. He teaches Arabic Studies at York University

    Dr. Viviane Saglier, Post Doctoral Fellow, Department of Anthropology and Institute for the Study of International Development (ISID), McGill University
    • Viviane Saglier

      Viviane Saglier is a UTSC postdoctoral fellow in the Department of English at the University of Toronto. Prior to that, she was an Andrew W. Mellon postdoctoral fellow in the Anthropology Department at McGill University. She received her PhD in Film and Moving Image Studies from Concordia University. She is currently working on two projects: a first book on Palestinian film infrastructures, and a second book on histories of Arab cinema, gender, and decolonization. Her writings on Arab cinema, postcolonial theory, media economies, and transnational solidarity have appeared in several peer-reviewed journals and edited collections. Outside of the university, she curates collective programs of Arab cinema and political documentaries as well as video art exhibitions. 

      She started the Works-in-Progress (WIP) series and co-led the Political Imaginaries of Waiting working group.

    Panel Sponsored by:

    Faculty Arts & Science - U of T Logo
    Innis College Logo

    Co-presented by: 

    Goethe Institut Logo
    RPFF logo
  • TAFF2020: Shorts Programme 3

    TAFF2020: Shorts Programme 3

    Event Details
    July 26, 2020
    7:00 pm EDT
    Virtual

    Join us for our third Shorts Programme at TAFF2020

    Screenings

    Sh’hab//شهاب
    • Sh’hab//شهاب

      Country: Qatar
      Length: 13 min
      Director: Amal Al-Muftah
      Synopsis: Upon hearing a myth about falling stars, a young girl’s curiosity is sparked. When night falls on the village of AlWakrah, she sets out on her father’s boat, with the assistance of her older brother, to chase the fabled comets.

    Left Right//يسار يمين
    • Left Right//يسار يمين

      Country: Tunisia
      Director: Moutii Dridi
      Length: 23 mins
      Synopsis: Yassine, 7 years old, left handed, his father is forcing him to use his right hand.

    Amphitheater//المسرح المكشوف
    • Amphitheater//المسرح المكشوف

      Country: Qatar 
      Director: Mahdi Ali 
      Length: 16 mins
      Synopsis: A professional Qatari photographer is intrigued by the rebellion of a teenage girl from her conservative family as they take pictures of the frescoes in a cultural village. She pursues the teenage girl, documenting her rebellion until the family rebukes her. After discovering the girl’s hideout, the photographer follows her into an amphitheater, where she finally has a chance to express her inner voice.

    Maradona’s Legs//اجرين مارادونا
    • Maradona’s Legs//اجرين مارادونا

      Countries: Palestine, Germany 
      Director: Firas Khoury 
      Length: 20 mins
      Synopsis: During the 1990 World Cup, two young Palestinian boys are looking for “Maradona’s legs”; the last missing sticker that they need in order to complete their world cup album and win a free Atari. ​

    I Am Fatou
    • I Am Fatou

      Country: Egypt, Italy, Germany 
      Director: Amir Ramadan 
      Length: 18 mins 
      Synopsis: Fatou is a 23-year-old Italian girl of Senegalese origin. She lives in a suburb of Rome with her mother who would like to educate according to the rigid impositions of her culture of origin. But Fatou is looking for his own identity that combines her black Muslim being with Italian society, and unlike most of her peers, the social stigma of the immigrant is imprinted on her, that isolates her and reduces her friendships with other young children of foreigners. Her authentic passion and screen against prejudice is singing: music is what will never betray herself. After a night at the disco, Fatou is attacked by a thirty year old Italian who first insults her, and then tries to physically mistreat her. She confronts him with courage, opposes him, and finally manages to get on the bus that takes her back to her neighbourhood. In the short walk home, Fatou finds the strength to break the fear and humiliation with the song. An intimate nocturnal song in which Fatou tells herself, in the silence of the sleeping city, expressing his dreams as a girl, the hope of a radiant life that is perhaps already waiting for her. Fatou says she does not know love, if not in her mother’s feelings, she sings about the possibility of love, which means first of all to love oneself. And its poetic momentum becomes universal reflection on the sense of identity, so longed for and, for many, never really possessed.

    Ambiance//امبيانس
    • Ambiance//امبيانس

      Country: Palestine 
      Director: Wisam Al Jafari 
      Length: 15 mins 
      Synopsis: Despite the noise and chaos of the refugee camp, two young Palestinian refugees discover a creative way to record music in order to meet a competition deadline.

    Roujoula//رجولة
    • Roujoula//رجولة

      Country: France, Morocco 
      Length: 22 min 
      Director: Ilias El Faris
      Synopsis: In Casablanca, Eid-Al-Adha is around the corner. Imad, who sells hacked DVDs in the streets, doesn’t manage to earn enough money to buy the sacrificial sheep. The perfect excuse to take advantage of his studious little brother, forcing him to become a parking attendant, not realizing that he is giving Fayçal the perfect opportunity to exact his revenge.

    Co-presented by: 

    Goethe Institut Logo
  • TAFF2021: “Speculative Fiction” Shorts Programme

    TAFF2021: “Speculative Fiction” Shorts Programme

    Event Details
    May 27, 2021 – May 30, 2021
    Virtual

    A curated short films programme accompanying our panel on speculative fiction in Arab films. This programme is available for international viewing.

    Screenings:

    Blaxites
    • Blaxites

      Countries: Canada
      Director: Josh Lyon
      Length: 12 mins
      Synopsis: Jai’s celebratory social media post affects her access to vital medication. Her attempts to circumvent the system leads to even more dire consequences.The Surveillance Studies Center and the Big Data Surveillance Project present A Screening Surveillance Film. For more information, visit: screeningsurveillance.com.

    Fear: Audibly//الخوف: صوتيا
    • Fear: Audibly//الخوف: صوتيا

      Countries: Saudi Arabia
      Director: Mahaa El Saati
      Length: 22 mins
      Synopsis: Anxious that Judgment Day is on the horizon, Amal keenly awaits to hear the Trumpet of Doom; One day, unexpected guests invade her office space to confirm her fears.

    The Poet and the Swan//الشاعر و البجعة
    • The Poet and the Swan//الشاعر و البجعة

      Country: Syria
      Director: Ayham Jabr
      Length: 41 mins
      Synopsis: In a parallel and imagined world, a revolution has triumphed. A revolution based and fuelled by hatred and ignorance, in all countries of Asia, the time of Asyatopia. The dystopian short film is inspired by the writings of George Orwell and the poems of Nizar Qabbani. The events of the film take place in a country in Asia after the victory of a black revolution – in it, thinking and feeling was forbidden, war ragged on, permanent revolutionary censorship, manipulation of the masses … and lies. The life of the film’s protagonist is turned upside down … after he receives a paper written on it one word … a word that can cause him to disappear from the face of the world.

    Last Days of the Man of Tomorrow//آخر أيّام رجل الغَد
    • Last Days of the Man of Tomorrow//آخر أيّام رجل الغَد

      Country: Lebanon, Germany
      Director: Fadi Baki
      Length: 23 mins
      Synopsis: A young filmmaker investigates the legend of Manivelle, an automaton gifted to Lebanon in 1945 that still haunts an abandoned mansion in Beirut. After being coaxed back out into the limelight, the people who knew him come forward to speak their mind, and the myth that Manivelle has constructed around himself begins to unravel. A science-fiction mockumentary out of Lebanon, Last Days of the Man of Tomorrow is a funny, sad and weird look at the life of the Middle East’s first and only living robot and the stories you won’t find in your history books.

    Co-presented with Breakthroughs Film Festival

    Breakthroughs Film Festival Logo