Event Details June 27, 2024 7:00 PM EDT Innis Town Hall Theatre, 2 Sussex Avenue, Toronto, ON M5S 1J5
Screenings:
A Beautiful Excuse For A Deadly Sin//عذر أجمل من الذنب
Country: Bahrain Director: Hashim Sharaf Length: 16 mins Synopsis: A young man tries to escalate a horse up the narrow stairs of the building to live with him in his apartment, but the building residents object to his path.
Bottles
Country: Morocco, Italy Director: Yassine El Idrissi Length: 18 mins Synopsis: Said, a 13 year old boy in the old Medina of Rabat, has a side job collecting empty beer bottles to buy food for a dog he is hiding. Said finds keeping the dog he rescued conflicting with his family, friends, and religious tradition.
No Key
Country: Morocco Director: Walid Messnaoui Length: 22 mins Synopsis: Two young thieves find a sealed jewelry box that becomes the envy of rival gangs.
Ahmed//أحمد
Country: Canada Director: Rame Ibrahim Length: 8 mins Synopsis: Two immigrant parents are invited to talk about their journey from their home countries.
Anxiety
Country: Germany Director: Alshafee Abby Length: 22 mins Synopsis: A young refugee struggles with learning the German language while being existentially at the mercy of the bureaucratic system.
Event Details June 22, 2024 7:00 PM EDT Innis Town Hall Theatre, 2 Sussex Avenue, Toronto, ON M5S 1J5
Screenings:
Conditional Desire//تصعيد
Country: Tunisia Director: Houcem Slouli Length: 15 mins Synopsis: In a conformist society, Ahmed and Salma, marry for convenience to pursue their passions with secret lovers.
I Never Promised You A Jasmine Garden//لم أعدك بالياسمين
Country: Canada Director: Teyama Alkamli Length: 20 mins Synopsis: Tara, a queer Palestinian woman in her late 20s, attempts to suppress her internal emotional turbulence during a phone call with her best friend Sarab, with whom she is in love.
Ayam Zaman (The Old Days)
Country: Canada Director: Hassib Hani Length: 7 mins Synopsis: Hadi finds himself an unexpected guest at Adam’s engagement party decades since they last spoke, and at last come face-to-face with the events that tore them apart.
The Red Sea Makes Me Wanna Cry//البحر الأحمر يبكي
Country: Jordan Director: Faris Alrjoob Length: 21 mins Synopsis: Wandering through desolate bars, hotels, and offices, Ida attempts to feel Ismail’s presence one last time and to say goodbye.
VHS Tape Replaced
Country: Saudi Arabia, Canada Director: Maha Al-Saati Length: 17 mins Synopsis: Set in 1987, a young black Saudi man attempts to impress a girl by mimicking the music video of Crown, an iconic singer from that time.
Sixty Egyptian Pounds//ستين جنيه
Country: Egypt Director: Amr Salama Length: 20 mins Synopsis: A struggling family is attempting to deal with the consequences of a horrible catastrophe.
Country: Germany Director: Alshafee Abby Length: 22 mins Synopsis: A young refugee struggles with learning the German language while being existentially at the mercy of the bureaucratic system.
Somewhere, but not here
Country: Canada Director: Karel Malkoun Length: 23 mins Synopsis: Miles away, I watch the slow erasing of my home. Scattered between two places, I am no longer anywhere.
Edris//إدريس
Country: Egypt Director: Amir El-Shenawy Length: 17 mins Synopsis: A 17-year-old Eritrean boy fled the war in his country to settle in Egypt, where he dreams to overcome the barriers and get accepted into the Egyptian society so he could get a chance to become a promising professional football player and help his family back home. The documentary tells a simple story that sheds light on the status of African migrants and refugees in Egypt today.
Hanina//Homesick
Country: Egypt, United States Director: Yasmin Moll Length: 8 mins Synopsis: A young girl flies back in time to her drowned homeland, guided by the songs and stories of her community
Water Religion//ديانة الماء
Country: Oman Director: Haitham Sulaiman Length: 29 mins Synopsis: Water Religion is a short narrative film tells the story of Issa, a blind tanager who has dream to sail the sea looking after his lost father fisherman against all odds.
Country: Canada Director: Robin Riad Length: 2 mins Synopsis: “Six Months” is a critique of alcohol within a North American cultural context, through societal pressure and mass marketing.
Suspended Dawn
Country: Palestine Director: Essa Grayeb Length: 19 mins Synopsis: Suspended Dawn is a poetic archeological excavation of Egypt’s golden age, the video essay is divided into chapters featuring digital manipulations overlaying footage from Chahine’s film and sounds.
The Poem We Sang//غنينا قصيدة
Country: Palestine, Canada, Jordan Director: Annie Sakkab Length: 20 mins Synopsis: The Poem We Sang is a 20-minute, colour and black and white, experimental documentary that meditates on love and longing – the love of one’s family and the longing for one’s home, contemplated through overcoming the trauma of loss of family home and of forced migration, transforming lifelong regrets into a healing journey of creative catharsis and bearing witness.
Locus Cordis
Country: Syria Director: Alhasan Yousef Length: 19 mins Synopsis: Occupied by Israel in 1967, the Syrian Golan has a military border running through it, which families “cross” by shouting to their loved ones. From his European exile, anxiety-ridden Alhasan Yousef attempts to break free from his inner isolation with this exploration of the power of sound, in an effort to reconnect with his lost country from afar.
Event Details July 28, 2024 8:45 PM EDT Christie Pits Park, 750 Bloor Street West, Toronto, ON M6G 3K4
Jafar Panahi’s Taxi uses a clever conceit to offer a window not only into the day-to-day lives of taxi drivers and other workers in Tehran, but also into the materialities of being a working filmmaker in Iran. In 2010, director Jafar Panahi was banned from making films in Iran for 20 years, for allegedly producing propaganda against the Iranian government. Rejecting the terms of the ban as censorship, Panahi began making films covertly. To make Jafar Panahi’s Taxi, Panahi disguised himself as a taxi driver and roamed the streets of Tehran, movie camera mounted firmly in place on his dashboard. Though this gives the film a documentary-style realism, the film is entirely fictional, and its use of non-professional actors, cinema verité style, and focus on social inequalities make it evocative of Italian Neorealist classic The Bicycle Thieves by way of fellow Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami’s A Taste of Cherry. Satisfyingly self-aware and extremely charming, Jafar Panahi’s Taxi is an intimate portrait of working life in Tehran that foregrounds the humanity of those labouring in less than ideal circumstances.
The accompanying short films similarly take to the streets to explore the social inequities of work. Lisa Rideout’s One Leg In, One Leg Out follows Iman, who after a decade of working as a sex worker in Toronto makes the choice to become a social worker to help support her fellow trans community members who supported her for so long. Shot largely in Toronto’s Church-Wellesley neighbourhood, the film shows Iman as both a beloved regular at local bars and drag shows, and a tenacious self-starter eager to forge her path in a new profession. Similarly, Toronto filmmaker Mariam Zaidi’s short doc Over Time is a tender portrait of Regent Park resident Shafiq, a real-life taxi driver by night, shop clerk by day. An immigrant from Bangladesh in the ‘90s, he has seen Toronto change as Uber’s gig economy has taken over, his once stable job as a yellow-cab driver becoming increasingly precarious, and his local community squeezed by rapid gentrification. Like Jafar Panahi’s Taxi, these two documentary shorts contemplate how spaces around work are often where we form the communities necessary to survive and thrive
Country: Iran Director: Jafar Panahi Length: 82 mins Synopsis: Taxi uses a clever conceit to offer a window not only into the day-to-day lives of taxi drivers and other workers in Tehran, but also into the materialities of being a working filmmaker in Iran.
Over Time
Country: Canada Director: Mariam Zaidi Length: 15 mins Synopsis: Through Shafiq, a ride-share driver and resident of Regent Park, we get a glimpse into one of the fastest changing industries and neighbourhoods in Toronto today.
One Leg In, One Leg Out
Country: Canada Director: Lisa Rideout Length: 15 mins Synopsis: After a decade as a sex worker, Iman attempts to pursue her dream of becoming a social worker to help her transgender community members. As she explores the option of going back to college, One Leg In, One Leg Out questions whether tenacity, ambition and a life long dream are enough to overcome a challenging personal situation.
