PART OF MIZNA'S TWIN CITIES ARAB FILM FESTIVAL
The Twin Cities Arab Film Festival presents Media in the Distorted Present: Shorts Program, including Waves '98 by Ely Dagher, And On A Different Note by Mohammad Shawky Hassan, Diaspora by Alaeddin Abou Taleb, Goal To Syria by Amjad Wardeh, and In The Future They Ate From The Finest Porcelain by Larissa Sansour and Søren Lind.
WAVES ‘98
Dir. Ely Dagher
2015 | Lebanon/Qatar | Arabic with English subtitles | 15 min | Minnesota Premiere
SYNOPSIS: Disillusioned with his life in the suburbs of segregated Beirut, Omar’s discovery leads him into the depths of the city. Immersed into a world that is so close yet so isolated from his reality, he eventually finds himself struggling to keep attachments, and his sense of home.
FESTIVALS & AWARDS
Palme d’Or, Cannes Film Festival, France, 2015
Silver Plaque, Chicago International Film Festival, USA, 2015
DIRECTOR BIOGRAPHY: Ely Dagher was born and raised in Beirut. He graduated with an MA in New Media and Contemporary Art Studies from Goldsmiths College in London. In 2011, Dagher founded BeaverAndBeaver productions to explore different projects with video and animation. He is now based in Brussels.
AND ON A DIFFERENT NOTE
Dir. Mohammad Shawky Hassan
2015 | Egypt/USA | Arabic with English subtitles | 24 min | Minnesota Premiere
SYNOPSIS: Language, media, and image move this poetic film about fatigue in the face of constant connectivity. A compilation of interior scenes from Cairo and New York, it is set against the backdrop of a continuous stream of political talk shows and untranslated background noise.
FESTIVALS & AWARDS
Bucharest International Experimental Film Festival, Romania, 2016
Berlinale Forum Expanded, Germany, 2015
DIRECTOR BIOGRAPHY: Mohammad Shawky Hassan is a filmmaker and scholar. He studied philosophy, film direction, and cinema studies at The American University in Cairo, The Academy of Cinematic Arts & Sciences, and Columbia University. His films include It Was Related to Me (2011) and On a Day Like Today (2012). He has presented films at the Oberhausen Short Film Festival, Anthology Film Archives, The New York Public Library and UnionDocs, and is currently running the Network of Arab Arthouse Screens (NAAS).
DIASPORA
Dir. Alaeddin Abou Taleb
2015 | Tunisia | Arabic with English subtitles | 13 min | Minnesota Premiere
SYNOPSIS: Diaspora tells the story of a head who gets around in a wheelchair. It lives alone in an apartment in downtown Tunis for many years and falls into a routine. The head subsists on media–it listens, sees, and consumes. This changes when it sees an announcement for employment. In the end, the head abandons its isolation and wheelchair.
FESTIVALS & AWARDS
Golden Tanit Award, Carthage Film Festival, Tunisia, 2015
Dubai International Film Festival, UAE, 2015
DIRECTOR BIOGRAPHY: Alaeddin Abou Taleb is a visual artist and filmmaker. In 2010, he directed a short film called Coma and, in 2011, he participated in the Tunisian Association for Action in Cinema. He runs workshops on the techniques of animation. His artwork and films have been exhibited in a number of international festivals.
GOAL TO SYRIA
Dir. Amjad Wardeh
2015 | Syrian Arab Republic/Turkey | Arabic with English subtitles | 4 min | Minnesota Premiere
SYNOPSIS: A soccer game serves as a metaphor for the ongoing crisis in Syria. Using animation to depict the the simplest acts of heroism, the film envisions a brighter future for the war-torn country.
FESTIVALS & AWARDS
Cannes Film Festival, France, 2016
Syria Film Festival, Toronto, Canada, 2016
DIRECTOR BIOGRAPHY: Amjad Wardeh graduated from the Faculty of Fine Arts at Damascus University and works in a variety of artistic mediums. He has done animation for Syrian television and worked as Art Director for the daily newspaper Baladna. Wardeh’s art has been on exhibition in Beirut, London, Istanbul, and Nottingham.
IN THE FUTURE THEY ATE FROM THE FINEST PORCELAIN
Dir. Larissa Sansour and Søren Lind
2015 | Palestine/UK/Denmark/Qatar | Arabic with English subtitles | 29 min | Minnesota Premiere
SYNOPSIS: A narrative resistance group makes underground deposits of elaborate porcelain. It is suggested that it belongs to an entirely fictional civilization. Their aim is to influence history and support future claims to their vanishing land.
FESTIVALS & AWARDS
Dubai International Film Festival, UAE, 2015
Berlinale Forum Expanded, Germany, 2016
DIRECTOR BIOGRAPHY: Larissa Sansour was born in East Jerusalem, Palestine in 1973, and studied fine arts in London, New York, and Copenhagen. Her work is interdisciplinary; it is immersed in the current political dialogue and utilizes video, photography, installation, the Internet, and the book form. Central to her work is the tension between fiction and reality. Her solo work has recently been presented in Turku, Copenhagen, Paris, Stockholm, Dubai, Madrid, and Istanbul.
Søren Lind is a Danish author. He writes children’s books and literary fiction. With a background in philosophy, Lind wrote books on mind, language, and understanding before turning to fiction In addition to a published novel, two short story collections, and four children’s books, Lind is a visual artist and writes film scripts.
PRESENTED WITH SUPPORT BY
TWIN CITIES ARAB FILM FESTIVAL
Mizna presents the eleventh Twin Cities Arab Film Festival in partnership with the Film Society of Minneapolis St. Paul. The Arab Film Fest showcases modern Arab cinema, featuring debut screenings of independent narrative, documentary, and experimental features and shorts.