Closing Night Outdoor Screening: A Gaza Weekend preceded by VHS Tape Replaced
Sunday, October 1 – Celebration at 6:30pm + Screening at 7:30pm | Outdoors Under the Third Avenue Bridge, outside of The Main Cinema.
This special screening is free to attend with a suggested donation of $10, RSVP REQUIRED.
Limited seating will be available, it is recommended to bring your own lawn chairs to enjoy the film!
Special thanks to our friends and collaborators at Trylon Cinema and Soft Cult Studio, whose generous tech support has made this screening possible.
About A Gaza Weekend
Dir. Basil Khalil | 2022 | Palestine, UK | English, Arabic, Hebrew with English subtitles | 93 min
After the outbreak of a deadly virus, Israel is cut off from the rest of the world and Gaza is now the safest place to be. Israelis are desperately trying to seek refuge there, including British journalist Michael and his girlfriend Keren. When the couple pay a smuggler to transport them to Cyprus via Gaza, they find themselves stuck in a basement in Gaza, with Hamas on their trail. Their fate rests in the hands of hapless Palestinian market traders Emad and Waleed, and Waleed’s long-suffering but resourceful wife Nuhad.
Director’s Bio
Basil Khalil is an Academy Award & Palme d'Or nominated writer and director of Palestinian-British-Irish heritage. His Oscar nominated short film Ave Maria (2015) premiered in official competition at the Cannes Film Festival before going on to screen at over 300 festivals and winning more than 35 awards. It was described by the New York Times as; "The Middle Eastern answer to Curb Your Enthusiasm." His debut feature film, A Gaza Weekend (2022) premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival where it won the FIPRESCI prize.
About VHS Tape Replaced
Dir. Maha Al-Saati | 2023 | Saudi Arabia | Arabic with English subtitles | 17 min
In 1987, a young Saudi man tries to impress the girl of his dreams by recording a tape of himself mimicking her favorite pop artist. He records his performance on a VHS tape, which accidentally ends up back at the video-rental store and it quickly circulates around town. Full of nostalgia for the 80s and for analog technologies.
Director’s Bio
Maha Al-Saati is a Saudi Canadian filmmaker of Uzbek (Central Asian) descent. She is an independent filmmaker interested in exploring women’s stories in the Arab world. She is also an honorary recipient of the TIFF Filmmaker Lab Fellowship 2020 Share Her Journey Award and the Hollywood Foreign Press Association residency 2021. Her short films include: Fear: Audibly (2017) and Hair: The Story of Grass (2018), a satire about how body hair shapes beauty standards and gender, and an official selection of Fantastic Fest 2018, Slamdance 2019, HollyShorts 2019, nominated NFMLA Best International Short Film Drama. Her Cycle of Apples (2019) is a take on the Disney princess fairytale gone wrong, and has screened at the Academy’s Arab Cinema Program 2019, Malmo Arab Film Festival and Mizna’s Arab Film Fest. Her feature project Hejj to Disney was developed with the Red Sea Lodge and TorinoFilmLab 2019, and won a development award from El-Gouna Film Festival 2020. Her feature From the West the Sun will Rise was developed with the TIFF Writers’ Studio 2021. She is a Simon Fraser University alum, and has taught a range of media and moving image related courses in both Saudi Arabia and Canada.
Presented by Mizna
Mizna is a critical platform for contemporary literature, film, art, and cultural production centering the work of Arab and Southwest Asian and North African artists. For more than twenty years, we have been creating a decolonized cultural space to reflect the expansiveness of our community and to foster exchange, examine ideas, and engage audiences in meaningful art.