PART OF MIZNA'S TWIN CITIES ARAB FILM FESTIVAL
Trip Along Exodus recreates Palestinian history through archival footage, poetry, animation, glitter, family photos, and 8mm films. The film explores the last 70 years of Palestinian politics through the story of Dr. Elias Shoufani, the filmmaker’s father. Born in Galilee and educated at the Hebrew University and Princeton, Dr. Shoufani was a multilingual and erudite scholar, activist, and political leader. The film traces Shoufani’s life, beginning with his refusal to leave Syria in the face of war and violence through his choice to give up a tenured position at a university in the U.S. to join the underground Palestinian Liberation Organization in Beirut. A touching and unique cinematic journey, Trip Along Exodus takes the viewer from Palestine in 1948 to Washington D.C. and New York City on its way back to Lebanon, Jordan, and Syria.
DIRECTOR BIOGRAPHY
Hind Shoufani is a Palestinian poet/filmmaker currently residing between Dubai and Beirut in the Middle East, but she keeps a suitcase packed and ready to zoom off whenever the chance for adventure- cinematic, literary or otherwise- presents itself. Born in Lebanon, she was then raised in Amman, Beirut, and Damascus. In 2002, she was awarded a Fulbright scholarship from Jordan to complete an MFA at NYU’s Tisch School for the Arts. She is interested in films that change perceptions of the Other, glitter and how it relates to light, a free and secular Palestine even if mythical, writing poetry to combat bitterness, and female rights and liberties in the Middle East- even if mythical. She is currently working on a video art feature film that visualizes themes of sexuality, politics and religion in the lives of 6 female Arab poets.
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.