PART OF MIZNA'S TWIN CITIES ARAB FILM FESTIVAL
DIRECTOR ANDREA SHAKER ATTENDING FOR POST-SCREENING Q&A
Screening with short films Message To... and on silence.
Queens of Syria tells the story of fifty women from Syria living in exile in Jordan. In 2013, they came together to create and perform their own version of The Trojan Women, an Ancient Greek tragedy about the plight of women in war. What followed was an extraordinary moment of connection across millennia. The women, born in 20th-century Syria, find a vivid mirror in the play. The stories of the queen, the princesses, and ordinary woman who were uprooted, enslaved, and bereaved by the Trojan War resonate with the present-day Syrian situation, and the performers use the play’s narrative to reflect upon their own stories. The end result is this touching film.
DIRECTOR BIOGRAPHY
Yasmin Fedda is an award-winning documentary filmmaker whose BAFTA-nominated films have screened at numerous international festivals including Sundance and Edinburgh IFF. Her previous films include Milking the Desert (2004), Breadmakers (2007), A Tale of Two Syrias (2012), and Siamo Toranti /We Are Back (2013). Her most recent film, Queens of Syria, won the Black Pearl award at the Abu Dhabi Film Festival in 2014. She has a PhD in Transdisciplinary Documentary Film and is a co-founder of Highlight Arts, an organization that works with artists in times of conflict.
A MESSAGE TO...
Dir. Rami Hassoun
2016 | France/Switzerland | 15 min | Minnesota Premiere
SYNOPSIS: This shocking and spectacular short film combines poetry, dance, and film to call attention to the human rights violations in Syria, particularly the war’s effect on women. Impossible to ignore, the stunning cinematography and talented performances demonstrate the economic greed and extortion that accompanies the unending conflict in the Middle East, to which the world turns a blind eye.
Short Film Corner, Cannes Film Festival, France, 2016
Los Angeles CineFest, USA, 2016
DIRECTOR BIOGRAPHY: Rami Hassoun is a Franco-Syrian director and choreographer born in 1989. He discovered dance at the age of 10, working in contemporary, hip hop, and flamenco, on projects and internships with the Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch, Alexandre Del Perugia and Popin Pete. Hassoun has created several film and dance projects, including You Don’t Fit for Freedom (short film 2012), VERTIGE (short film 2013), Election (dance show 2014), and MoonSaif (dance show 2015), and is currently the artistic director of Hassoun Dance Company.
ON SILENCE
Dir. Andrea Shaker
2016 | USA | English | 12 min
SYNOPSIS:on silence is an experimental short film that evokes mourning for the loss of home and homeland, inspired by the Syrian civil war and refugee crisis. Through spoken word, the filmmaker reflects on how images, moving and still, mediate our understanding of others’ trauma, creating an illusion of intimacy through the safety of distance.
Altered Aesthetics Film Festival, St. Paul, USA, 2016
DIRECTOR BIOGRAPHY: Andrea Shaker is a professor of art at the College of St. Benedict | St. John’s University. She earned her BA in Government and International Relations from Georgetown University and her Masters of Fine Arts from the University of Illinois at Urbana – Champaign. As an Arab American, her films, photographic artwork and writings draw from an exploration of the tension between a lived understanding of home and an imagined ancestral homeland.
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.