Arab Camera Festival on tour

The Arab Camera Festival Rotterdam (28 Nov – 2 Dec, LantarenVenster) has sought out the latest film works of both up-and-coming and veteran filmmakers from Arabic countries. On December 6 & 7 the festival will arrive at Het Nutshuis with a selection of freshly produced films and documentaries.
All films have English subtitles.

 
Friday, Dec 7th
Slot 1: GIRLS OUT THERE
Time: 18:30 – 20:00
 
LEILA’S WINDOW
Saudi Arabia, 2012, 6 minutes
Director: Shahad Ameen
Cast: Baseemah Hajjar
Subtitles: English
Leila is an 8 year old girl, detached from her family, living in her own world, isolating herself from everyone else. Nonetheless she finds comfort in her fantasy world, one that only she can see. Will Leila choose to refrain from reality or integrate in it?
http://arabcamera.nl/nl/2012/11/86.html
 
FIGHTING FOR AIR
Australia , 2011, 7 minutes
Director - Fatima Mawas
Main Cast - Arisha Bordbar, Ansuya Nathan
Subtitles: English
Tension exists in the household between KJ (17 years) and her older sister, Hanna. To make matters worse, KJ is arriving to school with bruises on her face and her teacher, Amal, is starting to get suspicious. What nobody knows is that KJ has a secret she keeps hidden from the world. When her secret is discovered by Amal, both women are faced with a decision to either step towards each other and accept the help of the other, or turn and remain in their separate corners.
http://arabcamera.nl/nl/2012/11/87.html
 
BOXING WITH HER
Tunisia, 2012, 72 minutes
Director: Latifa Doghri and Salem Trabelsi
Subtitles: English
They have chosen boxing, not to get the negative energy out but to win titles and a chance to win an Olympic medal; a ticket out of their very modest condition. This is the story of Wided Younsi (Africa champion 2010), Rym Jouini (world vice champion 2010), Houda and Marwa Rahali (Tunisia champions from 2008 to 2010). Why have they chosen boxing? How does the Arab-Muslim society perceive these women? How do these fighters see their future in a macho society which recognizes only the bonds of marriage? ‘Boxing with Her’ tells us more about these female boxing stars.
http://arabcamera.nl/nl/2012/11/88.html
 
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Friday, Dec 7th
Special programme: Troubles in Syria
Time: 20:30 – 22:00
 
MEMORIES AT A CHECKPOINT
Syrië Centraal
Syria 2012, 24 minutes
Director : Tamer al-Awam
Subtitles: English
Throughout the documentary ‘Memories at a Checkpoint’, Mr. Awam goes from the intimacy of households, where he interviews women and children, to the secret workshops of the rebels, where they manufacture homemade rockets and test-fire them from the back of a red Toyota pickup. Some of the film’s most gripping moments come from the filmmaker’s proximity to battles and his interactions with civilians, whose support for the Free Syrian Army put them in the line of fire. “There is shelling everywhere,” he says at one point, hurrying through narrow, rubble-strewn streets with the crack of gunfire nearby. “This is Syria,” he says.
http://arabcamera.nl/nl/2012/11/111.html
 
WAITING FOR SPRING
UK/France 2012, 24 minutes
Director - Yasmin Fedda
Subtitles: English
The most beautiful poem written this year is ‘the Syrian people will not be humiliated’. Now publishing her seventh collection, Syrian Hala Mohammed’s prose poetry is renowned internationally for its spontaneous language. Her work deals with memory, fear, alienation and loneliness, which is all evident as she reflects on the situation in her homeland. But she retains her belief in poetry’s ability to inspire the Arab Spring, and has translated her despair into powerful new work. This sensitive portrait is produced as part of Al Jazeera’s series ‘Artscape: Poets of Protest’.
http://arabcamera.nl/nl/2012/11/112.html
 

STORY OF FREEDOM
Directed by Adel Abas
Doc, Sweden, 2012
Length: 45 min
Subtitles: English, Arabic
A documentary film about the Syrian journalist and award-winning poet Faraj Bayrakdar.
In 1987, Faraj Bayrakdar was arrested on suspicion of belonging to the Party for Communist Action and was held incommunicado and tortured for nearly seven years. In 1993, the Supreme Court sentenced him to fifteen years in prison. Faraj Bayrakdar was granted amnesty just fourteen months shy of completing the entire sentence. He arrived in Stockholm City of Refuge as a Guest Writer and continues to live there. STORY OF FREEDOM is about his reflections on the 15 years he spent in a Syrian prison as well as on the current situation in Syria.
http://arabcamera.nl/nl/2012/11/113.html