Houston Palestine Film Festival
Mark your calendar for Friday, May 13, which marks the first of three consecutive weekends of films celebrating Palestinian cinema.
The Houston Palestine Film Festival launches its tenth edition in as many years. The HPFF is a “non-profit, non-political cultural organization committed to bringing the best of Palestinian cinema to Houston,” notes Amal Rammah, Secretary on the board of the HPFF.
The first weekend features The Idol, a biopic of Arab songster Mohammad Assaf, as well as Theeb, a Jordanian film that was recently nominated for the Best Foreign Film Oscar. Theeb takes the audience on a journey through the desert as a kind of metaphor of American road movies. Only the vehicles are camels and the setting is Jordan’s Wadi Rum desert in WWI. The stakes are perilous.
Other feature films include 3000 Nights; Love, Theft and Other Entanglements; Dégradé; and the festival’s closing film, the US premiere of Sara, which deals with an honor killing.
Documentaries include Trip Along Exodus; Roshmia; Cinema Palestine; Jews Step Forward; and a chronicle of the first woman only racing team in the Middle East Speed Sisters.
The venues are the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (May 13-15) and the Rice Media Center (May 19-22 and May 26-28).
Several filmmakers are scheduled to attend. Also the Houston Palestine Film Festival will be live-tweeting events using the hashtag #HPFF2016.
Further information can be obtained at the HPFF website.
— Michael Bergeron
