Festivals, Awards, and Contests

The 3rd Annual Other Israel Film Festival Will Take Place at the Jewish Community Center

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JAFFA
Director: Keren Yedaya
NYC PREMIERE

In this Cannes Film Festival favorite, Director Keren Yedaya (Or) brings forth the dramatic story of Mali, who lives with her family in Jaffa, and works with her brother and father at the family owned car repair shop. Mali falls in love with Tauffik, a mechanic in the garage. Despite underlying racism and jealousy that surrounds them, their love affair grows. When Mali finds out she is pregnant, the couple decides to run away and get married abroad. On the morning of the flight, a tragic event reshapes this couple's future.

VOICES FROM EL SAYED
Director: Oded Adomi Leshem

In the picturesque Israeli Negev desert, the Bedouin village of El-Sayed has the largest percentage of deaf people in the world. Through the generations, a unique sign language has evolved making it the most popular language in this rare society, which accepts deafness as natural as life itself. The village`s tranquility is interrupted by Salim`s decision to change his deaf son's fate and make him a hearing person using the Cochlear Implant Operation.

ARAB LABOR
Director: Roni Ninio

More episodes from the successful groundbreaking satire, following Amjad, a 35-year-old Arab journalist, married to Bushara (a social worker) and father to Maya. Torn between his desire to become the darling of the In-crowd on one hand, and represent the suffering of Arabs at any given forum, he is mocked and criticized by his family and close community. Amjad`s only ally is his friend Meir (an Israeli Jew) - a photographer who works with him at the newspaper, a sworn bachelor who falls In love with Amal, Bushara`s feminist Arab friend.

ID BLUES
Director: Chaim Yavin
NY PREMIERE

Two new episodes from the five-part travel-log by legendary news person Chaim Yavin, examining different sectors of Arabs living in Israel, presenting matters of life, history, and culture in Arab society in Israel.

SAYED KASHUA - FOREVER SCARED
Director: Dorit Zimbalist
SPECIAL DIRECTOR'S PRESENTATION

Despite being one of Israel's leading columnists, novelists and screenwriter, Sayed Kashua feels he doesn't belong. The Jews don't like him because he's an Arab. The Arabs don't like him because he's successful. The Arabs think he's a collaborator. The Jews think he's a drunk. He's always the "other" and he's always scared. This intimate portrait follows Kashua over seven years through the upheavals and events that change his life, wandering from place to place, from nation to nation, belonging neither here nor there.

ZAHARA
Director: Mohammad Bakri
SPECIAL DIRECTOR'S PRESENTATION

With touching personal style and breathtaking cinematography, Director Mohammad Bakri tells the story of his 78 year old aunt Zahara, from the times of pre-state Palestine to present, leading the family with love and wisdom through the many trials of life.

SHORTS COMPILATION

HEAVY SILENCE
Visions and pieces of memory are unveiled through a small crack in Alla's prison cell. Through these excerpts of memory and fantasy Alla faces the futility of family honor and discovers the fate of the woman he loves.

SHNAIM
In the midst of the war in Gaza, a mixed Arab and Jewish Israeli couple debate the question of military service.

Bus Station - IR-AMIM
Two women, Arab and Jew meet at a bus stop in Jerusalem after a trip to the market. When their bags of tomatoes get confused they begin to understand the similarities and differences of their worlds.

TEL AVIV-JAFFA
A look into one of the unifiers of Israeli Jewish and Arab society - Hummus. This short documentary part of the Tel Aviv-100 docu-challenge project follows one of Jaffa's oldest and proudest establishments.

ORANGES
A sweet story of friendship and neighbors. A man is angered by his neighbor picking oranges off his tree and decides to seek revenge.

SAZ - The Palestinian Rapper for Change
Director: Gil Karni
NY PREMIERE

An intimate documentary following budding Palestinian-Israeli hip-hop star from Ramlah, Sameh Zakout, a.k.a. Saz. The film follows his transformation from a young unknown rap singer into an international success, as well as his youthful quest for identity transformed into the voice of a struggling nation. The film also focuses on his relationship with his grandfather, an Israeli-Arab communist. Their conversations reveal their differing ideologies: "I don't see my Palestine being built by blood," says Saz. "It should be built by negotiations, not bombings. My bullets are my rhymes. My M-16 is my microphone."

CITY OF BORDERS
Director: Yun Suh

In the heart of Jerusalem stands an unusual symbol of unity that defies generations of segregation, violence and prejudice: a gay bar called Shushan. This award-winning documentary goes inside this underground sanctuary where people of opposing nationalities, religions and sexual orientations create an island of peace in a land divided by war. Through a coclorful cast of characters from all walks of life, the film explores the effort to find and share a sense of community in spite of differences of religion and nationality.

BADAL
Director: Ibtisam Mara'na
NY PREMIERE

'A Badal deal marriage' is the common practice of a muslim tradition where a brother and sister from one family marry a sister and brother from another family - interlocking the two couples forever. Divorce on the part of one couple will immediately lead to the divorce of the other part of the deal. The film follows a family during the process of putting such a deal together. It portrays the lives of Palestinian women living within Israel, their difficulties and struggle to be a part of their traditional society vs. the quest to maintain their full rights as women, and citizens of a democratic state.

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