Tornado Alley (PROG)

[fuagf]

An initial search to see whether or not it's seen around here gave:

a place for dialogue

megan carrigy applauds the sydney arab film festival

Beirut Diaries

THE SYDNEY ARAB FILM FESTIVAL, MANAGED BY INFORMATION AND CULTURAL EXCHANGE (ICE), EXISTS IN ORDER TO CREATE A CRITICAL SPACE WHERE THE COMPLEXITY AND DIVERSITY OF ARAB EXPERIENCE CAN BE EMBRACED. OBVIOUSLY, THIS IS A VERY IMPORTANT UNDERTAKING WHEN THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA IN AUSTRALIA RELIES UPON AN ARRAY OF PREDOMINANTLY NEGATIVE AND MISLEADING STEREOTYPES. THE FESTIVAL PROVIDES THE OPPORTUNITY TO ENJOY ALTERNATIVE REPRESENTATIONS OF ARAB CULTURE, WITH AN EXPLICIT EMPHASIS ON PERSONAL STORYTELLING AND SELF-REPRESENTATION.

Viewers came out in force for the 2008 festival, making it clear that there is not only a political need for these alternative critical spaces in Australia, but a deep hunger for them. Films serious and whimsical, unashamedly romantic and stridently political were all embraced by sell-out crowds.

https://www.realtime.org.au/a-place-for-dialogue/

The mainstream media doesn't do it as well.

The Iron Wall
Directed by Mohammed Alata .. looks good. Also good to see it looks like we have covered it pretty well here, too.

""We'll make a pastrami sandwich of them," he boasted to a British journalist at Israel's National Press Club. "Yes, we'll insert a strip of Jewish settlements in between the Palestinians, and then another strip of Jewish settlements right across the West Bank, so that in 25 years' time, neither the United Nations nor the United States, nobody, will be able to tear it apart."

In fairness to the settlers themselves, the film's Palestinian director is careful to emphasise that the overwhelming majority of them are not fanatics but have been coopted into migrating to the West Bank by the massive tax breaks and housing subsidies that make life in the settlements so attractive.

By encouraging these settlers to live normal lives in the Occupied Territories, however, the Israeli government is using them to impoverish and isolate their Palestinian neighbours. Because every settlement needs room for "natural growth", Palestinians living in adjacent communities must have their land confiscated and their homes demolished. To keep the settlers' swimming pools full and their lawns green, water must be diverted from the Palestinians. For settlers to commute to work in Israel without having to see a Palestinian, a network of Israeli-only bypass roads must be built across the West Bank. Even the settlements' sewerage is channeled onto Palestinian land.

In this sense, every aspect of infrastructure associated with the settlements serves a dual purpose. Building new houses causes Palestinian overcrowding. Their water pipes cause water shortages. The bypass roads increase the distance between people. Their sewerage works force people to live next to stinking streams of filth.

In contrast to the economic settlers, the ideological settlers, who make up about 20% of the settler population, are fanatical and well-armed racists. The Iron Wall's footage of these settlers' attacks on Palestinian homes and interviews with the victims of these attacks, international human rights workers and disillusioned Israeli soldiers, clearly reveal their role as the shock troops of the conquest, whose purpose is to force people from their homes through a campaign of persistent terror, all the while operating under de facto immunity from Israeli law.

In late 2004 Israel launched the final phase of its conquest: the Disengagement Plan, the centrepiece of which is the wall or "security fence" that it is building through the West Bank and East Jerusalem. "

The Mother Of All Lies
Directed by Asmae El Moudir 2023
Morocco 96 minutes Unclassified 15+
https://www.sff.org.au/program/browse/the-mother-of-all-lies

Search for 2023 Sydney Arab Film Festival gave:

The first-ever SWANA Film Festival was an epic 3-day festival showcasing over 20 films
spanning across Iraq, Turkey, Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco, Armenia, and Syria!
SWANA Film Festival is a project of Arts & Cultural Exchange (ACE), supported by Screen NSW, City of Parramatta and Arab Theatre Studio.
https://aceinc.org.au/whats-on/swana-film-festival-australia/