The 10th San Diego Arab Film Festival (SDAFF) will take place 5-19 June, presenting cinema from the Arab world to an audience in San Diego and online.

As per the festival’s mission to “promote understanding of the issues of the Arab and Islamic world and of the Palestinian issue in particular,” the festival’s 10th edition will include a number of films featuring Palestinian issues and from the country’s filmmakers.

The festival will present live, in-person feature film showings at the Museum of Photographic Arts (5, 11, 12, 18, 19 June) and an online offering of short films throughout all festival days.

The programme showcases six feature films and 15 short films.

Two Palestinian feature films will open and close the festival: the drama Between Heaven and Earth directed by Najwa Najjar will be screened during the opening, while 200 Meters, directed by Ameen Nayfeh, will close the festival.

Other feature films include: You Will Die at Twenty by Amjad Abu Alala from Sudan, The Unknown Saint by Alaa Eddine Aljem from Morocco and The Broken Keys by Jimmy Keyrouz from Lebanon. The festival will screen Honey Cigar by Kamir Ainouz from the Arab diaspora (Algeria/France).

The short films will be screened online and they include three Palestinian entries: The Present (2020), an Academy-Award nominated film directed by Farah Nabulsi, a 2017 Palestinian drama film by Annemarie Jacir and a short documentary To My Grandfather.

The festival will also screen entries form Egypt, UAE, Morocco, Lebanon, Iraq, Qatar, as well as France, UK and USA.

The online screenings will take place through this link.

The SDAFF is a project of Karama, a non-profit organization that aims to “grow the San Diego Arab Film Festival into a major cultural event that enhances the identity, perception and understanding of Arabs and the Arab world.”

The festival launched in 2012 with screening of 3 feature films and 5 short films from six countries. The Festival has grown steadily, and in 2017 it will hold 10 screenings.

ahramonline