Films from the NSW FTO Young Filmmakers Fund have been doing well at festivals in the last few years. Now a YFF half-hour documentary on Palestine, I Remember 1948, directed by Fadia Abboud, will also be screened on SBS Television.
Abboud, was a double-prize winner with her short drama In the Ladies Lounge at the 2006 Queerscreen My Queer Career competition, and defies the stereotype of a Western suburbs Lebanese woman. Her work is largely experimental, encompassing both video art and installations, and is very much part of an avant-garde artistic current which exists within Sydney’s Arab community.
I Remember 1948 shares the unconventional approaches of Sydney’s Arab artists, both visually and through its free-form music for oud, cello and violin from young composing sensation, Joseph Tawadros, winner of the 2006 Freedman Fellowship.
This passionate, gentle film is Australia’s first fully bi-lingual Arabic-English film, and screens on Tuesday 13 May at 11.45pm to commemorate the 60th Anniversary of what is known to Palestinians as “Al Nakba”, or “the catastrophe”. It will also be part of Sydney’s Ozdox Documentary Seminar on Presenting Palestine at the AFC Theatrette, 6:30pm May 15th.
The film presents eye-witness accounts of the tumultuous days of May 1948, when the speakers and their families joined 750,000 Palestinians fleeing for their lives. As Zionist forces began seizing and razing their villages and occupying territory, they found themselves exiled forever from the newly created state of Israel.
The stories told in this film are poignant, unexpected and sometimes surprising, expressing not only the tragedies but also the small miracles which occur in a human catastrophe of such dimensions. Prevented from returning to their homes, the speakers lived as refugees, eventually making their way to Australia. Their continued longing to see their homeland eloquently expresses the feelings of the dispossessed everywhere, and gives this film a universal dimension.
“We’re grateful that SBS is showing the film on the Al Nakba anniversary, but sad that they’ve put it on at such a late hour”, says Abboud, “Still, people can always copy it off air. Indeed, we encourage viewers to do this – especially teachers and librarians – and get it out to the world.”
Ansara says, “It’ can be good that documentary makers from non-Arab backgrounds are now making films about Australia’s Arab communities, but I Remember 1948 is different: for once, it is a film made from within the community, by Arabs themselves – and that’s all too rare an event.”
I Remember 1948 shares the unconventional approaches of Sydney’s Arab artists, both visually and through its free-form music for oud, cello and violin from young composing sensation, Joseph Tawadros, winner of the 2006 Freedman Fellowship.
This passionate, gentle film is Australia’s first fully bi-lingual Arabic-English film, and screens on Tuesday 13 May at 11.45pm to commemorate the 60th Anniversary of what is known to Palestinians as “Al Nakba”, or “the catastrophe”. It will also be part of Sydney’s Ozdox Documentary Seminar on Presenting Palestine at the AFC Theatrette, 6:30pm May 15th.
The film presents eye-witness accounts of the tumultuous days of May 1948, when the speakers and their families joined 750,000 Palestinians fleeing for their lives. As Zionist forces began seizing and razing their villages and occupying territory, they found themselves exiled forever from the newly created state of Israel.
The stories told in this film are poignant, unexpected and sometimes surprising, expressing not only the tragedies but also the small miracles which occur in a human catastrophe of such dimensions. Prevented from returning to their homes, the speakers lived as refugees, eventually making their way to Australia. Their continued longing to see their homeland eloquently expresses the feelings of the dispossessed everywhere, and gives this film a universal dimension.
“We’re grateful that SBS is showing the film on the Al Nakba anniversary, but sad that they’ve put it on at such a late hour”, says Abboud, “Still, people can always copy it off air. Indeed, we encourage viewers to do this – especially teachers and librarians – and get it out to the world.”
Ansara says, “It’ can be good that documentary makers from non-Arab backgrounds are now making films about Australia’s Arab communities, but I Remember 1948 is different: for once, it is a film made from within the community, by Arabs themselves – and that’s all too rare an event.”
For more information, visit www.ozdox.org