Festivals

The Arab Film Festival

The Arab Film Festival returned to Camera 12 Cinema in downtown San Jose, Oct. 14-16, 2011. The only independent showcase in the U.S. for cinema produced by and about the Arab World, the festival presented numerous short films, videos, documentaries and full-length features from countries around the globe, including Morocco, Lebanon, Egypt, Tunisia, Palestine, France and the United States, in venues throughout the Bay Area (in many cases, with the filmmaker in attendance).

The festival's schedule at Camera 12 was as follows:

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 14

3:00pm -- Wrangling, dir. Najwa Slama (Tunisia/18 min) / Late December, dir. Moez Kamoun (Tunisia/104 min)
5:15pm -- Short Life, dir. Adil El Fadili (Morocco/16 min) / Kick Off, dir. Shawkat Amin Korki (Iraqi-Kurdistan & Japan/81 min)
7:00pm -- Outside The Law, dir. Rachid Bouchareb (Algeria/136 min)
9:30pm -- Beep, dir. Haytham Saqr (United Arab Emirates/5 min) / Flowers of Evil, dir. David Dusa (France/98 min)

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15

12:00pm -- What Happened?, dir. De Gaulle Eid (France/Lebanon/Palestine/75 min) / Ain El Hilweh, dir. Tamara Ben-Halim (Lebanon/UK/25 min)
2:00pm -- Sing Your Song, dir. Omar Falah (Iraq/16 min) / The Fifth String, dir. Selma Bargach (Morocco/98 min)
4:15pm -- Grandma, A Thousand Times, dir. Mahmoud Kaabour (UAE/Qatar/Lebanon/48 min) / Stray Bullet, dir. Georges Hachem (Lebanon/75 min)
6:30pm -- The Last Passenger, dir. Mounes Khammar (Algeria/7 min) / My Name is Mohamed, dir. Abdullah, Hassan, Shibab, Haddad (Jordan, 10 min) / Him Himself, dir. Pierre Dawalibi (Lebanon/10 min) / Transit Cities, dir. Mohammad Hushki (Jordan/71 min)
8:30pm -- Messages from The Sea, dir. Daoud Abdel Sayed (Egypt/133 min)

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 16

12:00pm -- Jalla, Girls!, dir. Annalisa Vozza (Italy/30 min) / Gaza Hospital, dir. Marco Pasquini(Italy/84 min)
2:15pm -- Majid, dir. Nassim Abassi (Morocco/116 min)
4:30pm -- Hawi, dir. Ibrahim El Batout (Egypt/112 min)
6:45pm -- Sabell, dir. Khalid Al Mahmood (United Arab Emirates/20 min) / Sundress, dir. Saeed Salmeen (United Arab Emirates/88 min)
8:45pm -- Taza, dir. Daniel Gervais (Canada/110 mins)

The Arab Film Festival was sponsored by the Arab Women's Solidarity Association. For more info, check out the THE ARAB FILM FESTIVAL website.