The Other Faces of Israel: Contested Identities on Film

Friday, February 27th, 2009

Lecture by documentary film curator Ruth Diskin, followed by a screening of the award winning documentary “Lady Kul El Arab” (Ibtisam Marana, 2009, Arabic and Hebrew with English subtitles)

Thursday, March 26, 7 p.m.
Room L160 Chazen Museum of Art, 800 University Ave.

Documentary film specialist Ruth Diskin will speak on the exciting and illuminating world of documentary film in Israel. Documentary films allow unheard voices to be heard, and bring into discussion the complexities of life in Israel. Excerpts from recent Israeli documentaries selected for this talk will be shown, along with the award winning 2008 documentary Lady Kul El Arab (Ibtisam Marana, 2009, Arabic and Hebrew with English subtitles).

Ruth Diskin, a mentor, curator and distributor of the finest contemporary independent Israeli filmmaking will open a window to the complexity of identity negotiations in Israel.

Lady Kul El Arab

Lady Kul El Arab tells the riveting story of Duha-Angelina Fares, the first woman of the Druze community in Israel to attempt to enter the Miss Israel contest as a venue for self realization, and contrary to her community’s normative roles for women. Duha, a young woman from the village of Sagur in the Galilee, was one of the 12 finalists in the beauty pageant for Israeli-Arab women – ‘Lady Kul el-Arab.’ Framed as a glamorous story of a beauty pageant, this documentary tells the moving story of a family caught between cultures. Made by a woman, the documentary filmmaker Ibtisam Marana, this film offers an unique perspective on the lives of women in Israel and the Middle East.

Lady Kul El Arab was awarded the Special Jury Prize at the Silver Wolf Competition in IDFA 2008, as well as Best Directing Award at the New Delhi Int’l Women Film Festival in India. It has been selected for International Film Festivals in the USA, UK, Korea, Poland, Sweden, Croatia, Thailand, The Netherlands, and Italy.

Films that Ruth Disken will discuss include

Dubak, a Palestinian Jew tells the story of an extraordinary individual whose life is thoroughly intertwined with the land. Dubak is an exceptional personality in the Gush Etzion region of the West Bank. Dubak challenges our perceptions of “Palestinian”’ “Jew”, “Religious”, Settler”, “Israeli”.

The Name My Mother Gave Me tells the untold stories of immigrants from Ethiopia to Israel. This documentation of a real journey allows an encounter with the ethnic diversity and inter-ethnic bonds among young Israelis on a quest for authentic identity.

Say Amen tells the personal story of a young Israeli from the Southern development town Yerucham, son of a Sephardic orthodox family, and his experience of coming out in his familial, social, and religious cultural context.

No longer Ahmad tells the story of a young man from the Galilee, who is torn between his Palestinian-Arab and Israeli identities – which becomes intensified in the historical-political context of the El Aqsa Intifada.

Sponsored by the Moss/Weinstein Center for Jewish Studies, The George L. Mosse Program.

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