Mahmoud Darwich:
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Filmmaker in Person US Premiere |
France/Israel, 1998, video, 60 min., Arabic & French w/English subtitles. Directors: Simone Bitton and Elias Sanbar 
Though he has remained an Israeli citizen, the great Arab poet Mahmoud Darwich
feels more at home abroad than in Israel, where Palestinian life is impeded by interdictions
and roadblocks that are spiritual, as well as physical. Filmmakers Simone Bitton, an Israeli
Jew, and Elias Sanbar, an Israeli Palestinian, follow Darwich from the Cisjordanian desert to
Paris, through Cairo and Beirut, along the route of his exile. They also take us back to the
site of his village, which was razed by Israeli soldiers in 1948.
Its name, erased from the map, is reborn in Darwich's verse. (His poetry is widely
read and sung all over the Arabic-speaking world.) Darwich's moving voice punctuates eloquent
images that speak of the poet's separation from his homeland. This stirring portrait of the
artist plays on the word "Bayt" which means both house and verse in Arabic.
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Preceded by:Jaime Gerson Latino Jews: Journey to the Americas (part 1) | ||||||||||||||||
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USA/Mexico, 1997, video, color, 5 minutes, Spanish with English subtitles. Director: Carlos de Martini 
Mexican-Jewish painter Jaime Gerson talks about his family's experience of immigration.
He speaks of the strength he draws from the duality of Mexican-Jewish culture.(Part 1 from Latino Jews: Journey to the Americas.) Jaime Gerson is part of La Plaza, a local voice for Latinos, created in 1978 by Public TV station WGBH, Boston. The film examines the journey of Eastern European Jews to Latin America. Through family histories and personal anecdotes we learn about the Jewish experience in this new environment.
PRESENTED IN COOPERATION WITH CINE ACCIÓN
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Copyright © 1998 San Francisco Jewish Film Festival. All rights reserved.
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