SAN DIEGO (Press Release) — The second annual San Diego Arab Film Festival will be held at the Museum of Photographic Arts, in Balboa Park. The festival will start on November 15 and run through November 17th. San Diego is one of five California cities that are expanding the 17-year history of the Arab Film Festival on the West Coast. The San Diego version of the Arab Film Festival will feature 15 films from 10 Arab countries during its three day run. The festival schedule, and a link to purchase tickets can be accessed at the following link: http://karamanow.org/SD-AFF.html.
Karama: The Arab and Islamic World Information Project is the organizer of the Arab Film Festival in San Diego.
Opening night of the film festival will showcase three short films, as well as the feature drama Asmaa. (90 minutes. Egypt. Arabic with English Subtitles.) The film conveys the story of a woman who suffers from AIDS in a society that ostracizes people inflicted by the disease. Asmaa refuses to surrender to either the disease or the social stigma associated with it. She goes public with her condition, bringing tremendous stress to her family while offering a bright glimmer of hope to Egyptian men and women who were suffering and dying silently from AIDS.
Saturday will feature two screenings. The first screening will begin with the Oscar nominated short from Yemen Karama Has No Walls, and will showcase the US premier of Mars at Sunrise. The highly stylized drama explores the psychologically tense relationship between two frustrated artists on either side of the Palestinian / Israeli conflict. Director Jessica Habie will discuss the film after the screening and respond to questions from the audience.
The second screening on Saturday will feature two shorts and the multiple award-winning documentary, A World Not Ours. Mahdi Fleifel’s dazzling first-person documentary takes us inside the Palestinian refugee camp of Ain el-Helweh, located in Southern Lebanon, where the approaching World Cup championship has become a means for the camps’ residents to articulate their ideas of home, community, despair, as well as victory and hope.
There will also be two shows on Sunday. The early show will feature two shorts, and will showcase the US premier of the family friendly comedy When Monaliza Smiled. (95 minutes. Jordan. Arabic with English subtitles.) Monaliza, a 37-year-old Jordanian woman unable to draw a smile, grew up with her grumpy, older, unmarried, agoraphobic sister, Afaf. After a 10 years wait, Monaliza finally gets a job in an archaic government department where she meets Hamdi, the jolly Egyptian tea guy. On her journey of transformation, Monaliza is confronted by a community of nosy and quirky stereotypes from the heart of the Jordan’s colorful capitol, Amman.
The second show on Sunday will feature two shorts and the US premier of the engaging Lebanese drama, Blind Intersections. Three protagonists from distinctly different social classes, coexist in the dense city of Beirut. Although they never directly meet each other, the inadvertent and glancing intersection of their lives, drastically alters and irreparably changes all three characters. (92 minutes. Lebanon. Arabic with English subtitles.)
Receptions with Arab appetizers and desserts will welcome festival attendees on each day of the San Diego Arab Film Festival. Museum of Photographic Arts – Balboa Park. Friday, Nov. 15th through Sunday, Nov. 17, 2013
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Preceding provided by Arab Film Festival