Category Archives: Human Rights

SOCRATES

A Film by Alexandre Moratto

This debut feature film from 29 year-old Brazilian-American filmmaker Alexandre Moratto follows Socrates, a 15-year-old left reeling after his mother’s sudden death, struggling to make a decent living and avoid homelessness even though the odds are stacked against him. It is a unique film being that it was the first feature to be produced by the Quero Institute in Brazil, an organisation supported by UNICEF which works to teach audio visual skills to young people from low income communities to stimulate talents and expand their professional horizons. In their workshops, they promote cultural inclusion with classes in citizenship and entrepreneurship, resulting in more awareness and participation from these young people.. They have stated about the films they create that they focus on themes related to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, further fostering an awareness in their students about the wider world and sociological issues.

As a UNICEF backed project, it was co-written and produced by at risk teenagers from the local area in Sao Paulo. In describing how this project came to fruition, director Alexandre Moratto discussed how in 2009 he had volunteered at the Quero Institute in Brazil and was inspired by dedication of these young people to make a better life for themselves. It was through this experience that Moratto recognised the importance of making films about underrepresented cultures and communities.

Impressively, Socrates was able to be made on a micro budget of under $20,000, which led to it being nominated for the prestigious ‘John Cassavetes Award’ at the Film Independent Spirit Awards. This award is presented to the creative team of a film which was budgeted at less than $500,000, which further illustrates just how tiny Socrates budget was. At these awards Socrates was also awarded the ‘Someone to Watch’ Award and nominated for ‘Best Male Lead’ for its young star Christian Malheiros who plays Socrates.

SOCRATES In Cinemas and On Demand Now
IAmSocrates.co.uk

Papicha

The film they tried to supress

Papicha is a fierce and probing look at the 1990s Algerian civil war from the perspective of its young women. The film follows Nedjma (otherwise known as Papicha), a university student who dreams of becoming a fashion designer and opening her own boutique for the women of Algeria. But all around her civil war is closing in, Islamic extremists are locked in a violent battle against the military government. Posters threatening women who do not wear Hijabs in public begin to appear on her campus and mobs of black Hijab clad women burst into their lectures demanding they strictly adhere to their religious demands. In protest, Nedjma channels all of her creative energy into a fashion show, defiantly ignoring these impending dangers in favour of her own feminine resistance.

Although the story of Papicha is fictional, the film’s director Mounia Meddour has stated that it is partly based on her own experiences growing up in Algeria during these times. Like Nedjma, Meddour studied and lived at the City University until her and her family were forced to leave the country when she was 18 due to increasing violence. This film is in homage to the young women, embodied by Nedjma and her friends, that stayed and formed a resistance against this violence and patriarchal oppression.

The character of Nedjma and her closely knit group of equally defiant female friends, is also illustrate of the youth movements that were appearing in Algeria at this time, in active protest of this rising extremism and violence against civilians. One of the most notable groups of this time was the Youth Action Rally (RAJ) which was formed in 1993. This organisation was created in response to the rise of radical Islamism and wanted to bring these divided forces back together.[1] It was passionate in its support of women’s freedom and right to protest, with its first ever president being a woman. Its committees were primarily founded on university campuses, meaning the organisations members were primarily made up of young intellectuals. In focusing her film on a university campus and its female students, Meddour is celebrating the activism of youth movements like the RAJ during this period, providing a hopeful, united young voice to counter the violent oppression of this era.

Interestingly the RAJ is still an operating organisation today. They have recently lent their efforts to supporting the ongoing pro-democracy protests in Algeria, with multiple members of the group being arrested during these peaceful protests including their president.[2] The events shown in Papicha and the 1990s Algerian Civil War directly link to the current turbulent political crisis in Algeria. Young protesters are being arrested merely for their peaceful political activism. Amnesty International has called these arrests ‘an unacceptable violation of their rights and liberties’[3] It appears that Papicha’s for freedom is not yet over, as is the case for thousands of young Algerians protesting for their right to a democratic government.

PAPICHA will be streaming in the UK from August 7th

https://www.papichafilm.com/

[1] Ratiba Hadj-Moussa (2019) ‘Youth and activism in Algeria. The question of political generations’ The Journal of North African Studies

[2] https://peoplesdispatch.org/2020/03/09/algerian-security-forces-arrest-10-anti-government-protesters/

[3] https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2019/09/algeria-end-clampdown-on-protests-amid-wave-of-arrests-targeting-demonstrators/

David Stuart on BUDDIES

33 years on BUDDIES is still as affecting as ever.

Buddies is a film made chaotically amid a plague that was killing thousands of gay men. While it was happening. It’s also a film about a plague that was killing thousands of gay men; it’s a film set in 1985, about two very gentle, kind and frightened gay men living amid an epidemic that was only burgeoning at the time. But burgeoning dramatically. One of these gentle, kind men volunteers to become a ‘buddy’; to befriend those dying in hospital, abandoned by friends, families, lovers. The very premise of this film is steeped in the kind legacy of community activism that defined that decade. These two men were very different; quite plainly, one is a monogamy-favoring academic, gentle, good. The other, a free-loving wanderer, an agitator, also gentle and good. This dynamic is one of the (many) hearts of this film; two gentle people, very frightened and challenged, full of differences, yet finding kindness and likeness amid panic, chaos, death, fear, anger and differing politics.

There was no benefit of hindsight in the making of this movie. The privilege of reflection, of historical perspective… it did not live here. The maker of this film; the man who wrote it, directed it, made it; he did not have the luxury of calling “cut!”, exiting a movie set and getting on with life. That plague was happening outside the film set door, crashing and killing and propagating fear in mammoth proportions. There was no off switch, no time for reflection, or to process the fear, or to process the many emotions and injustices this community was living with, dying with. Even their 5 year projections/estimates of how many would die from this plague, were devastatingly conservative.

This is a film, made naively and responsively in the moment. You’ll know this as you watch this film. As the gentle people in the film act, the real life outside crashed in; you hear it in the politics, in the porn they watch on the deathbed; you see it in the 80s clock radio beside the bed. Not a prop; this is 1985 and you can’t forget it. As these gentle actors act, you can feel the real-time bewilderment of Ronald Regan’s denial, of gay sex-phobic heterosexual America. New York’s Statue of Liberty appears accidentally in the film too; a symbol of inclusion, freedom and liberty actually falling apart, as it was shrouded in scaffolding in 1985, crumbling with age and neglect. Her torch was literally beyond repair in 1985. From behind her scaffolding, she watched over New York as a government neglected a dying people, ignoring a plague.

This is a film, made in chaos and fear and love. Watch with a friend; you’ll need your friend with you for this. Be grateful for your friend; one of the lead actors in this film (Geoff Edholm) died four years afterward. The filmmaker, Arthur “Artie” Bressan Jr, died 2 years after he made his film, his masterpiece.

Life and art often imitate each other, often merge. In this case, life and art and death merged, and we have this film left as a loving legacy. When it’s finished, this film feels a bit like someone you really liked has just been whispering the most important things your ear, with anger and passion and a love that’s especially for you, but about something bigger and very important; and now you are bereft without them. But you can still feel their breath on your ear.

David Stuart was the first to name and identify Chemsex as an emerging gay cultural phenomenon. He developed the world’s first chemsex support services, and he fought relentlessly for greater chemsex awareness by encouraging and stimulating cultural dialogue and discussion within our international gay, bi and Queer communities. He continues to support international governments and communities to manage the cultural phenomenon from a place of kindness, sex positivity and cultural competence.

“A handmaid’s tale taken straight from the headlines”

PERMISSION A Film By Soheil Beiraghi

In 2015, Niloufar Ardalan, Captain of the Iranian Women’s Futsal team, was not be able to lead her teammates in the Women’s Futsal Championship, because her husband would not allow her to renew her passport. In 2017 a further eight Iranian female athletes were also banned by their menfolk from leaving the country. Everyday Women in Iran are denied the right to freedom of movement, dictated by their age and marital status, by law husbands, fathers and male guardians have the right to stop a woman travelling abroad. These cases became the inspiration for director Soheil Beiraghi’s second feature film PERMISSION starring Baran Kosari.

Afrooz (Kosari) is the captain of the Iranian international women’s Futsal National Team. After eleven years of hard work, her dream is finally about to become a reality as she will be leading her team in the Women’s Asia Cup’s Final, an opportunity to further her professional career. En route to Malaysia, Afrooz discovers that she has been forbidden to leave the country due her estranged husband’s disapproval. In PERMISSION we join Afrooz in the battle for her freedom. A battle, in which, a spiteful estranged husband has the law on his side.

“Beiraghi is to be commended for making a film which has provoked debate in Iran regarding the law that gives every husband there the absolute right to act in this prohibitive way.”
(Mansel Stimpson, Film Review Daily)

Beiraghi has used his voice to create a film that urges the viewer to look at tradition and law from the perspective of the oppressed. It is impossible to look at Afrooz’s story and not feel compelled to join her in her fight for gender equality. The strength of the women affected is undeniable. Now is the time to break tradition favouring a patriarchal society.

PERMISSION is available in UK Cinemas and On Demand NOW

CURZON Home Cinema

WWW.PERMISSION.FILM

Campbell X and THE WATERMELON WOMAN

THE WATERMELON WOMAN is a self-coined – Dunyementary – a fusion of fiction and documentary style filmmaking. In THE WATERMELON WOMAN, Cheryl Dunye uses investigative documentary shooting on video intercut with a formal fiction comedy drama structure shot on film. Inserted within the narrative is archive footage constructed by Dunye.

THE WATERMELON WOMAN is edutainment. We laugh while being educated about the erasure of Black women in cinematic history in general, and also the invisibility of Black lesbian actresses in Hollywood history. As we watch the film we begin to question what is real and what is fiction? THE WATERMELON WOMAN is the Black actress Fae Richards who had disappeared, undocumented in the mist of time.

The title “THE WATERMELON WOMAN” is a play on the association between racist depictions of Black people eating watermelons, equivalent to the often racist caricatured images of Black women as the Mammy/Maid characters in Hollywood. The title is also an homage to Melvin Van Peebles’ 1970 film WATERMELON MAN. Melvin Van Peebles is credited with starting the Blaxploitation era of cinema which heralded a new vision of modern African American cinema.

As THE WATERMELON WOMAN begins we see video footage of a white Jewish wedding with Black guests. As Cheryl, who is a wedding videographer sets up the frame, a white male photographer comes and tells the contributors to move around to suit his frame while she is shooting. She is of course outraged and tells him to wait his turn. This first scene sets the tone for the ways in which Black women’s stories are denied, overwritten or erased in Hollywood.

Cheryl in the film decides to search for the real Fae Richards. As she does so she interviews various gatekeepers of culture, who are unapologetic in their ignorance about Fae Richards. Lee Edwards, the Black gay man, played by Brian Freeman (Pomo Afro Homos – 1990–1995) is uninterested in anything to do with history of women in cinema, the CLIT archivist played by Sarah Schulman hoards Black womens’ archival assets and denies Cheryl access to the material, the cultural critic Camille Paglia played by herself, who while explaining the impact of the Mammy role, denies there is a racist element to them, and even posits the roles as empowering because she insists on viewing them through her own Italian American experience.

The complicity of white women in power structures is further reinforced when we learn that Fae Richards was in a lesbian relationship with a white film director Martha Paige who cast her in the Mammy roles. Martha Paige did nothing to write and direct roles for Fae that were outside of the Mammy/Maid roles. She instead built her reputation as a film director off plantation type dramas. In fact it is often Martha Paige who is referenced in the history books and not Fae Richards. Martha Paige is played by Alex Juhasz, one of the producers of THE WATERMELON WOMAN. Cheryl’s relationship with Diana played by Guinevere Turner (Go Fish, L Word, American Psycho, Notorious Bettie Page, Charlie Says) falls apart when Cheryl has the dawning realisation about her liberal white racist values and her attempted appropriation of Cheryl’s project.

At the same time Cheryl interviews older Black lesbians who let her know how much they revered Fae Richards, even as Hollywood rejected her, and dumped her when she got older. She uncovers Fae Richards rich and joyous life as a Black lesbian who was survived by June, her lover of 20 years. June is played by the iconic poet and essayist – Cheryl Clarke.

THE WATERMELON WOMAN is a genius film which subverts dominant cinema with a Black lesbian feminist aesthetic through centring dark-skinned Black women as characters and actors. And by placing Black masculine of centre women of various ages as objects of desire and love interests. Cheryl Dunye casts herself, a black lesbian woman, as the central character, a Black lesbian filmmaker called Cheryl in order to obtain authenticity in the role, as well as intrinsically preventing any erasure of Black lesbian desire or bodies.

THE WATERMELON WOMAN is a love letter to cinema – African American cinema in Philadelphia in particular, we learn about those film companies that existed in the 1930s and see the cinemas where African Americans watched the silver screen. THE WATERMELON WOMAN while exploring the invisibility of Black lesbian women in cinema, also creates its own queer archive. There are references to other queer works of art, the documentary elements allow for the use of actual LGBT people, Dunye uses music of Black lesbians like Toshi Reagon and if you check the credits you will see interns like Kimberly Peirce (Boys Don’t Cry, The L Word, Carrie ).

THE WATERMELON WOMAN tells us to speak to our queer elders and hear their stories in order to document histories/herstories/theirstories so we so we know they were there.

Campbell X

MARIO a revealing look at homosexuality in The Beautiful Game.

No matter who I talk to, hardly anyone understands why it should be a problem to be an openly gay professional football player in 2018. As early as 2013, many German politicians as well as high-ranking club functionaries and representatives of professional associations took a stand and signed the “Berlin Declaration” – a position paper against homophobia in sport. We know that there are gay football players, and club-internally they receive professional guidance and management. But towards the outside, the silence is maintained.

Coming out in professional football is still a taboo. The blame for this is passed back and forth. Some say reactionary fan groups are the problem. Others point to the sponsors, who could bail out. Or individual players from chauvinistic cultures who would not be able to deal with the situation. Corny Littmann, former President of the St. Pauli football club in Hamburg, Germany, and gay himself, gave an interview on the topic in 2012. Asked why not a single player had come out as gay yet, he answered that this would be stupid. “Only a fool would do that.” Littmann regards the world of football as a professional field lacking the social competencies to deal with a coming-out.

Homophobic clichés and small-mindedness are still widespread, according to him. On average, a football player can pursue his career for 16 years and changes clubs every two to three years. He is a commodity, bought and sold again as lucratively as possible. An openly gay player would, however, encounter problems when trying to find a new club. He would be seen as “difficult”, even if his athletic performance were high. Coming out would therefore destroy his market value – and with it his entire career. So is everything, as so often in our society, a question of money?

In 2018 the FIFA World Cup will be carried out in Russia, a country that discriminates against and ostracises homosexuals. 2022 will see the World Cup in Qatar, a country that punishes homosexuality with five years’ imprisonment or 90 whiplashes. As we know, football is big business, and FIFA will make sure that nothing comes in the way of that – least of all the gay question. And we will follow both cups with excitement, and we will pay to see the games. In the end, the current status quo regarding homosexuality in professional football is a contract we have all entered into. But the weight of self-denial is a weight that the gay players carry alone.

When screenwriter Thomas Hess approached me in 2010 with his idea to make a feature film on the topic of gay love in professional football, my first question was: Hasn’t that film already been made? The topic was already present in the media, but our research showed that, apart from numerous news features, there was only a comedy dating from 2004.

The great football love story, however, had not yet been made for cinema. This is why I committed to the project. Apart from the topical relevancy, I felt very much like making another love story twenty years after “F.est un salaud”. Since classical literature, love stories that are framed by any kind of forbidden love have moved us the most. I saw the opportunity to tell a truly moving story in the given social context of a modern forbidden love. It was important to me to illustrate this context as realisticallyand contemporarily as possible. The football club BSC YB from Berne, Switzerland, generously supported me during the research and script development phases. During shooting BSC YB and the St. Pauli football club provided us with infrastructure, materials, and their names, for which I am very grateful.

Marcel Gisler

Director and co-writer of MARIO – Marcel Gisler

Tamara Shogaolu talks about HALF A LIFE from Boys on Film 18: Heroes

Tamara Shogaolu, the director of the stunning short film Half a Life – part of Boys on Film 18: Heroes – chats about her inspiration for the film and the experience she had making it:

How did you meet the narrator, and what led you to want to tell his story?

Over the course of two years before, during and after the revolution, I traveled around Egypt collecting oral histories of a variety of people—mostly women, activists and members of marginalized communities. It was a time of openness where people felt like they could talk and be honest and for that I feel incredibly fortunate.

The plan was always to make an animated documentary film based on these oral histories. We felt an urgency to share this story first because of the active persecution of LGBT individuals in Egypt at the moment. We are also currently developing an interactive augmented reality animated
documentary based on some of the other interviews.

Where does the title “Half a Life” come from?

The title of HALF A LIFE is inspired by Khalil Gibran’s poem of the same name. It speaks to the value of individual action, commitment, and resistance, like the film’s interviewee and main character. The film ends with a selection from the poem:

The half is a mere moment of inability
but you are able for you are not half a being
You are a whole that exists
to live a life not half a life

How and why did you decide the documentary should be animated?

Animation has allowed us to protect the identity of the people involved in the story, but it also affords us the artistic freedom to convey its emotion visually and viscerally. It also emphasizes Adam’s voice as he tells his story, offering us a firsthand look into the gay experience in Egypt today.

How was the experience for you as the director?

It has been an incredible experience. I have been working on this project for years and was finally able to get a really great team together. Everyone was really involved in all aspects of telling this story. This is the first animated film I direct and was also the first narrative film for the animation team. We were also incredibly lucky to have wonderful mentors who gave us key feedback to make the film and story more powerful.

What do you hope the impact of this film will be?

Like Adam, many Egyptians love Egypt, while they are struggling against the very backlash that many involved with the 2011 revolution feared. Our team is devoted to sharing Adam’s story, and it is our hope that this film can embolden and contribute to the movement for gay rights taking place in Egypt right now.

Boys on Film 18: Heroes is released on 30/04/2018 and you can order your copy here.

The Wound – When Controversy Prompts Conversation

John Trengove’s debut feature and Oscar-shortlisted film, THE WOUND (INEXBA), has been bestowed with accolades and critical acclaim; going on to sweep the South African Film and Television Awards this past month. With such success, there was always bound to be a degree of controversy. As with any hard-hitting film that delves into themes of sexuality, masculinity and culture; finding a consensus can be difficult, if not impossible.

The controversy in question focuses on the way in which the film handles its depiction of the Xhosa ethnic group and the rite-of-passage ceremony these young men are put through as they transition to manhood. A call to ban the film was effectively successful in South Africa but has since been overturned, allowing it a full run in cinemas. Critics of the ban and controversy have pointed to an inherent homophobia that underlines the backlash – claims that are exacerbated by the fact the film hadn’t even been released when the controversy began to emerge.

Nevertheless, isn’t any dialogue surrounding a LGBT film helpful? Isn’t a film like this essential in reaching out to queer black men and women in the 8 million strong Xhosa ethic group? Shouldn’t Cinema provide a voice to those who are oppressed?

First and foremost we must address the very nature of the controversy and how some have argued that the film exposes private and secretive cultural traditions. Furthermore, critics have contended that the filmmakers had no right to explore these customs; attacking the film as an appropriation and distortion of their culture. However, the films depiction of these traditions is never exploited. Rather, director John Trengove directly avoids graphically depicting the ceremonial event and maintains a level of ambiguity that respects the culture but also underlines the focus of the film: a love affair between two men.

When a film such as THE WOUND is classified as R-rated and essentially deemed ‘pornographic’, isn’t it essential to debate these issues? Oppressive and draconian reactions to the tougher aspects of the film are an attack on both free-speech and art itself. With cinema, audiences are given the opportunity to submerge themselves in different cultures, ideas and mind-sets. To be transported, shocked and even inspired.

John Trengove argues that the setting of the film is in direct resistance to ideas perpetuated by many African leaders; some whom have suggested homosexuality is un-African and a symptom of western decadence. In an interview with Peccadillo our friend the film’s director stated: “We knew we wanted to tell a story about same-sex desire in a specifically African culture”, directly challenging African taboos around homosexuality that has been embedded into their culture. The filmmaker’s bold storytelling not only opposes these beliefs, it also encourages a much-needed conversation.

Devoid of the freedom that cinema can provide, people are bound to be more close-minded, more Orwellian and more muted. Cinema – no matter how hard-hitting – gives us all a voice.

So, endeavour to go and see THE WOUND when it hits UK cinemas on 27^th April 2018; make up your own mind about the film and engage in a much-needed dialogue with those around you. That’s what Cinema is all about!

Maysaloun Hamoud director of IN BETWEEN

Born to communist parents in Budapest where her father was studying medicine, Maysaloun grew up in Dir Hanna, a village in the North of Israel.

After a Masters in History of the Middle East at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Maysaloun’s interest shifted towards cinema. In 2012, she graduated from the Minshar School of Art in Tel Aviv. She has been living and working in Jaffa for the past nine years.

From 2010 to 2013, Maysaloun was in charge of communications at the Tel Aviv based NGO SADAKA, which promotes political and social change.

Since 2009, she is a member of the group PALESTINEMA, a group of young filmmakers whose objective is to promote Arab culture by organising screenings of films in Israel and Palestine

Maysaloun Hamoud, July 2017 Tel Aviv Yaffo.

Maysaloun Hamoud -photo by Anne Maniglier

Maysaloun Hamoud in conversation with Haggai Matar – +972 Magazine

Is Tel Aviv the condition for freedom? Could this happen elsewhere, or is the Jewish hegemony in which the story is set needed for the girls’ feminist liberation?

“The movie takes place in Tel Aviv, because I wanted the imagery to be within a hegemonic space, but the scene in which they live is in Jaffa. The essence of the scene is Jaffa-Tel Aviv, and the plot-lines draw a lot of inspiration from what happens around me and from real characters in my own life…

Tel Aviv is a city, and that’s what a city does. It challenges. The same things would likely happen in Beirut or Amman…Tel Aviv is not the Berlin of the Middle East. It’s just the city that’s here. The scene here is unique because it’s Jewish-Arab, with a lot of mutual influence. Most young Palestinians in the city believe in a shared life, while the Jews [in this particular community] are left-wing and anti-Zionist, which is like a glue that creates mixed couples.”

The difference between religion and the religious

… “The atmosphere of the Arab Spring didn’t skip Palestine/Israel, we were all with them in spirit — in the opposition to oppression, patriarchy, chauvinism and the perpetuation of the old system. This generation can no longer continue playing around with obsolete codes. We have to put everything on the table, because as long as we keep sweeping our fears under the carpet, the carpet will rise and we will stumble. Fundamentalism is a serious disease, and if we don’t shake out the carpet it’s likely going to be too late.”

Now that the film has been commercially released, what response are you expecting to these sentiments, which are also at the heart of the movie?

“Some people will want to hang us in the town square, for sure. The conservatives. The film does something very clever: I don’t say a single bad thing about religion. Everyone has his own faith. That’s not what the religious say, but even among them there are no ‘bad guys.’ There are characters you fall in love with in conservative society as well. Nour wears a hijab; she isn’t leaving the faith. Yes, she’s searching for a place of liberation in her own world — the religious, believing world — and that’s the place I’m searching for. So I’m very curious as to what the religious will pick up from the film.

The film doesn’t let liberals off the hook. It holds up a mirror to them too. We all know those families, Christian or Muslim, that are terribly open, but in moments of truth everyone falls in line behind the same traditions. It’s not just Nour’s family from Umm al-Fahm — it’s also that of Salma, the Christian. And the film doesn’t go easy on Jews, either. Maybe they’ll say, ‘Hey, it happens among us too, how great,’ but they need to address the fact that they always leave Arabs out. It’s a case of not here, not there. But the essence [of the film] is the intra-Palestinian conversation.”

InBetween5_ImagebyYaniv_Berman small web

Drugs and alcohol are a significant part of the film — marijuana, MDMA and more. What does that mean to you?

“First of all, during the first party in the film they’re taking Ritalin, and that’s intentional, because the parents watching the movie are themselves giving their kids Ritalin. Coke generates more antagonism, so I didn’t put an emphasis on it.

But there’s more to say beyond that. We want to say that the current period is like the Sixties of the Arab world, and in an underground which you don’t want in the Middle East, everyone is taking every drug. It’s integral to the scene, and it influences identity, politics and culture. If we’re already doing it, why not show it?”

Balls in the face of BDS [The Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement works to end international support for Israel’s oppression of Palestinians and pressure Israel to comply with international law.]

Success aside, In Between also sheds light on the complications of politics and identity faced by many Palestinian citizens of Israel who are filmmakers. For example, Hamoud put together a soundtrack featuring original music by artists from different countries in the region, whose names she could not publish and who couldn’t be credited in the movie. The movie also features music by DAM, a Palestinian hip-hop group from Lod, who wrote a dance song especially for the film. “They were amazing collaborators and I love them so much,” Hamoud says.

Other artists who saw earlier versions of the movie wanted to collaborate, but ultimately felt that their reputation would be in danger if they worked on a film funded by Israeli government institutions.

One day, Hamoud met a musician in Ramallah who was especially enthusiastic when he heard the movie’s plot and watched some of the rushes. “So I told him, yalla, we’ve put ourselves on the line for this movie, put yourselves on the line and say, ‘We’ll be the first people to look at the complexity, at the Palestinians who are inside [Israel – h.m.].’ But in the end they refused, despite knowing that they were contradicting themselves. There’s no link between the synchronization among us and the separation that reality has created.

“Yes, the state is giving me money, because I deserve to make films from the money I pay [in taxes]. I’m not ashamed, and I deserve even more. And still, I would have taken money from elsewhere in order to lift the cloud of a boycott, but there’s nowhere else. So I took from the state, and the film will be screened as an Israeli-French movie, despite it being mostly Arab-Palestinian.”

InBetween11_Yaniv_Berman small web

Bitter candy

“People in the Israeli cinema world have never worked with the Arab community. They don’t know what it is. Arabs don’t go to the movies much, because there aren’t cinemas in their communities, they watch Hollywood films at home and there are no local movies they want to see. Now all of a sudden they have a reason to go out, and we need to make use of this swell in order to bring other people into the industry.”

But the most important thing of all for Hamoud is her dream that her movie will open up a “new era of representation of women in Palestinian cinema, in which the woman is at the center and not behind the male character,” she says.

“In most Palestinian movies the political story dominates the plot, and so [women] are generally represented as victims. Even in my early movies [filmed when she was a student – h.m.] I told women’s stories via men’s heroics. The women I want to show are all around us but are invisible in the movies. Gender, activism and liberation from the patriarchy can be feminist, even if that word doesn’t necessarily define the women themselves. One way of telling this complex story of women, and the weighty issues that accompany it, was to wrap the whole tale in simple cinematic language, almost American. It’s also the women’s internal language in the film. They are burdened by the outside world, but they see themselves in the same image we are accustomed to seeing in the cinematic output of a liberated and vibrant society. The film’s producer, Shlomi Elkabetz, calls this “bitter candy” — something wrapped in flamboyance and beauty. You get into the film, and then get kicked in the stomach.”

Translated from Hebrew by Natasha Roth.

What are little boys made of..?

If you’re blind to what is different, this story is not for you. But if your eyes are open, you should listen carefully

Every so often a film comes along where it is incredibly difficult to find the right tone. With GIRLS LOST we have been through countless design concepts and have really discussed, argued and fought over how it should look, how the synopsis should read, how to present this to the audience and even who that audience should be.

We’ve never had it like this on a single title before. But I have to say that after months of changing minds, designs and words we’ve finally cracked it, literally the day of release!

It’s an amazing film, in fact one for all the family! Read more below…

Kim (as a girl) and Momo (as a girl) from GIRLS LOST

Kim (as a boy) and love interest Tony from GIRLS LOST

“Girls Lost is maturely executed, offering a discussion that presents us with ideas that cannot be considered in haste, the post-contemplation of the film necessary.” HeyUGuys

Here’s the synopsis follow link

You can find out where and how to watch GIRLS LOST : http://www.girlslostfilm.com/