This year, when peace between Israel and its neighbors might seem like an impossible dream, we highlight the stories of those who stand together for coexistence and an end to violence.

Schedule:

Thursday, December 5, 2024

6:00 PM: Opening Night Reception - Lobby, Marlene Meyerson JCC in Manhattan

7:00 PM: The Other (100 min)
Opening Night: The Other
2024 | 100 minutes | Documentary
New York Premiere
Director: Joy Sela
An award-winning film that explores the complex relationship between Palestinians & Israelis and the transformative journey when faced with meeting the other. It offers an inside look at the people behind the headlines who have grown up with contradictory narratives and have only known each other through hate, inequality, and violence. As people on both sides of the conflict meet with “the other,” they reckon with the trauma and fear that they’ve inherited—and hope to transcend.

Saturday, December 7, 2024

2:30 PM: Her Name Was Zehava (22 min)
2024 | 22 minutes | Documentary
International Premiere
Director: Tamar Baruch
Zehava, a young trans woman, was denied asylum by Israel and repeatedly imprisoned due to her “second class” status as a Palestinian. She fled from the West Bank to Israel after surviving sex trafficking and attempted murder—only to face new obstacles as an undocumented, homeless Palestinian. In her perilous journey amid the conflict, Zehava tries to navigate the multiple layers of oppression and discrimination converging on her intersecting identities.

3:30 PM: The Path Forward (40 min)
2024 | 38 minutes | Documentary
Director: Julie Cohen, Mo Husseini
A growing chorus of Palestinians and Israeli Jews are speaking up – often in cross-cultural pairs – for peace, justice, empathy and sanity. The Path Forward seeks to amplify the voices of three of the most eloquent and inspiring of these pairs. Interweaving their moving on stage dialogues in the U.S. and Europe with their poignant life stories, this documentary creates a tapestry of voices for peace and reconciliation. The film contains no images of war, death or campus protests. Instead, viewers will be immersed in the mind and heart opening world of innovative thinkers finding a new path forward.

4:30 PM: The State of Joint Activism in Israel - A Conversation with Standing Together (60 min)
Alon-Lee Green and Rula Daood from Standing Together join us to discuss the current state of joint activism in Israel.

5:00 PM: Madrasa (TV Series) (75 min - 3 episodes)
2023 | 25 minutes | Narrative
New York Premiere
Director: Guri Alfi
A comedy television series set at a bilingual Jewish-Arab high school in Israel. This unique setting serves as the background for many challenges, dilemmas, and conflicts that the students, teachers, and parents deal with throughout the episodes. The children studying at Madrasa are learning how to break down age-old walls of suspicion, racism, and hostility.

7:00 PM: Savoy (78 min)
2022 | 78 minutes | Docudrama
Director: Zohar Wagner
Filmmaker Zohar Wagner tells the story of Kochava Levy (Dana Igvy), a young woman of Yemeni descent who served as mediator between Palestinian attackers and the IDF while being held hostage in Tel Aviv—during the night of the deadly 1975 Hotel Savoy terror attack. Over the course of one night, she transformed herself into a fearless heroine and formed an unlikely connection with one of the attackers. The film intertwines rare archival materials that were never released with reenacted scenes from the night of the attack.

Sunday, December 8, 2024

1:00 PM: The Path Forward at Brooklyn Heights Synagogue

2:30 PM: The Checkpoint Women: Memories (60 min)
2023 | 60 minutes | Documentary
Director: Eliezer Yaari
In 2001, a group of Israeli women, most of them in their sixties, established Machsom Watch (Checkpoint Watch), an organization dedicated to guarding the human rights of Palestinians who must regularly pass through checkpoints between Israel and the West Bank. For years, these women stood at the heart of the conflict and documented the troubling activity taking place at the checkpoints, giving viewers a never-before-seen look at the daily struggle of Palestinians.

4:30 PM: Egypt, A Love Song (74 min)
2022 | 75 minutes | Docudrama
Director: Iris Zaki
In 1940s Egypt, Souad Zaki was a popular Jewish-Arab singer married to a renowned Muslim musician. After her husband abandoned her and their child, Souad was forced to flee to Israel and make ends meet working as a domestic cleaner. Souad’s granddaughter Iris tells her tempestuous story in a hybrid cinematic project that crosses nations, cultures, and generations.

Monday, December 9, 2024

5:30 PM: Palestinian-identifying Citizens of Israel in a Post-October 7 World - A Conversation with the Abraham Initiatives
Abraham Initiatives’ Co-Executive Directors Amnin Be’eri Sulitzeanu and Shahira Shalaby discuss the status and state of mixed cities and the experiences of Israel’s Arab minority, including Palestinian-identifying citizens of Israel, since October 7.

7:00 PM: The Very Narrow Bridge (76 min)
2024 | 76 minutes | Documentary
International Premiere
Director: Esther Takac
An eye-opening journey into the lives of Palestinian and Israeli women and men who lost a child or parent in the conflict. Instead of responding with hate and anger, Bushra, Rami, Meytal and Bassam are transforming their grief into a bridge for reconciliation and leading a movement of bereaved people to end the violence.

The film follows their paths from devastating trauma to courageous activism. Their stories are all part of a controversial grassroots movement of ‘Israeli Palestinian Bereaved Families’ who stand side-by-side to end the violence and build a future based on dignity and equality. Despite fierce political and family opposition, they refuse to give up, even with the current devastation.

Tuesday, December 10, 2024

6:00 PM: Closing Night Reception - Lobby, Marlene Meyerson JCC in Manhattan

7:00 PM: Shoshana (119 min)
2023 | 119 minutes | Narrative
New York City Premiere
Director: Michael Winterbottom
This gripping historical thriller from legendary British filmmaker Michael Winterbottom weaves a story of star-crossed love with one of political radicalization. The year is 1938, on the eve of the Second World War, and tensions run high in Tel Aviv where the British struggle to maintain order among a mixed Palestinian and Jewish population. English police officer Thomas Wilkin (Douglas Booth) has made his home here — and is madly in love with Shoshana (Irina Starshenbaum), daughter of Zionist Labor movement co-founder Dov Ber Borochov.

Date: December 5-10, 2024

Location: Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan, 334 Amsterdam Ave at 76th Street, New York, NY 10023

Festival Tickets

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