imagineNATIVE Co-Presents with Toronto Palestine Film Festival: To My Father

September 22, 2009

The Toronto Palestine Film Festival
Non-Stereotypical Cinema from Palestine
September 26-October 2, 2009
www.tpff.ca

The 2nd annual Toronto Palestine Film Festival (TPFF) is pleased to present a wide selection of award-winning short, feature, documentary, experimental and animation films to Toronto audiences. TPFF celebrates film as an art form and means of expression by showcasing the extraordinary narrative of a dispossessed people living in exile and under occupation.Together with imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival, TPFF will screen the documentary To My Father on Tuesday September 29, 2009 at the AGO Jackman Hall theatre, 7:00 pm.

To My Father
Still To My Father Abdelsalam Shehadeh | 2008 | 52 min | Documentary | Palestine | Canadian Premiere

“Those were the days when girls were prettier, when eyes were in all colours, without any colour! What’s different now? The camera, or the eyes?” asks Abdelsalam Shehadeh in this poetic homage to the studio photographers of the 1950’s to 70’s. Set partly in a refugee camp in Rafah, this is a remarkable look back at fifty years of Palestinian and Arab history, through photographs, reportage and the voices of these photographers today. The portrait image has always been something to cherish, but Shehadeh shows that it has also been turned into a tool of control and object of fear through ID systems, and into a form of commemorating and remembering the missing and the dead. To My Father is a personal and moving film that confirms the talent of Gaza-born director Shehadeh (Gaza, Another Kind of Tears; Rainbow), who has worked all over the world as a director, cameraman and journalist. A photo here is not just a photo: it brings history to life. (source: Palestine Film Foundation/BFI)

The film will also be screened with They Do Not Exist – this program is a tribute to the memory of Mustafa Abu Ali, a founder of Palestinian Cinema, who died in July 2009; and Easy, Easy a story, set in 1939, about Palestinian family whose traditional rural lives are turned upside down when a Palestinian resistance fighter decides to hide in their small farm home.

Advance tickets can be purchased online or at the Toronto Women’s Bookstore (73 Harbord St.)

Other films of interest (see our programme for details):
. Rana’s Wedding – September 27, 2009, 4:00pm, Bloor Cinema
. Indecisive Moments – September 28, 2009, 7:00pm, AGO Jackman Theatre
. The Edge of Hope – September 28, 2009, 9:00pm, AGO Jackman Theatre
. Laila’s Birthday – October 2, 2009, 7:00pm, Bloor Cinema

TPFF is also hosting a contemporary art exhibit, a film & food brunch and several forums
.