Chicago
Illinois
24th Annual Chicago Palestine Film Festival
Arts and Entertainment
March 11, 2025
From: Chicago Palestine Film FestivalSchedule of Events
April 12, 2025
7:00?PM 10:00?PM: Opening Night: A State Of Passion
We open the 24th annual Chicago Palestine Film Festival with a reception beginning at 6:00 p.m. The film will begin promptly at 7:00 p.m.
A State Of Passion
2024, dirs. Carol Mansour and Muna Khalidi
Palestine, Lebanon; 93 min.
In English and Arabic with English subtitles
After 43 horrific days working round the clock under constant bombardment in the emergency rooms of Gaza’s Al-Shifa and Al-Ahli hospitals, British-Palestinian reconstructive surgeon Dr. Ghassan Abu-Sittah emerged to find himself as a face of Palestinian resistance.
Following the film will be a Q&A.
Preceded by the short films:
Salt
2023, dir. Mateusz Miszczynski, 6 min.
Two boys float on the Dead Sea in a visual poem connected to the spirit of Palestine that considers how strength and perseverance are found amid conflict, drawing parallels with the everyday realities of life in Palestine.
Siri Miri
2021, dir. Luay Awwad, 6 min.
Out of boredom and sick of their mundane routine that’s leading them nowhere in life, two Palestinian teens ask Siri for help. Will it work?
The Deer’s Tooth
2024, dir. Saif Hammash, 16 min.
The film centers around a young man from a refugee camp who embarks on a perilous journey in order to fulfill his little brother’s wish: To throw his milk tooth into the sea.
April 13, 2025
1:00?PM 4:00?PM: SHORT FILMS: SOLIDARITY & PROMISE
We present a day of short films all themed around solidarity and promise.
MAWTINI (MY HOMELAND)
2023, dir. Fateema Al-Hamaydeh Miller, 19 min.
Together Nawal, a young Palestinian woman, and Tanya, an older Indigenous woman, start a guerrilla garden on the lawn of their apartment building and battle middle management to make it to harvest.
REMEMBERING WATER
2024, dir. Tom Callahan, 34 min.
What have Irish Americans forgotten? What can we remember? And how can we be a part of creating a world where Palestine and all of us are free?
DANCING PALESTINE
2024, dir. Lamees AlMakkawy, 37 min.
To dance is to remember, to dance is to remind. As the Palestinian identity continues to be threatened with erasure, Palestinians turn to their folk dance, the dabke, as an homage to their history and culture, and to assert their existence.
AHMAD ALIVE
2024, dir. Ahmad Ghunaim, 37 min.
This short film chronicles the harrowing journey of Gazan travel vlogger Ahmad Ghunaim, unexpectedly thrust into the role of a war correspondent after October 7th and is a testament to survival against all odds and a stark, unflinching account of covering a genocide.
1:00?PM 4:00?PM: SHORT FILMS: SOLIDARITY & PROMISE
We present a day of short films all themed around solidarity and promise.
MAWTINI (MY HOMELAND)
2023, dir. Fateema Al-Hamaydeh Miller, 19 min.
Together Nawal, a young Palestinian woman, and Tanya, an older Indigenous woman, start a guerrilla garden on the lawn of their apartment building and battle middle management to make it to harvest.
REMEMBERING WATER
2024, dir. Tom Callahan, 34 min.
What have Irish Americans forgotten? What can we remember? And how can we be a part of creating a world where Palestine and all of us are free?
DANCING PALESTINE
2024, dir. Lamees AlMakkawy, 37 min.
To dance is to remember, to dance is to remind. As the Palestinian identity continues to be threatened with erasure, Palestinians turn to their folk dance, the dabke, as an homage to their history and culture, and to assert their existence.
AHMAD ALIVE
2024, dir. Ahmad Ghunaim, 37 min.
This short film chronicles the harrowing journey of Gazan travel vlogger Ahmad Ghunaim, unexpectedly thrust into the role of a war correspondent after October 7th and is a testament to survival against all odds and a stark, unflinching account of covering a genocide.
4:00?PM 7:00?PM: THE PROMISE
2022, dir. Leonardo Antonio Avezzano
Jordan; 84 min.
In English and Arabic with English subtitles
Alaa Al Juneidi’s father defied the odds as a Palestinian, going from selling milk off the back of his bike to building a dairy empire. After the death of his father, Alaa is lost, caught in a mental vortex, unable to find his identity, unable to escape the promise he made to his father on his deathbed. It is a promise he is unable to share with anyone. But Alaa submits himself to this promise and sets out to climb Mount Everest. This deeply personal film explores the complex emotional bonds between father and son, and takes the audience on Alaa’s journey as he trains and then makes his difficult climb back to the summit of Everest on his unspoken mission.
Following the film will be a Q&A.
Preceded by the short films:
FROM GAZA TO CUBA
2024, dir. Frank Rojazz, 14 min.
A Gazan medical student studying in Cuba struggles to focus while news of his family and friends face the daily onslaught of Israel’s genocidal bombing campaign.
KHSARA
2024, dirs. Jameeleh Shelo and Dean Bushala, 15 min.
This short documentary shines a spotlight on the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and the heroic efforts of the medical workers providing humanitarian aid.
4:00?PM 7:00?PM: THE PROMISE
2022, dir. Leonardo Antonio Avezzano
Jordan; 84 min.
In English and Arabic with English subtitles
Alaa Al Juneidi’s father defied the odds as a Palestinian, going from selling milk off the back of his bike to building a dairy empire. After the death of his father, Alaa is lost, caught in a mental vortex, unable to find his identity, unable to escape the promise he made to his father on his deathbed. It is a promise he is unable to share with anyone. But Alaa submits himself to this promise and sets out to climb Mount Everest. This deeply personal film explores the complex emotional bonds between father and son, and takes the audience on Alaa’s journey as he trains and then makes his difficult climb back to the summit of Everest on his unspoken mission.
Following the film will be a Q&A.
Preceded by the short films:
FROM GAZA TO CUBA
2024, dir. Frank Rojazz, 14 min.
A Gazan medical student studying in Cuba struggles to focus while news of his family and friends face the daily onslaught of Israel’s genocidal bombing campaign.
KHSARA
2024, dirs. Jameeleh Shelo and Dean Bushala, 15 min.
This short documentary shines a spotlight on the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and the heroic efforts of the medical workers providing humanitarian aid.
April 16, 2025
6-9pm: SHORT FILMS: CHICAGO TO PALESTINE
We present a day of short films all themed around identity, from Chicago to Palestine.
MEMOIRS OF A MOZLEM
2021, dir. Bayan Jarad, 5 min.
Two Palestinian, Muslim American college girls experience a range of reactions to their outwardly Muslim appearance.
THE OLIVE TREE SAID TO ME
2022, dir. Naif Salem, 5 min.
Based on the best-selling book by author Naif Salem, discover the beauty of Palestine in this short film through a young girl's journey as she learns the tradition of the olive harvest.
ABBOUD’S DREAM
2024, dir. Fady Yahiea Farouk, 10 min.
A young man named Abboud depicts the pain of the Palestinian family from his perspective.
EID
2023, dir. Rame Ibrahim, 12 min.
This short explores the impact of borders and restrictive laws on fundamental human rights, focusing on the right to grieve.
WHERE THE WIND BLOWS
2024, dir. Hana Elias, 16 min.
After building a life in New York City, Nassib returns to his Palestinian hometown of Shefa-’Amr after 50 years to revive an ancestral garden. Filmmaker Hana Elias captures her whole family’s search for belonging as she intimately films the rituals and practices around their first olive harvest.
7 DAYS OUT: FINALE
2024, dir. Will Harris, 35 min.
This film captures the vibrant celebration in Little Palestine after Belal Muhammad’s triumphant UFC Welterweight Championship victory. Belal weighs in his career, beliefs, and his admiration for his community.
Click here for Tickets
April 17, 2025
6:15?PM - 9:15?PM: REVOLUTION UNTIL VICTORY AKA WE ARE THE PALESTINIAN PEOPLE
1972, dirs. San Francisco Newsreel
Palestine, United States; 45 min.
In English
Made by a breakaway faction of the US Newsreel Collective, Pacific Newsreel, “Revolution Until Victory AKA We are the Palestinian People” edits exclusively archival footage into a detailed, historical reconstruction of Palestinian history. Great attention is paid to the political genesis of Zionism, the refugee camps of the Middle East, the rise of the Palestinian Liberation Movement and Israel's relationship to Western imperialism. Footage includes scenes from training camps and interviews with Palestinian leaders who worked in liberation efforts of the time.
Following the film will be a Q&A.
Preceded by the short films:
ABU SALMA
2024, dir. Asil Alwadiya, 7 min.
This short documentary follows the dramatic changes in the life of Abu Salma due to the war.
HIDE & SEEK
2024, dir. Rami Abbas, 8 min.
This touching animated short film narrates the story of a child and his fish on their journey into the unknown, following the raid on the child's town during the ongoing war ravaging his country.
WHEN WEATHER PERMITS
2024, dir. Hareth Yousef, 10 min.
A short experimental film that mixes photography, archival images, and audio, this piece explores the profound longing and complex realities of Yousef’s homeland.
SHATTERED MEMORY
2023, dir. Hayat Laban, 14 min.
Dig through photojournalist Mahfouz Abu Turk’s memories and archives, where he thoroughly documented his experiences in Jerusalem and the West Bank from the First Intifada in 1987 throughout the next decade.
Click here for Tickets
April 18, 2025
8:00?PM 11:00?PM: A FIDAI FILM
2024, dir. Kamal Aljafari
Palestine, Germany, Qatar, Brazil, France; 78 min.
Arabic, English, Hebrew with English subtitles
In the Summer of 1982, the Israeli army invaded Beirut. During this time, it raided the Palestinian Research Center and looted its entire archive. The archive contained historical documents of Palestine, including a collection of still and moving images. Taking this as a premise, “A Fidai Film” explores the visual memory of this looting and appropriates images that are now in the hands of Israeli archives.
Preceded by the short films:
IN A MOMENT
2024, dir. Asil Alwadiya, 5 min.
Between beauty and flames, art and destruction, this short documentary portrays Khawla's life during the war and her adaptation to the harsh conditions imposed on her.
I’LL GET BACK TO YOU
2023, dir. Uday Jubeh, 8 min.
For the first time in decades, an exile arrives in Palestine and enters his family home. His mission to reveal the secrets of the past takes him on an unexpected path.
FORGET ME NOT
2023, dir. Mohammed Al Majdalawi, 10 min.
While living abroad, Mohammed begins to receive pleas of help from his family trapped in Gaza, enduring the latest onslaught. He learns there are other ways forward other than hopelessness.
PINK SWING
2023, dir. Ala’a Al Qaisi, 11 min.
In a Palestinian village, the lives of three children intertwine around a pink swing, but their friendship, affection and dreams are put to the test when the Israeli occupation army arrives, bringing with it a harsh reality they must confront together.
April 19, 2025
1-4pm: THE PALESTINE EXCEPTION
2024, dirs. Jan Haaken and Jennifer Ruth
USA; 70 min.
In English
After years of right-wing assaults on higher education, attacks took a new form in 2023 and 2024 that has been described as the new McCarthyism. As students across the country organize protests against Israel’s war on Gaza, decades-long taboos in academia around criticism of Israel–the “Palestine exception”–are shattered. This film features professors and students as they join calls for a ceasefire and divestment from companies that do business with Israel and face waves of crackdown from administrators, the media, the police and politicians. Scholars from diverse disciplines explain what is at stake in these protests and why so many young people identify with the Palestinian cause. The documentary unfolds as a story of college campuses as sites of both rebellion and repression, places where personal and collective histories converge in unexpected ways.
Following the film will be a Q&A.
Preceded by the short films:
SALT
2023, dir. Mateusz Miszczynski, 6 min.
Two boys float on the Dead Sea in a visual poem connected to the spirit of Palestine that considers how strength and perseverance are found amid conflict, drawing parallels with the everyday realities of life in Palestine.
SIRI MIRI
2021, dir. Luay Awwad, 6 min.
Out of boredom and sick of their mundane routine that’s leading them nowhere in life, two Palestinian teens ask Siri for help. Will it work?
THE DEER’S TOOTH
2024, dir. Saif Hammash, 16 min.
The film centers around a young man from a refugee camp who embarks on a perilous journey in order to fulfill his little brother’s wish: To throw his milk tooth into the sea.
Click here for Tickets
6-9pm: YALLA PARKOUR
2025, dir. Areeb Zuaiter
Sweden, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Palestine; 87 min.
In Arabic and Swedish with English subtitles
In her relentless pursuit of a memory that reinforces her sense of belonging, Areeb crosses paths with Ahmed, a parkour athlete in Gaza, sparking a journey where conflicting aspirations intersect. Nostalgia meets with ambition, and the weight of a confined past meets with an unpredictable future.
Preceded by the short films:
MASHED POTATOES
2024, dir. Suha Araj, 13 min.
While prepping for a Friendsgiving potluck, an Arab couple argues over the merits of a well quoted journalist after the 9/11 attacks.
MAQLUBA
2023, dir. Mike Elsherif, 28 min.
Laila visits her grandmother in her new apartment during a powerful storm under the guise of helping her unpack, but soon the film delves into a macabre fable about two generations of immigrants struggling to deal with displacement, life in the diaspora, and mortality.
April 23, 2025
6-9pm: SPACES OF EXCEPTION
2023, dirs. Matt Peterson and Malek Rasamny
USA, Palestine; 85 min.
In English and Arabic with English subtitles
This documentary film profiles the terrains of the Indian reservation and the Palestinian refugee camp - “spaces of exception” - that have become essential in the struggle for decolonization and indigenous autonomy. Shot between 2014 to 2017, Spaces of Exception observes and juxtaposes the communities and struggles of the American Indian reservation and the Palestinian refugee camp. It visits reservations in Arizona, New Mexico, New York, and South Dakota, as well camps in Lebanon and the West Bank, “places defined by their historical and spiritual resistance” in order to “understand the conditions for life, community, and sovereignty.” While the histories are distinct, dispossession and loss unite these communities in solidarity, and the alternating stories highlight both their unique tragedies and their revolutionary commonalities. Mostly eschewing archival footage, Spaces of Exception showcases the present, in which each day lived is itself an act of resistance.
Preceded by the short films:
On the Rooftop
2023, dir. Noor Al-Terri, 3 min.
In Jabalia Refugee Camp, the most densely populated camp in a very small space, life and laughter emerged from its alleys. There, guests are invited to share a cup of mint tea, and because not all surfaces are made of stones and wires, life is created on rooftops with flowers and green leaves.
THE SOUND OF CLOUDS
2024, dir. Mohammad Lotfali, 4 min.
The children of Gaza write their names on their hands so that in case of the worst happening, rescuers can identify them.
EXCEPTION
2024, dir. Rodrigue Hammal, 32 min.
When a leaked video of his lecture on the Psychology of Oppression goes viral and sparks accusations of anti-Semitism, tenured Palestinian-American professor Karim Hadawi finds himself at a crossroads with a harrowing ultimatum.
April 25, 2025
8-11pm: TO A LAND UNKNOWN
2024, dir. Mahdi Fleifel
Greece; 105 min.
In Arabic, English, and Greek with English subtitles
Chatila and Reda are saving to pay for fake passports to get out of Athens. But when Reda loses their hard-earned cash to his dangerous drug addiction, Chatila hatches an extreme plan, which involves them posing as smugglers and taking hostages in an effort to get him and his best friend out of their hopeless environment before it is too late.
Viewer discretion advised: Program contains sexual themes, drug usage, and profanity and may not be suitable for all audiences.
Following the film will be a Q&A.
Preceded by the short film:
BLOOD LIKE WATER
2023, dir. Dina Hamdan, 15 min.
Shadi embarks on a secret adventure, and accidentally drags his family into a trap where they only have two choices: either collaborate with the Israeli occupation, or be shamed and humiliated by their own people.
Viewer discretion advised: Program contains sexual themes, drug usage, and profanity and may not be suitable for all audiences.
April 26, 2025
7-10pm: CLOSING NIGHT: JANIN, JENIN
We close the 24th annual Chicago Palestine Film Festival with a reception beginning at 6:00 p.m. The film will begin promptly at 7:00 p.m.
JANIN, JENIN
2024, dir. Mohammad Bakri
Palestine; 60 min.
In English and Arabic with English subtitles
Director Mohammad Bakri revisits the Jenin refugee camp, reflecting on the devastation caused by Israel’s 2023 military invasion. Building on the framework of his 2002 documentary, ‘Jenin, Jenin’, this new film captures the ongoing struggle of the camp’s residents as they recount their experiences of destruction, loss, and resistance. Divided into four parts, the documentary begins by revisiting the events of ‘Jenin, Jenin’ followed by an exploration of the legal challenges Bakri has faced for over two decades. The third section presents a historical overview of the Palestinian refugee crisis since 1948. The final segment - focusing on the testimonies of those who endured the latest military offensive - reveals the personal toll of continuous conflict.
Following the film will be a Q&A.
Preceded by the short films:
$17.74
2024, dir. Justin Mashouf, 13 min.
A young filmmaker follows the transformative journey of a former gang member incarcerated since the 80s, as his act of compassion for the people of Gaza amidst prison walls sparks a viral movement of solidarity and hope.
UPSHOT
2024, dir. Maha El Haj, 34 min.
A reclusive couple’s carefully maintained fantasy is threatened when an uninvited stranger brings a painful truth from their past.
Click here for Tickets
Date:
April 12-26, 2025
Location:
Gene Siskel Film Center, 164 North State Street, Chicago, IL 60601