Alwan for the Arts Presents

Palestine Blues by Nida Sinnokrot followed by a discussion with the director

Wednesday, November 15, 2006, 7:30 PM $10 donation goes to United Health Workers Committees in Palestine

About the film

PALESTINE BLUES is the winner of the best feature film award in several film festivals - marked not only by the importance of the subject but its aesthetic quality, this film is a must see. PalestineBlues follows the repercussions of the Zionist Apartheid Wall and Settlement expansion in the engulfed/annexed Palestinian farming communities of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Instead of focusing on the object of the Wall, this documentary examines the grassrootsresistance movement that has sprung up against it.

Palestine Blues is not a "traditional" political reportage but rather an interminable road trip across hard and liquid borders, across a terrain that is being erased as it is being traversed.

Nida Sinnokrot is a Palestinian-American artist and filmmaker. His films, installations, and sculptures, which have shown nationally and internationally, often explore complex notions of time and space in a phenomenological investigation of Diaspora consciousness. After completing his undergraduate studies in Radio, Television, and Film at the University of Texas at Austin, Nida moved to New York where he received an MFA in Film and Video from Bard College. Nida recently completed the Whitney Museum of American Art Independent Study Program, is a 2002 Rockefeller Media Fellow, and was recently awardeda Paul Robeson media grant.

"In 1923 Ze'ev Jabotinsky, one of the founding fathers of Zionism wrote an essay in which he outlined the means for establishing a state of Israel in the whole of historic Palestine. That essay was called The Iron Wall."

"In June of 2002 the construction of a 400-mile barrier began in the Occupied West Bank. Though it is referred to as a 'security fence' by Israel, its form changes along the route, and near large cities it is a concrete wall twice as high as the Berlin Wall. Construction began in the northwest part of the West Bank. With its large, unspoiled aquifer, this land provides nearly 65% of the fruits and vegetables produced in the region. The wells along the aquifer provide essential water for drinking, agriculture and sanitation. All of this prime land and its water supply will fall on the Israeli side of the wall." "Palestine Blues follows the repercussions of the Israeli Security Wall and Settlement expansion in the engulfed/annexed Palestinian farming communities of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Instead of focusing on the Wall as an object, Palestine Blues examines the grassroots resistance movement that has sprung up against it." -Nida Sinnokrot

Sponsored by Al-Awda, the Palestine Right to Return Coalition - NY www.al-awdany.org info@al-awdany.org 718-228-8636

Last updated: 2007-09-20 08:06:52