A report on the 14th annual Docaviv, the Tel Aviv International Documentary Film Festival
Middle Eastern Media
With IDFA-winner A Fox Under a Pink Moon, Mehrdad Oskouei evolves his work with marginalized youths into a remote-directed collaboration with
Heiny Srour, who made two landmark features advancing the role of women in liberation movements, is not shy about being a “first”
In this interview, Kamal Aljafari discusses how three tapes filmed in 2001 revealed themselves as a new film, With Hasan in Gaza
Alaa Minawi’s The Liminal gives an alternative definition of “immersive” from the typical technological, digital one. In his practice, the Palestinian-Lebanese-Dutch interdisciplinary artist explores the possibilities of merging installation and performance art. The Liminal—the first part of his speculative series about Arabfuturism—is a 3.5-meter wall with 24 speakers placed inside, programmed to take the audience on a listening journey.
Qumra, the Doha-based industry event, named after the Arabic word believedto be the origin of “camera” and taking place from April 3–9, aims “to provide mentorship, nurture talent, and foster hands-on development for filmmakers from Qatar, the region, and beyond.” Out of the 49 selected projects, 12 feature-length documentary projects were presented in Doha: four in development, two in production, two Works-in-Progress, and four picture-locked. The line-up was rounded off by four short documentaries, all with Qatari involvement. Qumra is rooted in a fairly freewheeling format: at times, press and industry attendees mingle over lunches, mocktails, and networking events; at others, they follow separate paths. Nonetheless, the gathering unfolds across a limited number of venues, including the iconic Museum of Islamic Art and two luxury hotels in the brand-new district of Msheireb.
Noam Shuster Eliassi’s standup comedy show “Coexistence, My Ass!” is now the basis for a documentary of the same name, Coexistence, My Ass!, in which Lebanese Canadian filmmaker Amber Fares follows her through the COVID-19 pandemic, the anti-corruption protests in Israel, and the aftermath of the October 7th attack and Israel’s brutal retaliation in Gaza. Ahead of the film’s premiere at Sundance, we sat down with Fares over Zoom to discuss its long filming process and how October 7 shifted the tenor of the project.
“It’s South Africa, it’s Vietnam, it’s Jim Crow—it’s like all of these defining moments,” says filmmaker Razi Jafri by phone from East Jerusalem
The 2024 edition of the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam opened shortly after the world learned of two changes in leadership. One was at
In the Winter 2024/2025 cover essay of Documentary magazine, No Other Land’s collective of Palestinian and Israeli co-directors imagine a reciprocal, shared future in front of and behind the camera.