BRATTLEBORO-The third annual Palestine Film Series will be presented in the main theater of the Latchis Theatre on four consecutive Sundays, starting April 12, at 4 p.m.
The film series opens with the Oscar-shortlisted feature Palestine ’36. It will be followed by Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk April 19. The Oscar-nominated dramatized film The Voice of Hind Rajab will be featured April 26. The series will conclude May 3 with screenings of two shorter films, Aisha’s Story and Exception.
“As war spreads to countries throughout the Middle East, these films are as important and timely as ever,” Shana Frank, the film series coordinator, said in a news release. “They pay tribute to those who have lost their lives and highlight the challenges that proud, resilient Palestinians have faced for decades.”
In Palestine ’36, Aisha Azzam, a grandmother who lives in a refugee camp in Jordan with her children and grandchildren, shares family stories as she grinds heirloom grains and prepares traditional meals. She uses the millstone that her grandmother brought with them when the family, along with hundreds of thousands of others, was forced to flee Palestine during the 1948 Nakba. In Aisha’s Story, she affirms that “food is what keeps us together as Palestinians.”
Fatima Hassona, a high-spirited photojournalist, reflects that she “only knew Gaza, the small room in the world’s big house.” Through a series of video calls, the award-winning filmmaker Sepideh Farsi, befriends Hassona. The day after it is announced that their film, Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk, is accepted in the 2025 Cannes Film Festival, Hassona and her family are killed in a targeted Israeli airstrike.
The Palestine Film Series is hosted by Latchis Arts and sponsored by Southern Vermont for Palestine, a grassroots group that calls for freedom, justice, equality, sovereignty, and democracy for all people in the region between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.
Admission to the programs is by donation. Masking is requested. The film screenings will be followed by moderated conversations. More information on the film series can be found at svt4palestinefilmseries.org.
This Arts item was submitted to The Commons.