Historicist: Life in Wartime
Elsewhere in the Ist-a-Verse
Photo from Salt Of This Sea (Milh Hadha Al-Bahr).
The inaugural Toronto Palestinian Film Festival (TPFF) is on at the moment, and if its reception thus far is any indication, it will quickly become a fixture on the annual festival circuit. A year in the making, the TPFF is showcasing thirty-seven films, twenty of which are Canadian premieres. Films have been selected from the last few years of Palestinian cinema and include work in all genres and from all geographic and demographic corners of the Palestinian community.
The opening night program featured the Palestinian submission for the 2009 Foreign Language Academy Award, Salt of This Sea. (Palestine is recognized as a nation by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences though it is not currently a member state of the United Nations.) The film centres on Soraya and Emad and their simultaneous struggles with their Palestinian identity. Soraya is a Brooklyn-born woman of Palestinian origin on her first voyage to her family’s lost home. She becomes immediately and irretrievably attached to the land she visits and decides in short order to try to stay permanently. Her companion for most of the film is Emad, travelling on precisely the opposite trajectory. Palestinian-born and trapped in the West Bank by the exigencies of occupation, Emad wants nothing more than to escape to the security and calm of Canada. The film thus traces out both sides of the classic immigrant experience: those in the diaspora hold out hope for a return home while those in the motherland want a fresh chance at life elsewhere. Each feels that they somehow have a grasp on something essentially important about their nation, and each is mystified by the opposing attitude.
Salt of This Sea is, perhaps surprisingly, not a particularly political film. The narrative is obviously set against the backdrop of the political situation, but the film is far more interested in telling a story than it is in polemics. In this, the movie is representative of the TPFF as a whole, which aims to share cultural and personal experiences rather than advance political positions (though the former can often, intentionally or not, be a way of accomplishing the latter). In a Q&A after the screening Torontoist asked Suheir Hammad, the actress who played Soraya, what message she hoped people outside the Palestinian community might get from the film. She replied that “all you can ask as an artist is for people to listen to your story.” The TPFF is showing stories that don’t often get told, and both the story-tellers and their audiences are great beneficiaries. Though Palestinians are often in the news, only a small slice of life in the West Bank and Gaza gets portrayed in the familiar headline-grabbing reports. The films showing at the TPFF are not all exemplary works of art, but they also do not need to be. (It is worth mentioning at this point that circumstances make shooting a film on location incredibly challenging. That many of these movies got made at all is somewhat remarkable.) Because they broaden our understanding of the experiences which don’t make the headlines and give voice to a community that so often feels misrepresented or neglected, these are movies well worth watching.
The Toronto Palestinian Film Festival continues until November 1 at cinemas across Toronto.
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TPFF posters seem to be the target of tear-downs more than any other posters (except maybe Fuck Face) in the neighbourhood of Bloor-Bathurst.
The Israeli film festival is on this week as well.
http://www.israelfilmfestival.ca/en/
Eek. Last year I photographed a guy at Bloor and Walmer tearing down posters advertising this Palestine House event, with the intention of doing a short Torontoist post. The guy was at first annoyed that I took some pics of him (it was night, and I was using the flash, so it was obvious) and came across the street to talk to me and find out what I wanted to use them for. We had a remarkably respectful and insightful chat about our respective views on the conflict.
I didn't end up doing the post, both because I had used my shitty old camera and the pics hadn't turned out, but more because I realized that no good could possibly come from me posting those photos on the internet.
Also, I decided that although ripping down posters is certainly rude, it's also a legitimate form of expression.
(To be clear, the "Eek" was in reference to rek's comment, not Rachel's.)
I'm intrigued; what were his respectful and insightful reasons for basically saying Palestinians and their sympathizers shouldn't be heard?
I'm not sure how stifling someone elses expression is a legitimate form of expression itself.
At the inaugural City Idol event, the audience booed whenever a candidate said something they disagreed with. For the subsequent event, the audience was told that it was okay to boo but only if something genuinely offends or enrages you.
I feel as though in a public setting, you have the right to express disapproval if something deeply upsets you, just as the thing of which you're disapproving has the right to continue in defiance. It's the nature of using public space. Removing a poster is pretty low, no doubt, and more than a little asshole-y, but I'd like to think that people who do postering are aware of the potential consequences of engaging in this form of discourse.
I'm intrigued; what were his respectful and insightful reasons for basically saying Palestinians and their sympathizers shouldn't be heard?
By "respectful and insightful" I meant only that he was nice enough to me and that our exchange was mutually respectful. That is, no shouting and no namecalling; it was about as civil as a conversation of this sort could possibly be. And I'd like to think we actually listened to what each other had to say about the Israeli-Palestinian issue.
There are, of course, no possible respectful and insightful reasons for tearing down a poster. He did it because he was very upset by the Palestinian message (or however you want to characterize it), and so I talked to him about that message. In retrospect, I should have pressed him more about why he felt ripping them down was the right thing to do. (Although it's quite possible that I did and have since forgotten.)
I do wonder, however, if the encounter would have gone differently if I hadn't made a point of mentioning that I too am Jewish.
here is your contradiction...you say this:
"a community that so often feels misrepresented or neglected" about palestinians and yet you do not mention the Israeli Film Festival in your blog...."a community ingnored???"...and by the way, i am totally FOR ripping off offensive posters...it is called freedom of expression...the freedom that someone has to put up a poster is the freedom i have to take it down if i don't like it...
Haha. Hey rapi, speaking of contradictions...
No disrespect to the article but in response to these comments:
I refer to Torontoist for its expertise on all things related to this city. If I wanted to read about the Middle East, I'll defer to people who know it well.
If you want to educate yourself about matters, go to both film festivals.
Jonathan - I suspect it would have been a very different conversation if you'd asked him if it would be OK to tear down posters for an Israeli or Zionist film festival or fund raiser.
rapi - So you also believe the Palestinian people should have no voice at any level of society? Posters for a Palestinian film festival are "offensive"? But you believe in freedom of expression? Did I get all that?
Rachel - Very sly. Let me translate what you just said: "I don't want to read comments about anything related to the Middle East/Israel-Palestine issue (because you are all wrong)".
hey rek. let me translate what you just said: "I really wanna argue about this on the internet so I'm going to re-write what you wrote in an inflammatory way."
don't do that. please. that said, rachel, he does have a point. there are lots of people in toronto, and perhaps commenting here, who DO know a lot about the middle east. if you bestow authenticity upon geographic origin [let's just ignore nationality and ethnicity and religion, for the sake of sanity], then you might as well give up on the exchange of ideas. those are the kind of walls that make the one hotly argued about in israel/palestine look like a tiny little inoffensive one.
it smells like fish in here. Particularly red herring.
andrew - I found Rachel's post inflammatory, so I rephrased it in a way it should be obvious to anyone why I found it such. She outright says she doesn't want to read comments about this on Torontoist, in a way that makes it Torontoist's responsibility (somehow).
We aren't even talking about the conflict/occupation/whatever, we're talking about free expression and the targeting of Palestinian expression in Toronto.
I think your choice of critique was poor, rek. I agree with your analysis, mostly [both in this instance and in general].
t-rek..you did NOT get it...perhaps you should start by learning to read....what i'm saying is do not ignore other events, especially since they are painfully related and intertwined...it just shows torontoist is biased...and stop putting words in my mouth..
Andrew, I appreciate your levelheadedness.
My comment was said because there haven't really been any opinions here except that t-rek rips people to shreds (although perhaps the name implies that) and automatically defaults to the idea that everyone hates Palestinians and don't think they have the right to even have the right. And yes, I clearly exaggerated that statement, so you can go ahead and call me out on that.
This isn't furthering any discussion nor is it really helping any situation, both here in Toronto and over in the Middle East.
That said, if I wanted to genuinely learn something about anything related to Palestinian culture and affairs, the Middle East, the peace process, what have you, I'll go elsewhere, where there is an educated idea and not someone just stomping on commentary. All that I can learn here is that by kicking and screaming and accusing and pointing fingers, it only fans the flames of whatever else people are fighting about and takes away from any valid point.
I will, however, continue to read Torontoist for its excellent coverage of Toronto.
rapi - Torontoist is not obligated to mention, preview, review, or summarize every event in the city, no matter how "intertwined" you think some of them are. Furthermore, "a community that so often feels misrepresented or neglected" doesn't mean it's the only community that feels that way.
Rachel - Your follow-up doesn't make a lick of sense to me. We were talking about ripping down posters and what that means, you interjected saying you don't want to read comments about the Middle East (no problem, since there weren't any), and now you say you only commented because there weren't any comments about the Middle East. Please explain that to me, because as rapi has revealed I don't know how to read.
And for what it's worth, I don't default to the position that everyone hates Palestinians; tear down *any* poster and I'll conclude you don't want whatever the poster promotes promoted.
t-rek...torontoist is not obligated to mention everything...but THIS particular item was a rather BIG omission...don't you think???
they could have said something like this:
The Israeli film festival is on this week as well.
http://www.israelfilmfestival.ca/en/
Maybe the Israeli film festival just didn't send any screeners?
Also the link to festival was given in the Film Friday this week (I think).
Anyway, I don't think it’s necessary to give a link to a film festival other than the one being reviewed. It just seems odd.
Advertising the Israeli film festival in the post about the Palestinian Film fest is exactly that false "balance" the mainstream news is forced to present. It also makes explicit that any discussion of Palestinian identity is inextricable from Israeli identity - while the conflict is inextricably wound up in both peoples' identities and places and lives, why is a discussion of the films on offer required to mention another festival? In what was is it an ommission? Isn't it equally an ommission to not mention the Latin Film fest within this post?
If only rapi could rip down internet post(ers)!
You got us, rapi! Torontoist—whose publisher, Jake Dobkin, is a practicing Jew, and whose editor-in-chief, me, is Jewish on his mom's side—is totally in the pocket of Palestine, and our not publishing a concurrent article on an Israeli Film Festival along with one on a Palestinian one is because we totally hate Jews and Jewish culture. But don't tell anyone! It's supposed to be a secret.
If I may do an informal poll - how many people here have seen the film, are interested in the film, and have something to say about that?
It was excellent by the way, and for a non-actor, Suheir Hammad's performance was mighty impressive. This film is a huge landmark in Palestinian cinema by the way, and deservingly so.
I think the commentary subsequent to the thread highlights the necessity of Suheir's comment during the Q & A - which would have otherwise seemed simplistic and perhaps sort of cheesy. But, really, even in the Blogosphere people believe the story of an individual Palestinian needs to be qualified with deference to: Israel, "don't talk about the Middle East"; accusations; and justifications of acts of censorship which normally would never fly in a forum such as this.
I bet if I admitted to tearing down posters of Toronto's indie darlings, I would be accused to stifling independent musicians trying to make a living. Turns out if you're an artist and your name ends with a name Salloum, Hammad or Jacir, it's more offensive that you even exist.
P.S. Last month, on the corner of Bloor and Ossington, someone grabbed all the new copies of Xtra! (the gay and lesbian bi-weekly) and threw them in a pile of garbage behind the box. My roommate and I spent some time picking out the clean ones and putting them back into the box. One hour later, someone had destroyed and threw out the remaining papers.
I guess I shouldn't we shouldn't interfere with "free expression" next time!
delawaredweller - I live at Bloor/Ossington and I've seen that a few times now.
david...i can't beleive how beside the point your comment is...
The posters for "Israeli Apartheid Week" around Bloor/Bathurst (which show a helicopter marked Israel firing a missile at a Gazan child) seem to be faring better than the TPFF posters did.
So much for that. The IAW posters have been spray painted black all along Bloor. The few that weren't were torn off.