The Banco do Brasil Rio de Janeiro Cultural Center (CCBB RJ) opens this Wednesday (22) the 3rd Female Arab Film Festival, which will offer the public, until next April 10, the opportunity to see 34 cinematographic works directed by Arab women who reside or not in Middle Eastern countries and who portray the diversity of contemporary Arab cinema. The filmmakers come from eight countries: Egypt, Lebanon, Palestine, Sudan, Yemen, Syria, Algeria and Morocco. Admission is free and tickets are available at the CCBB RJ box office or on the website, from 9 am on the day of the session. Sponsorship is from Banco do Brasil. The partner of Partisane Filmes, Analu Bambirra, who shares the curatorship of the exhibition with the Brazilian Carol Almeida and the Egyptian Alia Ayman, told Agência Brasil today (21) that most of the films that will be presented are unprecedented in Brazil. The selection was made based on research among film festivals and curators. For 20 days, political and social issues, LGBTQIAP+ experiences, masculinities, family, among other topics, will pass through the screen of Cinema 1 at CCBB RJ. The complete schedule can be accessed online. Debates Also director and producer of the Arab Women’s Film Festival, Analu Bambirra highlighted two films, whose directors will be in Brazil for debate with the public in Rio de Janeiro. The first is Miguel’s War, by Eliane Raheb. Unreleased in Brazil, this is the fourth feature film by the Lebanese director and addresses the trajectory of a gay man who escapes the country and returns more than 30 years later, revisiting the past. “It’s a very impactful film.” It premiered at the Berlinale Panorama in 2021 and won the Teddy for best feature film, the Grand Jury Prize at NewFEST, the documentary award at the Paris LGBT film festival and the best documentary at the Mizna Film Festival. Eliane Raheb will comment on her film on April 6th. Before that, on the 2nd, she teaches the masterclass Construction of Characters in Documentary Cinema. For the masterclass, registration is required. More information can be obtained through social networks. The second film, already shown in Brazilian cinemas, is signed by award-winning Syrian director Soudade Kaadan, born in France and based in England. She will comment on her movie Nezouh on April 7th. The drama tells the story of 14-year-old Zeina and her family, who are the last residents to resist a bombing in their besieged hometown of Damascus, Syria. “It is a very strong film and it will talk to the audience as well”, commented the curator. The exhibition will also have two round tables. The first will be held on the 25th of this month, at 2 pm, on Archive image, politics and memory. The speakers will be Patrícia Machado, from the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC Rio), and Thais Blank, from the School of Social Sciences of the Getulio Vargas Foundation (FGV CPDOC). The second round table will address Overflows and anchoring: Middle Eastern women in motion, with speakers Daniele Regina Abilas, Mirian Alves and Ana Raietparvar, all from the Center for Middle East Studies at the Fluminense Federal University (NEOM/UFF), on the 1st April, at 2 pm. Opening The opening film of the 3rd Arab Women’s Film Festival is the feature film Lift like a girl (Lift like a girl) by Egyptian director Mayye Zayed. The documentary received the Golden Dove award at the DOK Leipzig festival and follows a 14-year-old Egyptian girl who trains among Egypt’s elite champions to compete internationally in weightlifting. Other feature films opening in Brazil are Foragers, by Palestinian Jumana Manna; Purple Sea, by Amel Alzakout and Khaled Abdulwahed; The Zerda and the Songs of Forgetting and La Nouba des Femmes du Mont-Chenoua, both by Algerian writer Assia Djebar, who died in 2015; and The hour of liberation has arrived, by Lebanese director Heiny Srour, considered the first feature film by an Arab woman to be selected for the Cannes Film Festival, in a restored copy of the film. Among the 21 short films that will be shown, 14 premiere in Brazil. Among them, highlight for As If No Misfortune Had Occurred in the Night, directed by Palestinian director Larissa Sansour; the Life on the Caps trilogy, by Moroccan artist Meriem Bennani; and The Window, by Lebanese Sarah Kaskas. During the program, tributes will be paid to directors Meriem Bennani (Moroccan visual artist who works with animation and contemporary art), Azza El Hassan (Palestinian director who founded the film restoration, curation and production project called The Void Project) and Basma Alsharif ( visual artist and director of Palestinian origin). After Rio de Janeiro, the 3rd Female Arab Film Festival will go to CCBB Brasília and CCBB São Paulo.
Agência Brasil
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