Soufra (also known as Soufra Kitchen) [1] is a non-governmental catering company founded by Mariam Shaar in the refugee camp in Bourj el Barajneh in Beirut, Lebanon. [2] It employs women in the camp where they attempt to revive traditional Palestinian dishes, sell them via their catering business and a food truck, and earn a livelihood. [3] [1]
Soufra was the subject of a documentary of the same name which was directed by Thomas Morgan and executive produced by Susan Sarandon. It released in 2017. [4] [5] The film won two awards at the 2018 San Diego International Film Festival including the Audience Award for Best Documentary. [6]
Susan Abigail Sarandon is an American actor. She is the recipient of various accolades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award, in addition to nominations for a Daytime Emmy Award, six Primetime Emmy Awards, and nine Golden Globe Awards. In 2002, she was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
The International Rescue Committee (IRC) is a global humanitarian aid, relief, and development nongovernmental organization. Founded in 1933 as the International Relief Association, at the request of Albert Einstein, and changing its name in 1942 after amalgamating with the similar Emergency Rescue Committee, the IRC provides emergency aid and long-term assistance to refugees and those displaced by war, persecution, or natural disaster. The IRC is currently working in about 40 countries and 26 U.S. cities where it resettles refugees and helps them become self-sufficient. It focuses mainly on health, education, economic wellbeing, power, and safety.
Promises is a 2001 documentary film that examines the Israeli–Palestinian conflict from the perspectives of seven children living in the Palestinian communities in the West Bank and Israeli neighborhoods of Jerusalem. Promises has been shown at many film festivals and received excellent reviews and many accolades.
Mai Masri is a Palestinian filmmaker, director and producer. Her films are primarily documentaries which focus on the real life struggles of the women and children living in the occupied Palestinian territories and Lebanon. She has received over 60 international awards for her films and is hailed as a pioneer in the Middle Eastern film industry.
Stephen Roark Gyllenhaal is an American film director and poet. He is the father of actors Jake and Maggie Gyllenhaal.
Joseph Allen Travolta is an American actor. He is the older brother of actor John Travolta.
Middle Eastern cinema collectively refers to the film industries of West Asia and part of North Africa. By definition, it encompasses the film industries of Egypt, Iran, Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Palestine, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. As such, the film industries of these countries are also part of the cinema of Asia, or in the case of Egypt, Africa.
Cecilia Peck is an American film producer, director and actress. She is the younger of two children of actor Gregory Peck and his second wife Veronique Passani.
Cinema of Palestine refers to films made in Palestine and/or by Palestinian filmmakers. Palestinian films are not exclusively produced in Arabic and some are produced in English and French.
Mohammad Bakri is a Palestinian actor and film director.
The cinema of Lebanon, according to film critic and historian Roy Armes, is the only other cinema in the Arabic-speaking region, beside Egypt's, that could amount to a national cinema. Cinema in Lebanon has been in existence since the 1920s, and the country has produced more than 500 films.
Annemarie Jacir is a Palestinian filmmaker, writer, and producer.
Slingshot Hip Hop is a 2008 documentary film directed by Jackie Reem Salloum that traces the history and development of hip hop in the Palestinian territories from the time DAM pioneered the art form in the late 1990s. It braids together the stories of young Palestinian artists living in Gaza, the West Bank, and inside Israel as they discover hip hop, and employ it as a tool to surmount divisions imposed by occupation and poverty.
Akram Al-Ashqar is a Palestinian film director global, photographer and IT professional. He was born in the city of Tulkarm in the West Bank.
Palestinians in Lebanon include the Palestinian refugees who fled to Lebanon during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, their descendants, the Palestinian militias which resided in Lebanon in the 1970s and 1980s, and Palestinian nationals who moved to Lebanon from countries experiencing conflict, such as Syria. There are roughly 3,000 registered Palestinians and their descendants who hold no identification cards, including refugees of the 1967 Naksa. Many Palestinians in Lebanon are refugees and their descendants, who have been barred from naturalisation, retaining stateless refugee status. However, some Palestinians, mostly Christian women, have received Lebanese citizenship, in some cases through marriage with Lebanese nationals.
Hind Shoufani is a poet, director, and producer.
The San Diego International Film Festival is an independent film festival in San Diego, California, produced by the nonprofit San Diego Film Foundation. The main event has traditionally been held annually in autumn at venues in the Gaslamp Quarter, La Jolla, and Balboa Park.
Mahdi Fleifel is a Danish-Palestinian film director. Often examining themes of social injustice, Fleifel's films largely convey the struggles of Palestinians in exile.
The United Nations Association Film Festival (UNAFF) is an international documentary film festival. It was founded by Jasmina Bojic, a Stanford educator and film critic, in 1998 to honor the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The festival showcases documentaries related to human rights and social issues/solutions and holds discussion forums with experts on the topics.