Check out screenings at several local venues Oct.17-26
BOSTON — The 19th installment of the Boston Palestine Film Festival is set to launch next this week, featuring a wide range of films exploring the beauty, tragedy and complexity of the Palestinian experience.
“I’m proud that the festival has lasted nearly two decades. The mission is the same: to showcase Palestinian stories, bring people together, and remind audiences of Palestine’s deep, beautiful history that continues to live on,” said Michael Maria, programming director of the festival.
Running from Oct. 17 to Oct. 26, BPFF will take place across Boston, with screenings at venues including the Coolidge Corner Theatre and the Museum of Fine Arts. This year’s lineup includes a mix of feature films, shorts and documentaries.
“We’re opening with “Thank You for Banking with Us” by Leila Abbas. She’ll be here in Boston for the screening and a Q&A. The film leans comedic but addresses serious issues—particularly female empowerment within a patriarchal Palestinian society,” Maria said.
The festival, especially over the past two years, has inevitably been shaped by the war in Gaza. Maria acknowledged both the tension and criticism from festivalgoers regarding how the event engages with the political climate.
“Of course, there are always critics who ask, ‘Why open with this [“Thank You for Banking with Us”] when genocide is happening in Gaza?’ But I stand by the choice. The Palestinian story has many dimensions, and it’s important to represent them all,” Maria said.
While the current fragile ceasefire does offer a rare moment of respite for Palestinians in Gaza, Maria insists that headlines do not necessarily dictate the content of the festival, but by the commitment of showcasing every Palestinian story.
“Our moods have not dramatically changed … Palestinians still remain hostage in Israel, Israeli aggressions against Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza continue, the entire population in Gaza still desperately needs aid, and the path to rebuilding and governing Gaza needs to be led by Palestinians. There is a long road ahead,” Maria said about the mood of the festival post-ceasefire.
One theme in this year’s schedule focuses not only on Gaza but also on the contradictions of the diaspora experience—the yearning for a land, people and culture while living far from home.
“Mashed Potatoes,” Palestinian American Suha Araj’s short film, is a darkly comic interpretation of the expat experience and how racism has reverberated through American society. It takes aim at Thomas Friedman, a prominent U.S. political commentator.
“Thomas Friedman was dangerous because his dehumanization was subtle. That becomes the baseline: Palestinians are less than. And then you go from there,” Araj said.
With divisions deepening across the world, the festival’s organizers and filmmakers hope audiences will find the screenings to be a place of dialogue, culture and connection. Rather than fueling division, they see the event as an invitation for people from all backgrounds to share in the richness of Palestinian stories.
As Araj points out, Palestinian cinema has long needed comedy to bring audiences together in both strategic and humorous ways.
“I realized how few comedies we had. But when you’re around Arabs, we’re laughing all the time. I wanted to capture that. Comedy is disarming. It takes your guard down and allows you to see yourself in the moment,” Araj said.
The festival will also feature cultural programming beyond film, including a knafeh cooking class on Oct. 25 and several art exhibits across Boston.
Still, organizers stress that the Palestinian experience has been deeply shaped by tragedy across generations. The aim of the festival is not to provoke political debate, but to illuminate the full range of experience: the grief, the beauty and the fleeting moments of joy.
It is a festival aimed at creating artwork to explain a culture that is too often misunderstood..
“At this point, creating is the gift. If it lands with someone, it lands. The necessity to create is where it comes from,” Araj added.
Full festival schedule at the Boston Palestine Film Festival website: bostonpalestinefilmfest.org/live-screenings/.
This article was produced for HorizonMass, the independent, student-driven, news outlet of the Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism and is syndicated by BINJ’s MassWire news service.
