1. NEW DVD SHOP and new DVDs
2. COUNTING TILES online followed by a Q&A with the director
3. IN VITRO in Zurich
4. IN THE FUTURE THEY ATE FROM THE FINEST PORCELAIN in Berlin
5. ERASED,___ASCENT OF THE INVISIBLE in Berlin
6. WAJIB Open Air in Nuernberg
7. AD HOC PROGRAMS and SUMMER LEAVE
---------------------------      

1. NEW DVD SHOP and new DVDs

The new mec film DVD Shop is online! In it you find films from the mec film catalogue as well as some additional movies from the Arab region.

New in the mec film DVD Edition are feature-length feature CHRONIC by Mohamad Sabbah, which Joseph Fahim elaborates on in his text Arab Queer Cinema Emerges to Break Taboos; the UNHCR AWARD Best Feature Film on a Refugee Theme winner COUNTING TILES by Cynthia Choucair, shot in 2016 on Lesbos, about which the director says: "When I was two years-old, my parents fled the civil war in Lebanon and went to Athens. Today, 40 years later, history is repeating itself, with different people and myself in that same place looking at it from a different perspective"; Sherif Elbendary's short warm multi award winning DRY HOT SUMMERS about "two real personalities that we know well and we see them or their peers every day in the streets of Cairo but we do not talk about them or see them" (Elbendary); and Rana Eid's PANOPTIC: Panoptic is a visual work, but Eid’s ability to play these images against experimental soundscapes results in a harrowing, affecting and captivating debut. (4: 3 - Four Three Film)
--------------------------      

2. COUNTING TILES online followed by a Q&A with the director

Cynthia Chouciar's personal political documentary will be streamed at the Shoman Foundation in Jordan on August 11, 2020 (without geoblocking), after which the director will be available for questions and answers with the audience (event in Arabic language). Please check the exact time and link with the Shoman Foundation.

Content
A group of clowns travel to the Greek island of Lesvos on a mission to bring laughter to the waves of refugees crossing the sea to escape from war and enter Europe. Unwittingly, the clowns find themselves greeted with closed gates witnessing the effects of new policies enacted by the European Union towards the refugees.
Cynthia, the sister of one of the clowns, joins them on their journey which slowly becomes a reflection on the sisters’ own tale of displacement during the Lebanese civil war.
documentary, Cynthia Choucair, Lebanon 2018, 87 min, Arabic
more
--------------------------      

3. IN VITRO in Zurich

Larissa Sansour & Soren Lind's short black and white dystopia shows at the Palestine Arts Festival in Zurich (Switzerland) at the end of August 2020.

Content
In Vitro is set in the aftermath of an eco-disaster. An abandoned nuclear reactor under the biblical town of Bethlehem has been converted into an enormous orchard. Using heirloom seeds collected in the final days before the apocalypse, a group of scientists are preparing to replant the soil above.
In the hospital wing of the underground compound, the orchard’s ailing founder, 70-year-old Dunia is lying in her deathbed, as 30-year-old Alia comes to visit her. Alia is born underground as part of a comprehensive cloning program and has never seen the town she’s destined to rebuild.
short Sci-fi, Larissa Sansour & Soren Lind, Palestine/Denmark/UK 2019, 28 min, digital, picture ratio 1:2.66, Arabic with English subtitles
more
-----------------------------      

4. IN THE FUTURE THEY ATE FROM THE FINEST PORCELAIN in Berlin

The sci-fi by Larissa Sansour and Soren Lind shows from August 13 till 16 and August 20 till 23 between 1.30pm and 5.30 pm at silent green in Berlin (Germany).

Content
In the Future They Ate From the Finest Porcelain resides in the cross-section between sci-fi, archaeology and politics. Combining live motion and CGI, the film explores the role of myth for history, fact and national identity.
A narrative resistance group makes underground deposits of elaborate porcelain – suggested to belong to an entirely fictional civilization. Their aim is to influence history and support future claims to their vanishing lands.
short Sci-fi, Larissa Sansour & Søren Lind, Palestine / UK / Denmark / Qatar 2015, 29 min, cinescope, color, Arabic with Engl. ST
more
-------------------------------      

5. ERASED,___ASCENT OF THE INVISIBLE in Berlin

Ghassan Halwani's award winning documentary showed on July 11 in the framework of the exhibition Where have all the Jasemines Gone? at ArtLab Berlin (Germany).

Content
Thirty-five years ago, I witnessed the kidnapping of a man I know.
He has disappeared since.
Ten years ago, I caught a glimpse of his face while walking in the street, but I wasn’t sure it was him.
Parts of his face were torn off, but his features had remained unchanged since the incident. Yet something was different, as if he wasn’t the same man.
essay-documentary, Lebanon 2018, color and black & white, 76 min, Arabic and English with English subtitles
more
----------------------------------      

6. WAJIB Open Air in Nuenberg

Cinemas slowly re-open and Annemarie Jacir's WAJIB is back on the big screen. In early July it showed in the open air cinema in Nuenberg (Germany).

Content
Abu Shadi is a divorced father and a school teacher in his mid-60s living in Nazareth. After his daughter’s wedding in one month he will be living alone. Shadi, his architect son, arrives from Rome after years abroad to help his father in hand delivering the wedding invitations as per local Palestinian custom. As the estranged pair spend the day together, the tense details of their relationship come to a head challenging their fragile and very different lives.
fiction, Annemarie Jacir, Palestine/France/Germany/Colombia/Norway/Qatar/UAE 2017, 96 min, Arabic with German ST
more
-----------------------------------      

7. AD HOC PROGRAMS AND SUMMER LEAVE

Despite some careful opening, there are still countless online activities in which also films from the mec film catalogue are presented. As the programs often have a rather ad hoc character, the annoucement of screenings is not possible via the monthly newsletter. You find updates on the screening at the startpage of the mec film website.

In August, as usual, the office is not fully operating.