Chicago Palestine Film Festival

24th Annual Chicago Palestine Film Festival

Schedule of Events

1-4pm: THE PALESTINE EXCEPTION

2024, dirs. Jan Haaken and Jennifer Ruth
USA; 70 min.
In English

After years of right-wing assaults on higher education, attacks took a new form in 2023 and 2024 that has been described as the new McCarthyism.  As students across the country organize protests against Israel’s war on Gaza, decades-long taboos in academia around criticism of Israel–the “Palestine exception”–are shattered. This film features professors and students as they join calls for a ceasefire and divestment from companies that do business with Israel and face waves of crackdown from administrators, the media, the police and politicians.  Scholars from diverse disciplines explain what is at stake in these protests and why so many young people identify with the Palestinian cause. The documentary unfolds as a story of college campuses as sites of both rebellion and repression, places where personal and collective histories converge in unexpected ways.

Following the film will be a Q&A.

Preceded by the short films:

SALT

2023, dir. Mateusz Miszczynski, 6 min.

Two boys float on the Dead Sea in a visual poem connected to the spirit of Palestine that considers how strength and perseverance are found amid conflict, drawing parallels with the everyday realities of life in Palestine.

SIRI MIRI

2021, dir. Luay Awwad, 6 min.

Out of boredom and sick of their mundane routine that’s leading them nowhere in life, two Palestinian teens ask Siri for help. Will it work?

THE DEER’S TOOTH

2024, dir. Saif Hammash, 16 min.

The film centers around a young man from a refugee camp who embarks on a perilous journey in order to fulfill his little brother’s wish: To throw his milk tooth into the sea.

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6-9pm: YALLA PARKOUR

2025, dir. Areeb Zuaiter
Sweden, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Palestine; 87 min.
In Arabic and Swedish with English subtitles

In her relentless pursuit of a memory that reinforces her sense of belonging, Areeb crosses paths with Ahmed, a parkour athlete in Gaza, sparking a journey where conflicting aspirations intersect. Nostalgia meets with ambition, and the weight of a confined past meets with an unpredictable future.

Preceded by the short films:

MASHED POTATOES

2024, dir. Suha Araj, 13 min.

While prepping for a Friendsgiving potluck, an Arab couple argues over the merits of a well quoted journalist after the 9/11 attacks.

MAQLUBA

2023, dir. Mike Elsherif, 28 min.

Laila visits her grandmother in her new apartment during a powerful storm under the guise of helping her unpack, but soon the film delves into a macabre fable about two generations of immigrants struggling to deal with displacement, life in the diaspora, and mortality.

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