The Sydney Arab Film Festival is becoming a major event on Sydney’s screen cultural calendar – and will be screening at Riverside Theatres Parramatta, 10-13 April 2008.

Sydney Arab Film Festival aims to showcase stories from diverse Arabic speaking cultures to all Australian audiences that reflect the complexity and diversity of Arab experiences. We aim to address the (mis)representations of Arab culture through film by providing critical spaces and giving exposure to alternative representations of Arab culture, Arab commentary and self-representation.

HISTORY

Sydney Arab Film Festival was first held in April 2001 over three days at The Roxy Parramatta as an associated event of Casula Powerhouse’s ‘East of Somewhere’ exhibition. This first Festival was managed by Information and Cultural Exchange (ICE), and was a partnership with Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre, Fairfield Community Resource Centre, Powerhouse Museum (Wattan project) and was supported by New South Wales Film and Television Office, Parramatta City Council and Village Cinema.

In 2004, Information & Cultural Exchange hosted another Sydney Arab Film Festival event: A Big Night of Arab Shorts. It was held at Hoyts Merrylands in conjunction with Holroyd City Fest and showcased local short films by Arab Australian filmmakers.

SAFF ‘05

In 2005, 48 local and internationally produced films were screened across Campbelltown, Parramatta and Bankstown. Some of the highlights included Egyptian Classics from 1947-71, the Australian premiere of Youssef Chahine’s ‘Alexandria New York’, epic drama ‘The Door to the Sun’ which spans 50 years from Palestine in 1948, along with a range of student films from ALBA Fine Arts Academy, Lebanon.

SAFF’07

In 2007, SAFF presented a showcase of cutting-edge Arabic cinema, and hosted three international guests. Egyptian filmmaker Tamer Ezzat introduced and screened his feature-length documentary ‘The Place I Call Home’, while visiting filmmakers Nizar Hasan (Palestine) and Eliane Raheb (Lebanon) screened their films and co-presented at the engaging ‘Under Siege Forum’.

Also premiered at the Festival were ‘Bedwin Hacker’ by Nadia el-Fani (Tunisia), ‘The Last Man’ by Ghassan Salhab (Lebanon), and ‘Leila Khaled – Hijacker’, the highly anticipated documentary with the first female highjacker, by Palestinian Lina Makboul.

SAFF also featured TONE, an audio-visual exhibition of experimental works by Arab Artists (curated by Khaled Sabsabi) presented by Casula Powerhouse.

SAFF’08

The 2008 Sydney Arab Film Festival runs from 10-13 April 2008 and invites you to engage with genuine, diverse stories and narratives about Arab culture. It features international and Australian films made by Arabic-speaking filmmakers, selected from and representing a diversity of experiences, stories and identities. Audiences will have the opportunity to meet and mingle with local and international filmmakers, as well as guest speakers presenting at the film screenings.

SHUKRAN & THANKS
The 2008 Sydney Arab Film Festival has come together with the support and commitment of many individuals, our partners, funding bodies and sponsors. We would like to acknowledge the support of Kon Gouriotis, OAM, Nicholas Tsoutas and Paola Niscioli from Casula Powerhouse, Robert Love, Pene Bloch, Elke Chapman, Jonathon Llewellyn, Ian Phipps and Zillah Morrow from Riverside Theatres – Parramatta, Karly Smith, Tanya Sadeghi-Assl, Vivian Accardo and Jo-Anne Kew from Parramatta City Council, Consul General Tarek Abousenna, Vice Consuls Mohamed Nasr and Bassel Taman, Consulate of Egypt in Sydney, Layla Naji, Tamer Ezzat, Kamal Nassif, Mohamed Tohami, Eman Naggar, Charlotte Harvey, Meiying Saw at ragingyoghurt.org, Louise Balletti Collins and Sandie Don from Hopscotch Films, Ayman Ouda, Palestinian Film Festival (Melbourne), Rasha Salti, CinemaEast, and Sonia El Feki, San Francisco Arab Film Festival.

A SPECIAL SHUKRAN & THANKS to the ICE staff and Management Committee and all the people that come and go from time to time, doing what they can to make things happen including all our volunteers, placements, consultants, family and friends.

GET INVOLVED AND VOLUNTEER during the festival. Send us a message with your information (name, telephone number and email address) and general availability during the festival and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible.

FINANCIAL SUPPORT AND DONATIONS are tax deductable as we are supported by the not-for-profit charitable organisation (ICE). Contact us to make a donation of any kind or if you would like to be a sponsor in 2008.