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hirakismail's picture

Final Teach-In

Attached are the geometric shapes and our attempt to represent them!

They have been scanned side to side so it is easier to see the original and the drawing on one single page.

Enjoy :)

(This is for Sruthi, Graham, and I )

Pomegranates and Myrrh

About the Film
Year Released: 
2009
Running Time: 
95
Documentary/Fiction: 
Fiction
Synopsis: 

Dancer Kamar’s joyful wedding to Zaid is followed almost immediately by Zaid’s imprisonment in an Israeli jail for refusing to give up his land. Free-spirited Kamar wants to support her husband and be a dutiful wife but struggles with the idea of giving up dance and her own dreams. Matters are complicated when a new dance instructor, Kais, returns to the studio after many years in Lebanon and takes a special interest in Kamar. She struggles to deal with the weight of Kais’s attention, which brings to the surface her attempts to balance her own desires with her duties as the wife of a prisoner.

Like the character of Kamar herself, Najwa Najjar’s filmmaking (in her debut feature) is matter-of-fact about Kamar’s situation. Instead of manufacturing melodrama, Najjar stays focused on her protagonist’s insistence on seeing her life, like anyone else’s, as an opportunity for joy. The constant interference of the external conflict—her husband’s arrest, the squatters on her land, and the soldiers filling the streets—is an unavoidable aspect of Kamar’s existence but one that she will not allow to deter her. Najjar’s intimate storytelling and Yasmine Al Massri’s sensitive portrayal of Kamar create a film that addresses honestly the way a woman might face the realities of life in modern-day Palestine while refusing to be defined by them.

-Heidi Zwicker, Sundance Film Festival, 2009

Poster Image: 
Director
Film Director: 
Production Info
Reported or Estimated Budget: 
"Our company Ustura Films managed to bring in money for the local production budget.The funds that were brought in covered the six-member foreign crew and post-production costs...However, financing even a low-budget film takes time." - Najwa Najjar
Location: 
Ramallah, Palestine
Other Interesting Production Info: 
"Finally three years ago I was ready to start; but the political situation in the country worsened. Unable to move between Ramallah and Jerusalem and the consequent fear of the foreign crews coming here, followed by the death of one of our co-producers, forced us to stop production of Pomegranates and Myrrh." -Najwa Najjar (This Week in Palestine, January 2008)
Categories About the Film
Genre: 
dance
drama
romance
Keywords: 
incarceration
state violence and security
Racial/Ethnic Affiliation: 
Palestinian
Filmmaking Team
Writer's Name: 
Najwa Najjar
Producer: 
Hani E. Cort
Cinematographer: 
Valentina Caniglia
Primary Cast: 
Hiam Abbass, Ashraf Farah, Samia Kuzmoz, Yasmine Al Massri, Ali Suleiman, Yousef Abu Wardeh
Exhibition/Distribution Info
Distributor: 
Ustura Films
Where to find it/How to get it: 
Rare and hard to find
Festivals/Awards: 

Dubai International Film Festival, 2008 (World Premiere)

 Sundance International Film Festival, 2009 (International Premiere)     

International Film Festival Rotterdam, 2009

Göteborg International Film Festival, 2009

Fribourg International Film Festival, 2009

Galway Film Festival, 2009

Edinburgh Film Festival, 2009

Durban Film Festival, 2009

Montréal Film Festival, 2009

Locarno Film Festival, 2009

Espoo Film Festival, 2009

Fukuoka International Film Festival, 2009

Palestine Film Festival, 2009

Warsaw Film Festival, 2009

Doha Tribeca Film Festival, 2009 (Best Arab Film Audience Award)

Cairo International Film Festival, 2009

Leeds International Film Festival, 2009

 Amal Arab European Film Festival , 2009 (Grand Prix Award)

Amiens International Film Festival, 2009

Dubai International Film Festival, 2009

Lyon Fenêtres sur le cinéma du Sud, 2010

Aichi International Women's Film Festival, 2010

Festival International de Cinéma d’Auteur de Rabat, 2010 (Youssef Chahine Grand Prix de Cinema)

ekthorp's picture

Final Presentation

Hi guys,

here are my images from today's activity. Thank you so much for playing this game with me. I really really enjoyed having this day to just relax with all of you and play some fun games, listen to a soothing serenade, eat some yummy lemon bars, and appreciate everyone's writing. I loved listening to everyone's guess at location. I was a little worried before class that my activity wouldn't go over well; that y'all would think it was too simple or dull. But it seemed like eveeryone enjoyed the guessing game, especially when they thought the picture might have been taken close to their site-sit spot. I'm not quite sure where I came up with the idea- I was originally planning on blindfolding everyone and having them smell different plants I had taken from around campus and guessing what they were. From that idea the concept evolved to explore how much we miss visually, even though we consider it one of our more prominent and neccessary senses. I think my project interacted very well with Sarah and Sara's because it challanges our comfort with our perception.. We think we know an area  well, but we are constantly missing so much of our surroudings. I also think my project was align with Grahm, Sruthi, and Hira's work, because it questioned our ability to visually associate and represent. Overall, I think everyone's projects fit together very well. Thank you, everyone for giving me an very open and honest semester, summed up in such a wonderful class.

Sarah's picture

Memo 3

My memo addressed one of my struggles throughout the semester in the Cannery, which was the power dynamic between the Bryn Mawr and the Cannery women.  I imagined what to would look like to revise our class through the PAR approach and discussed obstacles that would make this difficult, and successes in the class that put us on the right track to PAR.

Anne Dalke's picture

Plans for tomorrow, and for Monday

Anne Dalke's picture

Towards Day 27 (Thurs, Dec. 13) : Our Teach-In!

PCSJS Portfolio's picture

Intro to Peace and Conflict Studies

I began taking courses towards the Peace, Conflict, and Social Justice concentration during the fall of my freshman year, but I did not end up taking the required “Intro to Peace and Conflict Studies” course until my very last semester. I was not the only one in this predicament: the class seemed to be mainly comprised of seniors fulfilling a major or minor requirement at the last minute, and freshmen taking the introductory course as a way to try out a new field.  Those of us doing things in reverse order were in an interesting situation, because we were learning about many topics that we had previously explored in detail in whole other courses, but were only first getting a broader, contextual understanding of.  One of the most thought provoking parts of the course was learning about the theory behind nonviolent direct action and its relation to theories of political power.  I have spent a lot of time studying the successes and failures of social movements in political science courses, and have also been involved in nonviolent direct action myself as an activist.

froggies315's picture

teach-in

This class has been different than all the other classes I’ve taken in college.  Last week, when I started writing reflections about this semester, they were huge, sprawling, and unfocused.  My reflecting transported me all around my memory, and I realized as I wrote that all of my learning from this class happened inside of my head.  For me, this semester was characterized by introspection.  When my thoughts turned to this final teach-in, I couldn’t figure out how to make my learning interactive.  So I didn’t.  I decided to read some of my reflections.  I end with an invitation for interaction.

PCSJS Portfolio's picture

PJSA Conference

I was lucky to be able to attend the Peace and Justice Studies Association Annual Conference at Tufts University in October, 2012.  Many of the sessions I attended were relevant to my coursework and extracurricular activities, but a few in particular stood out.  One was called “Living Our Way Into the Answers: A Workshop on Transformative Pedagogy.”  The workshop had about thirty participants, and ended up being split relatively evenly between students and professors.  Much of the conversation, therefore, ended up being a dialogue about what transformative pedagogy means for students versus the perspective that educators have.  Many professors talked about how difficult it can be to introduce radical pedagogy in a system obsessed with learning objectives and outcomes, and how emotionally drained they felt – like they just didn’t have the energy to be “transformative” anymore.  It became clear throughout the workshop that many people feel that dialogue-based classrooms have the potential to affect attitudes toward peace on a societal level, but still struggled on how to implement such pedagogy.

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