Screen/Society--Films of James Longley--"SARI'S MOTHER + GAZA STRIP"

Wednesday, October 20, 2010 - 3:00pm to 4:30pm
Screen/Society--Films of James Longley--"SARI'S MOTHER + GAZA STRIP"

The Barbaralee Diamonstein-Spielvogel Visiting Filmmaker Series presents:
Sari's Mother + Gaza Strip

Sari's Mother
(James Longley, 2006, 21 min, USA, in Arabic w/ English subtitles, Color, DVD)

Filmed in Iraq over a period of one year, Sari's Mother is a short documentary that follows the struggle of an Iraqi mother to find help for her 10-year-old son, Sari, who is dying of AIDS (contracted during a blood transfusion). The Zegum family lives in the restive Mahmudiyah area of central Iraq. They make their living by selling milk and butter, farming land rented from their neighbors. As the film opens US military helicopters are flying low over their fields. Sari’s mother administers injections to her son, whose condition is gradually deteriorating as his immune system fails. She seeks help in Baghdad’s hospitals and ministries, but discovers that the Iraqi healthcare system is in even worse condition under US occupation than before the war.
-- Part of the Barbaralee Diamonstein-Spielvogel Visiting Filmmaker Series: Films of James Longley.

-- Nominated for Best Documentary at the 2008 Academy Awards; winner of the Golden Gate Award at the 2007San Francisco International Film Festival!

Gaza Strip
(James Longley, 2002, 74 min, USA, in Arabic w/ English subtitles, Color, DVD)

In January of 2001, American director James Longley traveled to the Gaza Strip. His plan was to stay for two weeks to collect preliminary material for a documentary film on the Palestinian Intifada. It was during his stay that Ariel Sharon was elected as Israeli Prime Minister. As violence erupted around him, Longley threw away his return ticket and filmed for the next three months, acquiring nearly 75 hours of footage. Gaza Strip, his first feature documentary, is an extraordinary and painful journey into the lives of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip struggling with the day-to-day trials of the Israeli occupation. Filmed in verité style and without narration, Gaza Strip at last gives voice to a population largely ignored by mainstream media.
-- Part of the Barbaralee Diamonstein-Spielvogel Visiting Filmmaker Series.

Cost: Free and Open to the Public

Sponsors: Program in Arts of the Moving Image (AMI), Center for Documentary Studies, Libraries-Special Collections and Libraries

Bryan Center Griffith Film Theater