The Arab Film Festival started in San Francisco in 1996, the San Francisco Examiner reported, as a grassroots response to the lack of real Arab representation in U.S. media. It returns for its 30th edition from Nov. 5 to 14. The Arab Film and Media Institute presents it, and the Examiner calls it the longest-running independent Arab film festival outside the Arab world.
Where
Bay City News lists AMC Kabuki 8, the Castro Theatre and the Roxie Theater in San Francisco, The New Parkway Theater in Oakland, and Alamo Drafthouse Valley Fair in San Jose. Some films can also be streamed.
What's showing
- El Sett, the opening-night film at the Kabuki, is Marwan Hamed's portrait of Egyptian singer Umm Kulthum, starring Mona Zaki. Egyptian producer Mohamed Hefzy will be honored that evening (Bay City News).
- Edward Said: Between Worlds, an archival documentary, is followed by a panel with director Maiken Baird (Bay City News).
- Citizen Osama, from Palestine, follows a war journalist in Gaza. The Examiner said it premiered at the Venice Film Festival.
- In a Whisper, a drama about a Paris-based engineer who returns to Tunisia for her closeted uncle's funeral (Bay City News).
- The Examiner said four films are their countries' submissions for Best International Feature at the 99th Academy Awards, including Egypt's The Stories, Morocco's Strawberries and Jordan's SINK.
The festival at 30
The Examiner reported more than 40 films from 26 countries, with 32 directed by women, nearly 60% of the lineup. AFMI executive director Serge Balakian told the paper the programming now goes well beyond political documentaries to include dramas, comedies and queer cinema. "I think it's critical to be honest, and that also means sometimes you have to be critical," he said.