Hummus: A story of appropriation
Documentry Runtime : 50:43Tuesday (27th October) 6PM (GMT), UTC +0)In one of the oldest cities in the world, an ancient identity has been under threat for almost a century. Violence and discrimination has consumed the narrow streets of East Jerusalem, and this film seeks to document the lives of a Palestinian population struggling to hold on to what little identity they have left. Samer, a young Jerusalemite, tries to maintain his presence in the city despite the Israeli government’s efforts to expel him. Abu-Falah is an aging blacksmith who is constantly harassed into vacating his shop in the old city. Hummus is a metaphor to a Palestinian identity that is constantly under the threat of being hijacked.
Directed by lafi Abood
Lafi Abood is an filmmaker, cinematographer, and entrepreneur. Over the course of a more than 20 years, Lafi has been at the forefront of innovative, multi-disciplinary media productions, from social impact and awareness-raising documentaries to corporate videos and photo exhibitions. Lafi is a Managing Partner of Analog Production, a Dubai-based media house providing production and post-production services to government and corporate clients.
Lyari - Survival of the Fringes
Documentry Runtime : 01:04:Tuesday (27th October) 6PM (GMT), UTC +0)
Lyari is the oldest district of Karachi, Pakistan’s enormous megalopolis. It is here that a marginalized community use donkey-cart racing to escape deadly urban violence and build a world on society’s fringes. All of Pakistan's social, economic and political tensions converge in the city of Karachi. Lyari has been the theatre of armed conflicts that have claimed thousands of lives. In the midst of this violence and instability, Lyari managed to create a unique musical and poetic scene, to promote sports activities and to invent the donkey-cart race. Donkey carters play a key economic role in transporting goods arriving at Karachi’s massive seaport. But being associated with donkeys degrades their status at the lowest levels of society. By focusing on them, the film investigates how Lyariites not only survive in this hostile environment, but reverse the stigma to build a world that restores their dignity.
Directed by:
Luc Bellon
Luc Bellon is an anthropologist. He conducted most of his research in Pakistan between 1998 and 2015. He encountered documentary in the field, working with a wildlife filmmaker in the arid mountains of Balochistan. He trained as a film director in 2010 at the Ateliers Varan. He explores filmic narration as a complement to ethnographic description. He has also developed participatory tools as part of the humanitarian work he actively carries out since 2005 in countries as diverse as Pakistan, Afghanistan, India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Palestine, Libya, Haiti, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Lebanon.