Through an interweaving of short films and readings, this program includes offerings by Adam HajYahia, Charisse Pearlina Weston, Mona Benyamin and Jon Jon Moore Palacios to think alongside questions that inform The 8th Floor’s current exhibition, An Inherent Undoing.

Bringing together selected works made between 2002 and 2020, the program offers an overview of Rabih Mroué's moving-image-based practice that has persistently examined the relation between production of images, personal memory, and political history.

In April 2023, biologists published a study proving that plants emit sounds when subjected to various types of stress. These ultrasonic sounds remind me of the silence of our time, burying suffering. Bursts of flowers flicker along a filmstrip, just before or right after the flames.

This tragic and inspiring depiction of Gaza’s protest movement reveals exclusive footage filmed during the Great March Of Return protests, when 200 unarmed civilians were killed by Israeli snipers.

Algerian filmmaker Yanis Koussim makes his feature debut with this unsettling horror fable that reshapes the exorcism genre to its own disturbing and politically meaningful ends.

Nominated for Best Documentary Feature at the 86th Academy Awards, Moujaim’s film traces the ongoing Egyptian Revolution of 2011, immersing its viewer in the intense drama of young people on the streets of Cairo.

This experimental non-fiction video gives a glimpse of such a passage through a brief encounter with Mustafa, a musician who lives in Rabat, Morocco.

This retrospective marks the recent digital restoration of Iraqi-Lebanese filmmaker Parine Jaddo's 16mm and 35mm short films, and their first presentation to audiences in over two decades.

From Sudan to Syria, these three documentaries spotlight the power of youth to affect change, and an ability to overcome any obstacle to tell their stories.

This tragic and inspiring depiction of Gaza’s protest movement reveals exclusive footage filmed during the Great March Of Return protests, when 200 unarmed civilians were killed by Israeli snipers.

Named for her daughter, For Sama depicts Waad al-Kateab’s life through five years in Aleppo amid the Syrian uprising.

A Palestinian family hosts a young American tourist after a simple misunderstanding. But as chaos unfolds in their village, it doesn't take too long for them to become part of the absurd mayhem that immediately ensues.

In this film, 12 wonderful, funny, tragic and crazy satirical cartoonists from around the world defend democracy with a single weapon, a pencil, at the risk of their own lives.

This documentary follows the rise to widespread fame of Egyptian singer Umm Kulthum.

Named for her daughter, For Sama depicts Waad al-Kateab’s life through five years in Aleppo amid the Syrian uprising.

From Sudan to Syria, these three documentaries spotlight the power of youth to affect change, and an ability to overcome any obstacle to tell their stories.

A daughter unravels the disappearance of her father, the peaceful opposition leader to Qaddafi, and pieces together her mother’s 19-year search to find him in this raw and reflective documentary, winner of the Jury Prize at the Marrakech International Film Festival.

Nominated for Best Documentary Feature at the 86th Academy Awards, Moujaim’s film traces the ongoing Egyptian Revolution of 2011, immersing its viewer in the intense drama of young people on the streets of Cairo.

A benefit screening for Lebanon of 3 short films that recount poetically visceral stories of Palestinian and Lebanese dispossession and exile caused by the Israeli occupation.

mine, a Palestinian elder, is exiled twice from land and labour. He is displaced from his birthplace Haifa seeking refuge in Beirut, and again to Zirku Island, for work on an offshore oil platform and work camp in the Arab Gulf.

Férid Boughedir’s documentary, which premiered at Cannes in 1983, recalls the first 20 years of the new auteur cinema of sub-Saharan Africa indefatigable—and still-enduring—drive for self-expression.

In the 1950s, fear and violence escalate as the people of Algiers fight for independence from the French government.

When a 9-year-old girl from a quaint Somali village goes missing, her older sister and two friends set out on a journey to find her in Mohammed Sheikh’s debut feature, a celebration of courage, loyalty, and humanity.

Férid Boughedir’s passionate, fast-paced documentary links politically engaged Arab cinema from the 1960s onward to major historical events, highlighting how directors grappled with questions of identity and expression.

Two Arab films included in a selection of short films where defense is key to evolution.

In the 1950s, fear and violence escalate as the people of Algiers fight for independence from the French government.

Premiere of the first falafel western by Jaafar Alnabi

This film centers Palestinian voices and experiences while connecting the Free Palestine movement to Black, Chicano, and other collective struggles.

A Palestinian single mom and her teenage son immigrate to rural Illinois with dreams of a better future. But starting a new life proves harder than imagined, and she and her son are forced to face hardship in the bittersweet search for a place to call home.

Two Arab films included in an assortment of new and recent short films made in Egypt, South Africa, Uganda, Cameroon, and the African diaspora explores the weight of choice and autonomy.

Teenage Nafisa becomes the center of a power play to determine the future of her cotton-farming village when a foreign businessman arrives with a new development plan and genetically engineered cotton.

A short film by an Arab-Canadian filmmaker included in a set of recent short films made in Canada, the US, Belgium, Senegal, France, the UK, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo shoots for the stars with optimistic aspirations.

A look at the lives and works of some of the women who have joined in the fight for their Palestinian homeland.