NYC Arab Film Calendar
Films by, about and related to the Arab World & diaspora screening in the New York City area.
Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother
Latif, a devoutly religious hitman, struggles to balance work, faith and fatherhood. When his wife dies, he embarks on a desperate journey across Houston to protect his children, confronting the forces closing in around him – and the beliefs threatening to unravel within.
Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother
Latif, a devoutly religious hitman, struggles to balance work, faith and fatherhood. When his wife dies, he embarks on a desperate journey across Houston to protect his children, confronting the forces closing in around him – and the beliefs threatening to unravel within.
Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother
Latif, a devoutly religious hitman, struggles to balance work, faith and fatherhood. When his wife dies, he embarks on a desperate journey across Houston to protect his children, confronting the forces closing in around him – and the beliefs threatening to unravel within..
Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother
Latif, a devoutly religious hitman, struggles to balance work, faith and fatherhood. When his wife dies, he embarks on a desperate journey across Houston to protect his children, confronting the forces closing in around him – and the beliefs threatening to unravel within.
Atonement
Tragedy strikes when a U.S. Marine accidentally kills three members of a family during a firefight in Baghdad, Iraq. Haunted by memories of war and racked with guilt, he tries to reconcile with the family matriarch years later.
Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother
Latif, a devoutly religious hitman, struggles to balance work, faith and fatherhood. When his wife dies, he embarks on a desperate journey across Houston to protect his children, confronting the forces closing in around him – and the beliefs threatening to unravel within.
Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother
Latif, a devoutly religious hitman, struggles to balance work, faith and fatherhood. When his wife dies, he embarks on a desperate journey across Houston to protect his children, confronting the forces closing in around him – and the beliefs threatening to unravel within.
Once Upon a Time in the Middle East
Seeking a fresh start, chef Xu Fu travels to the Middle East to run the Dragon Restaurant with manager Ma Junsheng. But when war engulfs the city, their hard-won success is shattered and the restaurant becomes a refuge for those caught in the conflict.
Once Upon a Time in the Middle East
Seeking a fresh start, chef Xu Fu travels to the Middle East to run the Dragon Restaurant with manager Ma Junsheng. But when war engulfs the city, their hard-won success is shattered and the restaurant becomes a refuge for those caught in the conflict.
Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother
Latif, a devoutly religious hitman, struggles to balance work, faith and fatherhood. When his wife dies, he embarks on a desperate journey across Houston to protect his children, confronting the forces closing in around him – and the beliefs threatening to unravel within.
Halal Cart Dreams
Halal Cart Dreams plunges audiences into the claustrophobic, high-stakes ecosystem of New York City’s street food vendors, a world where immigrant hustle collides with systemic exploitation. Screening as part of the New York Shorts International Film Festival.
New York Muslim Film Festival
A one day festival with a curated selection of short films from up-and-coming Muslim artists whose perspectives deserve greater visibility.
Masao Adachi Takes a Passport Photo
A new short film from Palestinian filmmaker Kamal Aljafari following Japanese filmmaker Masao Adachi who does not have a passport, as a consequence of his 1970s involvement with the revolutionary Japanese Red Army. Screening as part of the Spotlight Shorts program at New York Film Festival.
Blood and Water
A wealthy woman switches lives with her twin sister after discovering that her twin is pregnant, in order to keep balance within the ailing family. Screening as part of the New York Shorts International Film Festival.
Synthetic
Synthetic follows Yara, a woman in her late 20s struggling with emotional numbness. She discovers a series of mysterious pills, each designed to induce a specific emotion; Bravery, Love, Happiness, Empathy, and more. Screening as part of the New York Shorts International Film Festival.
Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother
Latif, a devoutly religious hitman, struggles to balance work, faith and fatherhood. When his wife dies, he embarks on a desperate journey across Houston to protect his children, confronting the forces closing in around him – and the beliefs threatening to unravel within.
Frontiers of Dreams and Fears
A documentart about two Palestinian girls growing up in refugee camps in Lebanon and Palestine. Despite the barriers that separate them, the girls form a bond and eventually meet at the border.
Lyd
A story of a city that once connected Palestine to the world - what it once was, what it is now, and what it could have become.
Also Known as Jihadi
Through documents and landscapes we see the passage of a French-Algerian man into a Jihadist network in Syria, but we never actually see the man in question himself.
Also Known as Jihadi
Through documents and landscapes we see the passage of a French-Algerian man into a Jihadist network in Syria, but we never actually see the man in question himself.
Anyab
A gloriously strange collision of horror, comedy, music, satire and surrealism, starring Ahmed Adaweya as Dracula. Described as the Egyptian Rocky Horror Picture Show remake, Anyab is a messy, campy, wildly imaginative cult classic that takes familiar pop-cultural forms and transforms them through an unmistakably Egyptian lens.
One in a Million
Filmed over ten years, One in a Million follows Israa from childhood to adulthood on an extraordinary journey from Syria to Germany — and back again.
Flight Risk
Muhammad’s fruity holiday plans hit a roadblock when he gets stopped by airport security and is accused of running off to join ISIS. Part of the Get Some Laughs shorts program at NewFest38.
Leila and the Wolves
Leila travels across time and space to explore the collective memory of Arab women in Palestine and Lebanon and their hidden role in historical events.
Epicly Palestine’d + Exist
Filmed a decade apart, Epicly Palestin’d and EXIST are two powerful titles trace the rise of skateboarding in Palestine, from its grassroots birth under occupation to one athlete’s journey of resistance on the road to the Olympic qualifiers. Presented by Unibrow Sun & Friendly Strangers Studios.
Who Killed Alex Odeh?
A documentary investigating the 1985 assassination of Palestinian-American activist Alex Odeh.
The Battle of Algiers
Groundbreaking and profoundly influential, Gillo Pontecorvo’s The Battle of Algiers (1966) portrays the Algerian fight for independence from France in the 1950s as violence and brutality escalate. Screening as part of Playback: A Brooklyn Watch Party.
Agora
Three missing people return to a remote town in Tunisia, where the local police inspector, Fathi, tries to unravel the mystery with the help of her friend Amine. Then a second inspector arrives from the capital. Part of the Cinema Arabiyya film series.
Bouchra
Bouchra, a 35-year-old Moroccan coyote in New York, documents her long-distance relationship with her mother in Casablanca, as they explore together the love, pain, and secrets that unite them through calls and intimate conversations. Presented by Friendly Strangers Studios.
Put Your Soul On Your Hand and Walk
Captured through a filmmaker's video calls with Palestinian photojournalist Fatma Hassona, these calls act as a powerful digital lifeline to the realities of war, resistance and survival. Screening as part of Voices of Francophone Cinema Festival.
Blessed Blessed Oblivion
An early work by Jumana Manna offers a portrait of masculine performativity in East Jerusalem, as manifested in gyms, body shops, and hairdressing parlors. Part of a selection that explores cinema’s desire-producing capacity as well as the often-elided place of desire, love, eroticism, and sensuality in social movements. Part of the program Combat Breathing: Read My Desire: Part 2.
Oceania
A short film revolves around the entwined personal and socio-political yearnings of its teenage diasporic protagonist, Najib. Part of a selection that brings together historical and contemporary works to explore cinema’s desire-producing capacity as well as the often-elided place of desire, love, eroticism, and sensuality in social movements. Part of the program Combat Breathing: Read My Desire, Part 1.
The Little Sister
Fatima, the youngest child at seventeen, navigates the delicate balance of her evolving identity, queer attraction, and deep devotion to her French-Algerian relatives. Screening as part of the Voices of Francophone Cinema Festival.
Masao Adachi Takes a Passport Photo
A new short film from Palestinian filmmaker Kamal Aljafari following Japanse filmmaker Masao Adachi who does not have a passport, as a consequence of his 1970s involvement with the revolutionary Japanese Red Army. Screening as part of the Spotlight Shorts program at New York Film Festival.
Bardi
For her majestic work of earthy imagination, filmmaker and photographer Tala Hadid immersed herself in the rugged, fraternal world of a group of horse-riders in central Morocco, as they take part in an equestrian military ritual that dates to the 16th century. Screening as part of New York Film Festival.
Perpetual Recurrences
A montage of scenes extracted from numerous films and videos created over the last four decades by Palestinians and about Palestine. Part of the Combat Breathing series.
Joy of Joys
This exuberant yet sobering documentary from Jonathan Glazer—with the help of London schoolkids equipped with cameras—goes behind the scenes at Abbey Road to capture the recording of a charity album from War Child Records, which aids children in conflict zones.
American Doctor
American Doctor is a vérité non-fiction film following three prominent American physicians—Palestinian, Jewish and Zoroastrian—friends who couldn’t be more different but are bound by their shared oath to save lives.
Tallahassee
A portrayal of a young woman’s re-entry into the world, which offers a glimpse into struggles around mental illness, an issue often silenced and pathologized in Arab culture. Screening as part of New York Kurdish Festival.
Oh Shining Star Testify
An audiovisual poem that seeks to account for and speculate on the possibilities of fugitive resurgences within, under, and beyond the ruins of colonial catastrophe. Part of a selection that brings together contemporary artworks that emerge from commitments to or embeddedness within political struggles and streams of anti-imperialist thought. Part of the Combat Breathing: Insurgent Poiesis program.
Bardi
For her majestic work of earthy imagination, filmmaker and photographer Tala Hadid immersed herself in the rugged, fraternal world of a group of horse-riders in central Morocco, as they take part in an equestrian military ritual that dates to the 16th century. Screening as part of New York Film Festival.
Edward Said: Between Worlds
The life and mind of Edward Said, a professor, author, and world-renowned advocate for the Palestinian cause, fuels Maiken Baird’s rich, engrossing documentary, made up entirely of archival footage. Screening as part of New York Film Festival.
Do You Love Me
A playful and personal journey through Lebanon’s audiovisual memory, composed entirely of archival footage. It is a love letter to Beirut, spanning 70 years of film, TV, home videos, and photography, exploring the Lebanese collective psyche – marked by joy and intimacy, destruction and loss. Presented by Friendly Strangers Studios.
Joy of Joys
This exuberant yet sobering documentary from Jonathan Glazer—with the help of London schoolkids equipped with cameras—goes behind the scenes at Abbey Road to capture the recording of a charity album from War Child Records, which aids children in conflict zones. Screening as part of New York Film Festival.
The Wayfinders
A short film by Peggy Ahwesh. The uncanny landscapes of Lebanon, Syria, and occupied Palestine provide the setting for The Wayfinders, which turns a 2004 3D flight simulation program into a rumination upon themes of loss, displacement, and the right of return.
My Country, My Country
Laura Poitras creates an extraordinarily intimate portrait of Iraqis living under US occupation, focussing on a medical doctor and political candidate passionate about establishing democracy in Iraq.
Amreeka
A Palestinian divorcée wins a green card lottery and arrives in rural Illinois with her teenage son seeking a better life just as the US invades Iraq in the debut feature film by director Cherien Dabis.
American Doctor
American Doctor is a vérité non-fiction film following three prominent American physicians—Palestinian, Jewish and Zoroastrian—friends who couldn’t be more different but are bound by their shared oath to save lives.
The Wayfinders [Short] (+ Q&A)
A short film by Peggy Ahwesh. The uncanny landscapes of Lebanon, Syria, and occupied Palestine provide the setting for The Wayfinders, which turns a 2004 3D flight simulation program into a rumination upon themes of loss, displacement, and the right of return.
Atonement (+ Q&A)
A troubled marine seeks to reconcile with the survivors of an Iraqi family he and his unit fired on back in 2003.
Traces of Home
Filmmaker Colette Ghunim embarks on journeys with her parents to find the ancestral houses they were forced to flee as children in Mexico and Palestine.
Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother
The story of devoutly religious hitman who struggles to balance work, faith and fatherhood.
![Don’t Be Long, Little Bird [short]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a46dc11bda13c785219595f/1789841617673-A57UZ3RPD6D4ZE64E2LQ/images.jpeg)
Don’t Be Long, Little Bird [short]
American-born teen, Rima the Lost One, unites with her great-grandmother, also named Rima, on a time-travel journey to 1930s Palestine.
My Country, My Country
Laura Poitras creates an extraordinarily intimate portrait of Iraqis living under US occupation, focussing on a medical doctor and political candidate passionate about establishing democracy in Iraq.
American Doctor (+ Q&A)
American Doctor is a vérité non-fiction film following three prominent American physicians—Palestinian, Jewish and Zoroastrian—friends who couldn’t be more different but are bound by their shared oath to save lives.
The Battle of Algiers
A revolutionary film about the national liberation struggle in Algeria.
Amreeka
A Palestinian divorcée wins a green card lottery and arrives in rural Illinois with her teenage son seeking a better life just as the US invades Iraq in the debut feature film by director Cherien Dabis.
American Doctor
American Doctor is a vérité non-fiction film following three prominent American physicians—Palestinian, Jewish and Zoroastrian—friends who couldn’t be more different but are bound by their shared oath to save lives.
Is there a NYC Arab film event missing from this calendar? Submit your event here.