Astray

A Palestinian couple resorts to an unusual way to conceive as the husband is detained in an Israeli jail where visits are restricted.

A story within a story, fragments from the filmmaker's life in post civil-war Beirut lead into a fictional tale of two lovers and fatal madness. Soon, the male narrator's authority is interrupted by a female voice who recounts her own version of the story.

Blending fiction and documentary, Aisha (Surviving) follows the gaze of an Arab-American filmmaker making a film about her immigrant cousin--a woman whose inner voice slowly disrupts the orientalizing narrative, revealing an emotional landscape marked by estrangement, cultural dissonance, and desire.

Broken Record is a poetic journey through Iraq in search of an Iraqi/Turkman song, which the filmmaker Parine Jaddo’s mother used to sing, and recorded with her brothers in 1960. Though she knows the melody, she no longer remembers the lyrics and her curiosity takes her around the country in search of it, giving rare insight to Iraq’s rich musical culture and heritage, much of which has been burnt and lost.