São Paulo – The exhibition Arab Women – Film & Poetry will bring together short and feature films by Palestine’s Annemarie Jacir (pictured above) and the United Arab Emirates’ Nujoom Al-Ghanem to the Brazilian audience. The online show is free of charge and runs from April 7 to 12. The event is organized by Brazil’s Women in Film & Television (Wift Brasil), which is sponsored by the law Aldir Blanc that allocates resources to the culture sector in the pandemic.
Both directors are also poets. The Arab women will have their poems read by Brazilian women in a sarau that will take place throughout the event. The opening will see a talk with directors conducted by the show’s curator, Nágila Guimarães, a cofounder of Wift Brasil.
Guimarães developed the project based on her experience in the UAE. “My curatorship is very personal,” she told ANBA. The curator lived in the Gulf country in three different periods from 1996 to 2015. “In the UAE I got to know Arab movies,” explained Guimarães, who worked in an Abu Dhabi festival for five years.
In the UAE she met both filmmakers. “I’ve always found interesting this combination of talents – they are directors and poets – and how poetry is relevant in the Middle East. I wanted to take them both to Brazil. They are Arabs, but they are very different from each other.”
The artists
Wift Brasil stresses that Annemarie Jacir is a prominent figure of the “New Wave of Arab Cinema” with two films that premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. Her debut film “Salt of This Sea” is considered the first featured film directed by a Palestinian woman. Jacir’s three movies were submitted to the Academy Awards as Palestine’s official representatives. “You’ll see in Jacir’s films and poetry the issue of the diaspora, the pain of non-belonging. You can’t separate it. It’s all connected,” Guimarães said.
The Palestinian is also a curator and mentor and promotes the independent cinema in her country, seeking to train and hire locally. The filmmaker has also recently cofounded Dar Yusuf Nasri Jacir for Art and Research in Bethlehem.
As for Nujoom Al-Ghanem, she’s a poet, artist and filmmaker born in another Arab region, the Gulf. From the UAE, she has published eight poetry collections and directed over twenty movies, Al Ghanem cofounded Nahar Productions, a film company based in Dubai, and works as a professional mentor in cinema and creative writing, as well as a cultural and media consultant.
“And Al-Ghanem brings the issue of ancestry. People usually see the UAE as something modern, with huge buildings, but there’s a more ancient history and tradition, too, and they are a minority in their own country, which is very unusual. Most of her work are documentaries focus on female figure. I believe Nujoom sees the tradition is fading, so she uses the cinema to bring that back,” described the show’s curator.
Sarau
As for poetry, the program includes other activities such as Tamo Junta: “Border Poetics” featuring Christina Queiroz, a journalist with a doctor’s degree in Language and Literature from the University of São Paulo and moderated by Maristela Sanches Bizarro, a doctoral student in Brazilian Literature and Wift Brasil cofounder.
Another feature is sarau “Woman of Their Word:” Poetry by women from the Arab countries and the outskirs of São Paulo. The sarau will feature performances by Paula Pretta, actress, musician and poet; Rose Dória, poet of Sarau Cooperifa; and Victória dos Santos, poet and musician. The performances inspired by Jacir and Al-Ghanem’s works will feature actress Estela Lapponi and be directed by Paula Pretta.
The entire program of the show will be streamed on TodesPlay. The movies will be screened on the Brazilian territory only and limited to 300 viewers. Registration is required. The other events will stay on until the end of the show.
Program
4/7 – Wednesday
5 pm – Meeting with the Artists /Opening – English with Portuguese subtitles, 2021, 60 min
7 pm –When I Saw You – Fiction, 2012, 98 min
9 pm –Nearby Sky – Doc, 2017, 84 min
4/8 – Thursday
5 pm – Sarau “Women of Their Word”- Portuguese with English subtitles, 2021, 60 min
7 pm – Allat Haddad – Doc, 2014, 85 min
9 pm – Wajib – fiction, 2017, 96 min
4/9 – Friday
5 pm – Debate – Tamo Junta – Portuguese – 2021, 60 min
7 pm – Red, Blue & Yellow – Doc. 2013, 92 min
9 pm –A few crumbs for the birds – 2005, 28 min
4/10 – Saturday
5 pm – Salt of this Sea – Fiction, 2008, 109 min
7 pm – Amal (Amal) – Doc, 2011, 88 min.
4/11 – Sunday
5 pm –Honey, Rain & Dust – Fiction, 1999, 20 min
7 pm –Like Twenty Impossibles – 2003, 17 min
Quick Facts:
Arab Women: Film & Poetry
April 7-11
Register: www.todesplay.com.br
Translated by Guilherme Miranda
