Blog post by Sarah Lockwood, Cinema & Photography '15, FLEFF Intern, Blairstown, NJ

From talking with Menna Khalil, an activist with the Arab Spring movement, it was impossible not to come away with a thorough understanding of the movement's past, present, and future. For those who are not familiar, I asked Menna to discuss a few topics, which I have condensed into the following explanations:

History of Arab Spring

The pot of Arab Spring has been boiling for decades, each country's actions and movements affecting and inspiring one another. In Egypt, specifically, where Menna specializes, most of the unrest derives from its political background - nearly thirty years of nepotism, the gradual diminishing of the middle class, and the domestication and domination of people's everyday lives as a result.

The straw that "broke the camel's back" for the revolution were the "notorious police brutality" found on the streets of Egypt. In one case, a young engineer living in Alexandria was found brutally beaten to death and mouth stuffed with drugs, in a framing of his murder Why?

This man had recorded, and distributed via the internet, a video of several policemen making a drug deal and keeping the money for themselves. This incident along with countless accounts of "humiliating treatment" and "brutal corruption" of the police forces in Egypt spurned the revolution once again.

Nostalgia of Arab Spring

Menna notes that much of the Arab Spring movement is derived from a sense of "nostalgia" in Egypt. What does she mean by this?

For years, Egypt existed as a nation whose sense of ownership and pride, "being Egyptian", was weak. In order to feel proud of your own society, says Menna, you had to "walk very close to a wall with your head down" and hope not to get caught. 

Smaller revolutions in nearby countries preceded Arab Spring, with the hopes of one day developing into a revolution or movement. As an area of the world who, in decades past, have been exposed to war and revolutions, the current generation was moved by a sense of nostalgia for revolution, as well as a desire for change.

Modern Media and Arab Spring

The incident of the policemen's drug actions distributed through the internet is a prime example of modern media's affect on the current movement, to which Menna responded emphatically.

Menna feels the internet works as a powerful source of circulation - allowing individuals from opposite ends of the world to share their revolutionary experiences and witness them, respectively. The modern age of connection and distribution gives rise to a movement unlike any other in the past. However, there is a level of caution to take.

Facebook invites to protest were often viewed as "jokes" by older revolutionaries in some ages and "a lot of what happens, can happen, is in the streets" and "is never fully captured by Facebook or Twitter."

Temporality of Arab "Spring"

As an Egyptian and activist, Menna hopes that the bittersweet term "Arab Spring" and its movement will not eventually fade. The term "spring" evokes the image of a flower "blooming in the spring", which is a beautiful sign for Egyptians and other persons living in the middle east.

However, it also evokes a temporality - that the spring may eventually fade. The middle east conditions are still unclear, not yet "at its best place" for Egypt, Syria, Palestine, and other nations. 

"As an Egyptian, I want to think that the revolution is not over, has not sprung then phased out into a different season." 

Listen to Menna and her husband, Michael Kennedy, discuss this movement further during their talk tonight, at 7pm in Williams 225, Ithaca College.

Blog post by Sarah Lockwood, Cinema & Photography '15, FLEFF Intern, Blairstown, NJ

I had the utmost pleasure of speaking with Menna Khalil, an activist with the Arab Spring movement the Middle East, specifically Palestine and Egypt. For the duration of our talk we covered her personal background, the current state of the movement, and the influence of modern media on the state of the revolution.

Menna was born and raised in Cairo, Egypt, until the age of 10. At this point her family moved to Chicago, Illinois. Chicago is home to a large, supportive Palestinian culture. She attended DePaul University in Chicago. During this time she joined Students for Justice in Palestine.

As a member of SJP for all four years of her college career, Menna continued the traditions of activism and connection that the predecessors of the club began. During her time as member, Menna helped to coordinate speakers and film festivals for Palestinian rights and activism, concerts from Palestinian groups, as well as an over two-year-long project to bring Palestinian works to the art museum on-campus.

By bringing together the DePaul community, the Chicago community, and the Palestinian arts communities together, Menna's work with SJP influenced a large portion of the activism work she would continue through her current graduate studies and field work in Egypt.

Her work during college combined with her family heritage has "absolutely" connect Menna to her current activism work.

Part Two of our interview will detail the current Arab Spring movement, about which Menna and her husband, Michael Kennedy, will be talking this evening (7pm, Williams 225, Ithaca College).

Blog post written by Gena Mangiaratti, Journalism '13, FLEFF Intern, Feeding Hills, MA

Here are two events, one on-campus (and free!) and one off-campus, that I'm especially looking forward to.

As I said in a previous post, all FLEFF events are valuable to attend, but these are two that appeal to my personal interests:

Checkpoints Activism Panel: Documenting Iraq, Burin: Stories from a Palestinian Village, and Witness to Uprising: Voices from Cairo and New York (FREE)

Moderated by Beth Harris, featuring Menna Kahlil and Michael Kennedy

7 p.m., Tuesday, April 12, in Friends 309 (Ithaca College campus)

 If you have been trying to follow the recent revolutions in the Middle East as best you can, you will probably be very interested in this event.

In reading about what is going on in, I try not only to learn about events via the news, but also to learn about what is happening from multiple news sources and perspectives. I also use Twitter to try to get information from people who are in the affected areas whenever possible.

I am very interested in hearing Menna Kahlil’s first-hand account of the uprisings in Egypt, and also learning more about the demonstrations in New York City in support of Egypt.

To read two great interviews about this event, one with Menna Kahlil and one with Dr. Beth Harris, see the links below.

Both interviews are by FLEFF intern Brian McCormick.

Interview with Beth Harris

Interview with Menna Kahlil

Lunch Love Community webisodes on healthy food for public schools, with film director Helen De Michiel, chef and cookbook author Julie Jordan, and public health professor Stewart Auyash

12 pm on Saturday, April 16 at Cinemapolis

I recently had the privilege of being able to speak with Ms. De Michiel about her work on this exceptional documentary/web series (will be posted soon – stay tuned!) about the story of school lunch reform in Berkeley, California.

Even though I admittedly may have forgotten about school lunches after they no longer affected me, I think nutritious food, especially for children at the elementary level, is really a crucial component, so it's excellent to hear that the people involved in this reform took the initiative to make it happen.

Though it was a local occurrence, I think it can provide global inspiration. I look forward to seeing the webisodes with Ms. De Michiel present, and also to learning more about how the members of the movement managed to effect such great change.

(It would be wonderful if this movement could spread…)