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 Colleen Ryan, Television-Radio '12, Anthropology minor, Lansing, NY

The list of amazing guests keeps growing and growing, and by golly I don't think there's anything about FLEFF that I'm NOT excited for.

Here are five guests I'm most looking forward to:

1. Elizabeth Coffman.  She's many things that I aspire to be:  Documentary filmmaker.  Writer. Teacher.  Mom. If you haven't checked out her writing on the Inside Higher Ed, "Mama, PhD" you should!  It's great!  I've been reading it all morning.  Coffman is also the co-producer of Veins in the Gulf, a documentary about the disappearing coastline of Louisiana, a film I'm dying to see and that will be screened the last day of FLEFF (April 1st).

2. Menna Khalil.  Suffering in the Middle East is something I know little about, and I wish I knew more.  Khalil's activism and work sounds extremely inspiring, and I can't wait to see her presentation that documents Iraq Burin and stories of Palestinian village who were witnesses to uprising.  To read more about her work, check out fellow blogger Brian McCormick's interview.

3. Matthew Podolsky. His non-profit organization "Wild Lens" incorporates all my passions into one: Activism. Science. Conservation. Art.  Wild Lens wishes to "present biological facts in an exciting and accessible way, and broaden the public interest in environmental and wildlife conservation – one species at a time."  It's pretty safe to say my dream job may be exactly that -- word for word.

4. Robby Aceto and the Cloud Chamber Orchestra.  As I said in a previous post about Aceto and his improvisational music trio, I can't wait for the Cloud Chamber Orchestra's live scoring of "Nanook of the North."  It will be my first experience of any kind of live music played with film.  I love music, but I don't believe my brain has the ability to fathom performing live with a film, while also improvising and collaborating with two other musicians.  To an audience it must seem so effortless, but holy cow the talent one must have!

5. Bernie Upson and his Quartet.  I'm a wannabe jazz fanatic.  Whenever I listen to jazz, I feel as if I was born in the wrong decade.  I picture myself dolled-up in a smokey mid-century jazz lounge, with the bass vibrating through my veins.  I'm thrilled to see such a talented group of musicians play.  It's not everyday you're in the presence of jazz legends!

19 days until FLEFF. Ready. Set. Get excited.  I know I am.  Are you?

Blog post written by Brian McCormick, Film, Photo & Visual Arts '12, FLEFF Intern, Wilbraham, MA

Information for this program:

Documenting Iraq Burin: Stories from a Palestinian Village and Witness to Uprising: Voices from Cairo and New York

When: Tuesday April 12, 7:00pm – 10:00pm

Where: Friends 309

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FLEFF guest Menna Khalil is a graduate of DePaul University, and of American University in Cairo where she received her masters in International Human Rights Law. As a researcher and activist , Khalil is very concerned with ethnography and collecting the subjective stories of people to enable others to perceive places, people and events through their particular lens.

Khalil was kind enough to set aside time (on her birthday!) to discuss her recent work and travel, and what she will be presenting during her visit at the festival.

Q: What brought you to Palestine last summer and what work were you involved with?

A: "I hadn't had the opportunity to visit the West Bank before, and I was quite grateful for having that opportunity through a couple of programs which were taking place last summer specifically in Nablus and also other areas of the West Bank. I was on a delegation with the Research Journalism Initiative, which Michael Kennedy also works with, and we were helping to coordinate that delegation.

I'm really excited to talk [at FLEFF] about the experience ... the delegation had us working on multi-media projects focusing specifically on digital poetry and poetry of witness. We worked with international activists, young professionals, and also the local national students.

We went through a series of workshops at which we discussed different kinds of media, creating avenues which students or activists could reflect their views on what they bear witness to in Palestine. So that can be a slightly unorthodox form of talking about Palestine; it's quite different from the usual journalistic or human rights report, coverage and writing. We were keen on having a slightly different take on the way information is presented about Palestine and having all these stories we're collecting heard in a number of different ways."

Q: Could you talk more about your work in Iraq Burin?

A: "We were really interested in talking to different parts of the community, whether that was farmers, or the families of the boys [killed by Israeli soldiers], or the village council and the mayor.

In many ways that was the locals' perspective on what happened to the boys ... which creates a lens through which you can see much larger issues that are pertaining to the village of Iraq Burin but also to other communities in Palestine and how they deal with loss, representation and self-determination.

We were all quite moved by this kind of experiential narrative and wanted to take that and assist the village with constructing a web site through which they can raise more awareness and create their own versions of the stories that come out of their community and link up with other villages that are doing similar things."

Q: You recently spent four and half weeks in Cairo, can you tell us a little bit about your experience there?

A: "I'm Egyptian American. I was born in Cairo, and I moved with my family to the states in 1996, I was about 10-years-old. I partly grew up in Cairo, but I lived the majority of my life in Chicago. Obviously when the events happened, I didn't hesitate to go back to Egypt.

During the four weeks, I worked ... with two activist groups. There wasn't a form of political channeling, so you had a lot of groups out of this popular movement of the 18 days of the 'revolution' that felt that this is the perfect moment through which they can institutionalize themselves and start to work on representing different political views.

No one has seen that kind of political organizing, stemming from a longing for political participation, since the early '50s. This was kind of a reviving moment in many ways.

My particular role [working with the groups] was to gather stories -- again, because I am interested in ethnographic work. I was doing interviews with a variety of people in the Tahrir Square as well as elsewhere, basically anybody involved in that scene or impacted by it.

I intend on going back at the end of spring to visit other cities as well, again to bear witness, talk to people, do ethnographic work, and collect as many stories as possible."

Q: How does your experience and the presentation you're going to give fit into the context of FLEFF?

A: "Part of the reason of going to Cairo was figuring out, 'How do I utilize myself as an individual who is in-between two environments?'

It was about how to get yourself to contribute as much as possible to both environments and to create an awareness between the two. I feel the best and most genuine way of doing that is to go to Cairo for as long as possible in the hopes of returning to New York with testimonies, photographs, and other media of representation.

[We can help] by educating ourselves on what's going on and also contributing in different ways, such as FLEFF, through its educational, activist, and media orientation, by virtue of the kind of political issues that it chooses to engage with."

Q: What do you hope people will be able to take away from attending this presentation?

A: "What I'm most interested in having people walk out with is a better grasp of these issues and stories from the Middle East which are not necessarily being concluded or analyzed to fit a specific goal of understanding.

I think people don't necessarily want to be preached to, and there's information they can look up themselves on that. I think what's often inaccessible to us are these kinds of subjective stories from people who speak of their experience. That can resonate with any of us, regardless of where we're at, or whatever end of the political spectrum we're choosing to place ourselves."

For a behind the scenes interview with FLEFF adviser Dr. Harris, follow this link.

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Don't miss this event!

Documenting Iraq Burin: Stories from a Palestinian Village and Witness to Uprising: Voices from Cairo and New York

When: Tuesday April 12, 7:00pm – 10:00pm

Where: Friends 309

Blog post written by Brian McCormick, Film, Photo & Visual Arts '12, FLEFF Intern, Wilbraham, MA

Information for this program:

Documenting Iraq Burin: Stories from a Palestinian Village and Witness to Uprising: Voices from Cairo and New York

When: Tuesday April 12, 7:00pm – 10:00pm

Where: Friends 309 

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

Dr. Beth Harris, professor of politics at Ithaca College, is FLEFF's adviser for Middle East programming. In the past, she has served as a facilitator for events for FLEFF and as a panelist commenting after several FLEFF events. I had the chance to ask Dr. Harris about her specific activities coinciding with FLEFF this year.

Q: What have you been doing this year for FLEFF?

A: "This year I am facilitating two events at FLEFF on Tuesday night, April 12, 7:30-10pm. The first is a multi-media presentation, Documenting Iraq Burin: Stories from a Palestinian Village, nd the second is also a multi-media presentation, Witness to Uprising: Voices from Cairo and New York.

Last summer I participated in an international delegation to Iraq Burin, which is in the West Bank. After we learned about the killings of unarmed teenagers by Israeli soldiers and their impact on this very small cillage, we decided to help the village to create a website that would tell the story of Iraq Burin and provide a resource for sharing current news."

Q: How did you come across Menna Khalil (one of this program's presenters)?

A: "Our primary interpreter during this process was Menna Khalil, who took responsibility for itnerviewing the familiies of the martyrs and the village leaders. Menna is a remarkable young woman who communicates in a way that is validating for people of all ages and from many cultures, even for those living in the midst of trauma. The people of Iraq Burin, as well as our delegation, admired and appreciated Menna's leadership and skills very much.

After our documentary project with Iraq Burin was winding down, Michael Kennedy* began working on a photographic portrait documenting the impact of the boys' deaths on both their families and the entire village. Michael is a talented photographer, who created a very compelling essay about an Israeli prison for Palestinian youth, Al Fara'a."

*Kennedy is another FLEFF guest who will be speaking at this presentation.

Q: What brought you to program this event for FLEFF?

A: "I suggested to Tom Shevory that a multi-media presentation about Iraq Burin by Menna and Michael would be very appropriate for this FLEFF's checkpoint theme.

When I called Michael and Menna, I found out that they were very involved with documenting some demonstrations in New York City in support of the uprising in Egypt. Menna is Egyptian American, and both Mike and Menna have recently studied in Cairo. They have a very good understanding of the context and implications of this uprising. Some of their friends were in Cairo and others were on their way to document the uprising.

Talking to Menna and Michael on the phone, I thought it would be very valuable to the audiences of FLEFF to have the opportunity to hear a first-hand account of the uprising in Egypt and the solidarity demonstrations in New York City. Furthermore, I thought students at IC would be inspired by the voices of their peers in Egypt who are making history in a very profound way.

Menna just returned from her documentary project in Egypt, and I think their eyewitness account will be quite informative, interesting and inspiring."

To read an interview with Khalil, follow this link.

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Documenting Iraq Burin: Stories from a Palestinian Village and Witness to Uprising: Voices from Cairo and New York

When: Tuesday April 12, 7:00pm – 10:00pm

Where: Friends 309