Toronto Palestine Film Festival to be held in person and online from Sept 25

The 17th Toronto Palestine Film Festival (TPFF), being held from September 25 to October 2, will be available for audiences online, and in person at the TIFF Bell Lightbox theatre.

According to the festival’s website, the festival is a volunteer-run, non-profit organisation dedicated to bringing Palestinian cinema, music, cuisine and art to audiences residing in the Greater Toronto Area. The TPFF was conceived in 2008 to mark the 60th anniversary of the Nakba — the displacement of Palestinians caused by the birth of the state of Israel in 1948.

This year, TPFF will open with an art exhibition by Ibrahim Abusitta and Malak Mattar, two artists with roots in Gaza whose works offer personal reflections on the current state of the region.

The exhibition will be followed by the screening of several films by Palestinian filmmakers, including The Teacher directed by Farah Nabulsi, A Short Film About Kids by Ibrahim Handal, De-Clutter by Rimah Jabr, and Palestine Islands by Nour Ben Salem and Julien Menanteau.

TPFF will also showcase original short films by Toronto-based Palestinian filmmakers, which were developed, workshopped, filmed and produced through the TPFF Film Residency.

In addition to the film screenings, the festival will feature a performance by celebrated Palestinian singer, composer, and flautist Nai Barghouti on September 27.

TPFF will also hold a brunch where audiences can enjoy traditional Palestinian breakfast, a workshop for the Palestinian dance dabke, and an embroidery workshop where people can learn tatreez cross-stitching and the symbolism behind it.

The festival will host a panel on the suppression of Palestinian expression, as well as storytelling for children where Mattar will read her picture book Sitti’s Bird: A Gaza Story after which the young audience will engage in a book-making activity with graphic novelist Nadia Shammas.

Additionally, Arab author Lena Khalaf Tuffaha will launch her latest poetry anthology, Something About Living, which according to the festival’s website, “interweave[s] Palestine’s historic suffering, the challenges of living in this world full of violence and ill will, and the gentle delights we embrace to survive that violence”.

Movie screenings from TPFF can be watched online and festival passes for attending in person can be found here. The complete programme is available on their website.