closing event for Israeli Apartheid Week 2009 co-presented with Cinema Politica

MONDAY MARCH 9 19h30
Concordia University
1455 de maisonneuve, room H-110
free screening: donations welcome
metro Guy-Concordia
Montreal, Quebec.

Slingshot Hip Hop
Jackie Salloum / U.S.-Palestine / 2008 / 90 min

Slingshot Hip Hop braids together the stories of young Palestinians living in the West Bank, Gaza and inside Israel as they discover Hip Hop and employ it as a tool to surmount divisions imposed by occupation and poverty. From internal checkpoints and Separation Walls to gender norms and generational differences, this is the story of young people crossing the borders that separate them.

live Q&A with hip-hop artist Sabreena Da Witch (Abeer), from Slingshot Hip Hop…

Director/Producer/Editor: Jackie Reem Salloum is a New York based artist and filmmaker. Drawing on her Palestinian and Syrian roots, her pop-infused work focuses on challenging the stereotypes of Arabs in the media. She has directed several shorts exploring this issue, including Planet of the Arabs, which received the International Editing Award at the 2005 Cinema Texas Film Festival and was an official selection in that year’s Sundance Film Festival. After receiving her MFA from New York University, Salloum began directing her first feature length documentary Slingshot Hip Hop. Five years in the making it made it’s premiere at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival-Documentary Competition. Salloum’s work is also the basis of a youth education program on Palestine/Israel, and she frequently speaks at universities and conferences internationally.

Producer: Rumzi Araj, a Palestinian-American, has worked with Salloum on many of her art and film projects and was an Associate Producer on the short film Planet of the Arabs, a 2005 Sundance selection. He is currently completing his law degree while pursuing his interest in film production.

Producer/Editor/Visual Effects Supervisor: Waleed Zaiter is an Arab-American multimedia artist born in Beirut, Lebanon. Growing up in the United States, he began his career as a street artist in Boston. He currently resides in NYC where he freelances as an animator, work can be found on-line at: http://www.freehabib.com

Slingshot Hip Hop recently won:

“Audience Award” at the Beirut International Film festival, Lebanon
“Best Director” at the Beirut International Film festival, Lebanon
“The Festival des Libertés Award” at the Festival des Libertés festival in Belgium
“Audience Award” at the Arabian Sights Film Festival
Nominated for the Sundance Film Festival 2008 – “Documentary Competition”

Israeli Apartheid Week Montreal:

Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) is an annual international series of events held in cities and campuses across the globe. The aim of IAW is to educate people about the nature of Israel as an apartheid system and to build Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) campaigns as part of a growing global BDS movement. In Montreal, local solidarity groups and individuals are planning nine full days of awareness-raising events ranging from lectures and workshops to film screenings.

This year, marking its 5th anniversary, IAW is taking place in the wake of Israel’s barbaric assault against the people of Gaza. Recently, across Montreal, and around the globe, thousands of people took to the streets to denounce the ongoing atrocities committed by Israel. The past few years have seen a sharp increase of literature and analysis that has sought to document and challenge Israeli apartheid, including reports issued by major international bodies and human rights organizations, and findings published by political leaders, thinkers, academics, and activists. Since the assaults on Gaza, these voices have grown stronger, louder, and have captured the world`s attention. The aim of IAW is to contribute to this chorus of international opposition to Israeli apartheid…

Tadamon! Montreal
tel: 514 664 1036
email: info[at]tadamon.ca