This year's documentary shorts program is comprised of 5 films exploring family and heritage in the Arab world and diaspora.

In a short film at once personal and universal, the filmmaker explores the family dynamics that unfolded during lockdown. A touching, aesthetically inspired piece. Festivals &amp; Awards:Montreal International Documentary Film Festival 2021 About the filmmaker:<img src="https://filmfreeway-production-storage-01-storage.filmfreeway.com/press_kits/headshots/001/969/107/original/10feecd825-headshot.jpg?1639767603" width="141" style="display: inline; float: left; margin: 0px 1em 1em 0px;">Winner of Culture Outaouais’s award Emerging Artist of the Year (2020), Sara's artistic curiosity is nourished by her Quebec-Libyan-Tunisian origins. Her thirst to go to meet her roots inspires her in the conception of her productions. Sara Ben-Saud has worked as a director and screenwriter on the documentary series Skindigenous. She is currently undergoing intensive directing training at L’inis in a new fiction and documentary program open to visible minorities with the financial support of Netflix. At the same time, she is developing the documentary À toi Jeddi on her Libyan roots, produced by Nish Media and funded by SODEC. She wants to change the Quebec audiovisual landscape.

A filmmaker explores the family dynamics that unfolded during lockdown.

And Then They Burn the Sea is an elegiac contemplation on familial memory and loss. Filmmaker Majid Al-Remaihi ruminates on the experience of witnessing his mother’s gradual and terminal memory loss over the course of many years. Weaving a personal family archive, reenacted dreams and rituals, the film underlines the promise of cinema as a medium for memories even at their most irretrievable. Festivals &amp; Awards:Locarno Film Festival 2021 About the filmmaker:<img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/eventive-static/048fa6081091f88ba70f11fa476a2794.png" width="154" style="display: inline; float: left; margin: 0px 1em 1em 0px;"> Al-Remaihi is a filmmaker and film programmer from Doha, Qatar. His short film “And Then They Burn the Sea” premiered at Locarno 2021. He produced it under the mentorship of Academy Award-nominated director Rithy Panh and with the support of the Qatari Film Fund. Currently, he is developing his next short film. He is also part of the Film Programming team at the Doha Film Institute.

And Then They Burn the Sea

A filmmaker ruminates on the experience of witnessing his mother’s gradual and terminal memory loss over the course of many years

Can a single traumatic event be the fatal blow that disrupts the notion of an ideal family? Lebanese filmmaker Hala El Kouch creates a therapy session setting to confront her parents about a traumatic event, and interrogates them over the course of five days. But the moment that “changed everything” for her seems to have made far less impact on her parents. The conversation takes an unexpected turn.&nbsp; A stream of images, family videos, and photographs from the family album paint a picture of perfect domestic bliss. And during the reenactment, too, Hala’s parents behave in a loving and amiable way towards each other and their daughter. In an otherwise empty room that sometimes contains a sofa and sometimes chairs, the three of them amuse themselves by making faces at one another, combing each other’s hair, and sharing kisses.&nbsp; Hala nonetheless maintains that this perfect picture has been tainted, and that she no longer trusts her parents. Every so often she bursts into tears. What is it precisely that makes that picture perfect? And has the happy family been irrevocably damaged by the incident, or is it Hala who caused the stir? About the filmmaker:<img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/eventive-static/0278cfbe2b73f0aa1ad8290326c1f2c4.jpg" style="display: inline; float: left; margin: 0px 1em 1em 0px;" width="165">Hala El Kouch is an award winning Lebanese film director and photographer. But as a multipotentialite, she is also a film teacher, writer, editor, colorist and voice over artist. She grew up and lived in Lagos, Nigeria since 1995, then moved to her hometown Beirut, Lebanon for her studies in 2008. With a bachelor in cinema followed by a masters degree in film directing from the Lebanese University of Fine Arts; she graduated both with distinction. Her work is almost always known for the emotional complexity, depth and layering it holds, tackling not only personal but also social issues. Her films leave an unforgettable emotional, mental but also visual mark on the audience. Navigating the world through film and poetry is what the artist envisions doing in the years to come. Pictures, words, and sounds are what move us. She wishes to be the witness and interpreter of all that is unseen and unheard — pointing out what everyone chooses to disregard. Allowing people to tap into a well of vulnerability and emotion is her way of releasing her audience from misery and pain. She believes her art speaks a language of its own, one that is universal.

The Perfect Picture

A filmmaker creates a therapy session setting to confront her parents about a traumatic event, and interrogates them over the course of five days.

The rain in Oakland, my grandmother's home in Baghdad, my aunts' voices in What's App, my daughter learning to count to 10, my brother playing the darbuka, the cicadas in Texas, the walls of my studio, the search for new forms. About the filmmaker:<img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/eventive-static/ad347edc5a201af12a00a2542f77af0b.jpg" style="display: inline; float: left; margin: 0px 1em 1em 0px;" width="165">Nadia Shihab is an artist and filmmaker whose work explores the personal, the relational, and the diasporic. Her debut feature-length film&nbsp; JADDOLAND was the winner of five festival jury awards, including the Independent Spirit "Truer than Fiction" Award in 2020. ​Her work has shown in exhibitions and festivals internationally, including at the Centre Pompidou, Walker Art Center, Berkeley Art Museum, Cairo International Film Festival, DOXA, Kasseler Dokfest, CAAMFest, BlackStar, Camdenand New Orleans Film Festival. She was raised in Texas by immigrant parents from Iraq &amp; Yemen, and works between Oakland, California&nbsp; and Vancouver, Canada.

Echolocation

Oscillating between recorded voice messages and stacked photographs, Echolocation is a layered experiment exploring existence in the aftermath of change.

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North America's oldest and largest festival of Arab films. The flagship event of the Arab Film and Media Institute, the festival's mission is to present the richness of Arab culture through authentic narratives and images, providing insight into the beauty and complexity of the Arab world.

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