As Above, So Below and Moonscape were presented as part of Mizna's Fifteenth Arab Film Fest in October of 2021. The conversation between directors Sarah Francis and Mona Benyamin, moderated by Róisín Tapponi, also occurred as part of Mizna's annual festival.
Moonscape
Moonscape is a short film and music video for a ballad/middle-of-the-road song, performed as a duet between a male and female singer in Arabic. The song traces the story of a man called Dennis M. Hope, who claimed ownership of the Moon in 1980 and thus founded the Lunar Embassy––a company that sells land on a variety of planets and moons––and the film makes a connection between his story and that of the director's––a young Palestinian woman living under the Israeli occupation, longing to end the misery of her people in any way possible.
*A moonscape is an area or vista of the lunar landscape (generally of the Earth's moon), or a visual representation of this, such as in a painting. The term "moonscape" is also sometimes used metaphorically for an area devastated or flattened by war, often by shelling.
About the filmmaker
Mona Benyamin (b.1997) is a Palestinian visual artist and filmmaker based in Haifa. In her works, she explores intergenerational outlooks on hope, trauma, and questions of identity, using humor and irony as political tools of resistance and reflection. Her recent works have been screened—among others—at MoMA, Another Gaze, Sheffield DocFest, and Columbia University.
- Year2020
- Runtime17 minutes
- LanguageArabic
- CountryPalestine
- DirectorMona Benyamin
As Above, So Below and Moonscape were presented as part of Mizna's Fifteenth Arab Film Fest in October of 2021. The conversation between directors Sarah Francis and Mona Benyamin, moderated by Róisín Tapponi, also occurred as part of Mizna's annual festival.
Moonscape
Moonscape is a short film and music video for a ballad/middle-of-the-road song, performed as a duet between a male and female singer in Arabic. The song traces the story of a man called Dennis M. Hope, who claimed ownership of the Moon in 1980 and thus founded the Lunar Embassy––a company that sells land on a variety of planets and moons––and the film makes a connection between his story and that of the director's––a young Palestinian woman living under the Israeli occupation, longing to end the misery of her people in any way possible.
*A moonscape is an area or vista of the lunar landscape (generally of the Earth's moon), or a visual representation of this, such as in a painting. The term "moonscape" is also sometimes used metaphorically for an area devastated or flattened by war, often by shelling.
About the filmmaker
Mona Benyamin (b.1997) is a Palestinian visual artist and filmmaker based in Haifa. In her works, she explores intergenerational outlooks on hope, trauma, and questions of identity, using humor and irony as political tools of resistance and reflection. Her recent works have been screened—among others—at MoMA, Another Gaze, Sheffield DocFest, and Columbia University.
- Year2020
- Runtime17 minutes
- LanguageArabic
- CountryPalestine
- DirectorMona Benyamin