With Hasan in Gaza

West Coast Premiere

Friday, April 10, 2:00 p.m. @ 2220 Arts & Archives

Introduced by comedian and filmmaker Hisham Fageeh

Saturday, April 11, 7:45 p.m. @ Now Instant Image Hall

Introduced by literary critic and professor Saree Makdisi

Director: Kamal Aljafari
Palestine, 2025, 108 min, DCP

Three MiniDV tapes of life in Gaza from 2001 were recently rediscovered. This footage is now a testament to a place and time that no longer exists.

A powerful archival document of the quotidian life of citizens in Gaza, Kamal Aljafari’s film is made entirely of MiniDV footage captured in 2001, during the early days of the Second Intifada. The filmmaker drives from north to south, walking through the markets and along the beach, as he searches for a man he met while briefly in prison as a teenager. Without editorializing or sentimentality, the film at times resembles an immersive tour of the city, while also capturing the city’s ever-present bombardment by Israeli settler forces. With the knowledge that many of the people and places we see on screen may no longer be extant, Aljafari’s film is a moving and devastating act of witness and of preservation. -MG

In Arabic with English Subtitles

Prior Screenings: 2025 Locarno Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival, New York Film Festival

Cast & Crew
Producer: Kamal Aljafari, Flavia Mazzarino
Conceived by: Kamal Aljafari, in collaboration with Hasan Elboubou
Sound: Kamal Aljafari
Music: Simon Fisher Turner, Attila Faravelli
Color Grading and Compositing: Yannig Willmann
Editor: Kamal Aljafari
Assistant Editor: Martin Arbelaez
Sound Mixing: Jochen Jezussek

Distributor: Cinema Guild