The Chicago Palestine Film Festival begins April 15 at the Gene Siskel Film Center and continues from April 29 to May 3 at St. Xavier University in Chicago.

Our 23 film selections for this year include films from Palestine, Israel, Europe, and North America. This truly reflects the diversity of perspectives of Palestinians in exile and diaspora as well as non-Palestinian filmmakers who have made excellent films about the country and its people. In contrast to previous years, we have an large number of feature/narrative films as well as personal and hard-hitting documentaries and even an animation.

This year we are able to bring a staggering number of special guests to the festival to present films and participate in question and answer sessions after film screenings. Our invited guests include Columbia University professor Joseph Massad, Lebanese author Elias Khoury, documentary filmmaker Buthaina Canaan Khoury, and emerging filmmaker Shady Srour from Nazareth. We are especially proud to present world-class Latino filmmaker Miguel Littin from Chile, who will present his two recent films about Palestine and his connection to the land of his grandparents. More information about these special guests can be found at our web site.

We are proud to be the only annual film festival of Palestinian films and Palestine-related films in the world. As we begin our fourth festival, we reaffirm our formative mission statement, which has guided our selection process:

The Chicago Palestine Film Festival (CPFF) is an independent, not-for-profit, non-sectarian project based in Chicago that exhibits and promotes films by Palestinian directors and films about Palestine. CPFF is dedicated to presenting a film festival that is open, critical, and reflective of the culture, experience and vision of the filmmakers.

We are thank our individual donors, foundations, and corporations including the Illinois Humanities Council, Crossroads Fund, the Jerusalem Fund, Dish Network, and the Electronic Intifada. Of course, we could not host a film festival without high-quality venues, so we are grateful to the Gene Siskel Film Center of the Art Institute of Chicago for inviting us to be a community partner. We are also hosted at Saint Xavier University thanks to the support of their Center for International Education, Middle Eastern Studies Program, and Department of Anthropology and Sociology.

From April 15 to 28, screenings are at the Gene Siskel Film Center of the School of the Art Institute, Chicago’s premier venue for independent and world cinema, located at 164 N. State St.

Tickets to each screening are $9/general admission and $5/Film Center members and may be purchased at the Film Center Box Office, which opens at 5 p.m. on weekdays and at 2 p.m. on weekends. General public tickets are also available through Ticketmaster, 312-575-8000, www.ticketmaster.com, and all Ticketmaster outlets.

For more information, call the Film Center at 312-846-2800 (24-hour movie hotline) or 312-846-2600 (general information, 9 a.m.-5 p.m., Monday-Friday), or log on www.siskelfilmcenter.org.

The Interparking SELF-PARK at 20 E. Randolph St., located between Wabash and State, offers Film Center patrons a special rate of $13 with no time limit. Patrons are required to show their ticket stub to receive the discount.

From April 29 to May 2, screenings are at St. Xavier University, 3700 West 103rd Street, Chicago, IL 60655 (773) 298-3000. These screenings are cost free, but donations will be requested.

Please visit our web site for detailed information about the schedule, venues, and films. For review copies, please contact Gene Siskel Film Center for the films they are hosting or contact CPFF’s press relations team at pr@palestinefilmfest.com or 312-873-4401.

Film title	Directors	Duration	Year	Country of production	Venue
2000 Terrorists	Hanro Smitsman and Peter Speetjens	0:50	2004	The Netherlands	Gene Siskel Film Center
And Life Goes On	Reem Bader	0:08	2004	Palestine	Gene Siskel Film Center
Another Road Home	Danae Elon	1:19	2004	USA	St. Xavier
Arafat, My Brother	Rashid Masharawi	1:20	2005	France	Gene Siskel Film Center
Curfew	Rashid Masharawi	1:15	1993	Palestine	St. Xavier
Door to the Sun	Yusry Nasrallah	4:38	2004	Egypt	Gene Siskel Film Center
Fix	Mohanad Yaqubi	0:08	2004	Palestine	St. Xavier
God on our Side	Michal Pfeffer and Uri Kranot	0:07	2005	The Netherlands	Gene Siskel Film Center
Going for a Ride	Nahed Awad	0:15	2003	Palestine	Gene Siskel Film Center
Haifa	Rashid Masharawi	1:36	1995	Palestine	Gene Siskel Film Center
The Land of ‘48	Barrack Rima	0:57	2003	Belgium	St. Xavier
My Dear Olive Tree	Osama Qashoo	0:18	2004	Palestine	St. Xavier
A Palestinian Chronicle	Miguel Littin	1:30	2001	Chile	Gene Siskel Film Center
Private	Saverio Costanzo	1:30	2003	Italy	Gene Siskel Film Center
Rainbow	Abdel Salam Shehada	0:40	2004	Palestine	St. Xavier
Chatila Junction	Maher Abi Samra	0:52	2004	France	St. Xavier
Sense of Need	Shady Srour	1:30	2004	USA/Palestine	Gene Siskel Film Center
Soraida, Woman of Palestine	Tahani Rached	2:00	2004	Canada	St. Xavier
The Eternal Dance	Hiam Abbas	0:26	2003	France	St. Xavier
The Last Moon	Miguel Littin	0:30	2004	Chile	Gene Siskel Film Center
until when…	Dahna Aburahme	1:16	2004	Palestine/USA	St. Xavier
Wall	Simone Bitton	1:38	2004	France/Israel	Gene Siskel Film Center
Women in Struggle	Buthaina Canaan Khoury	0:56	2004	Palestine	Gene Siskel Film Center

Related Links
Chicago Palestine Film Festival 2005