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Screening will start at 2:00 US EDT; Running Time 79 minutes, 2023, Arabic with English subtitles. The film screening will be followed by discussions with film director.
About the Film
The film Lyd (the Arabic name of Lod, a city now in Israel) is about a 5,000-year-old bustling Palestinian town that was conquered when the State of Israel was established in 1948, and the film Lyd is the story of that city’s rise and fall. An exploration of what it once was, and what it is now, in the context of the continuing conflicts and the war in Gaza, Lyd’s excavation of one community’s complex history offers us not only lessons but possible futures.
As the film unfolds, a chorus of characters creates a tapestry of the Palestinian experience of this city and the trauma left by the massacre and expulsion, while vivid animations envision an alternate reality where the same characters live free from the trauma of the past and the violence of the present. Using never-before-seen archival footage of the Israeli soldiers who carried out the massacre and expulsion, the personified city explains that these events were so devastating that they fractured reality, and now there are two Lyds — one occupied and one free. As the film cuts between fantastical and documentary realities, it ultimately leaves the viewer questioning what future should prevail.
Made by a Palestinian from Lyd and a Jewish American, Lyd provides much-needed context for this moment, as it goes deep into the history of the Nakba from the perspective of Palestinians who survived. The film imagines an alternate reality where Palestine was never occupied and Palestinians of all religions (Muslims, Christians, and Jews) live in a liberated Palestine. Narrated by Palestinian actress Maisa Abd Elhadi who personifies the city, the viewer is guided through the lifespan of a five-thousand-year-old city and its residents.
Director’s Statement
Rami
I grew up in Lyd and am compelled to tell the story of my city and portray Palestinian citizens of Israel like myself in a complex, multilayered, and cinematic way. The massacre and expulsion that occurred in Lyd in 1948 have been purposefully left out of dominant narratives.
In popular culture and in the news, Lyd is famously referred to as “the drug capital of the Middle East” that was shrouded in violence and crime. I am interested in showing audiences the daily life of the Palestinian citizens of Israel and the systemic racism that we have to deal with on a daily basis instead of focusing on drugs, crime, and violence.
As someone who grew up in Lyd, I have felt the harm of these sensational narratives firsthand and will not fall into the trap of repeating them and perpetuating stereotypes.
I have known many of the people we follow in this documentary since childhood. This closeness allows me to interview people with sensitivity, nuance, and trust, which yields palpable intimacy and respect in the footage.
Furthermore, as a journalist who was always interested in challenging the hegemonic Israeli narrative and terminologies that were all designed to
erase Palestinian history and cultural identity, I’ve developed my storytelling abilities over the years. I operate in a space where very few are willing to listen.
How do I make them listen? By finding new ways to tell my story. Sarah and I share an interest in creative, genre-bending storytelling. As artists, we feel strongly that in order to uproot the pervasive sensational and re-victimizing depictions of Palestine, a creative approach is necessary. Sarah’s strength is in the visual aspects and mine is in the narrative.
During production, we discussed the interviews and cinematography together, but I led the interviews and Sarah led the cinematography. Together, we came up with the sci-fi/documentary hybrid approach.
Sarah
I grew up with a narrative about the State of Israel that erased Palestinian personhood completely. I have worked hard to educate myself on the history and present situations of the region from the Palestinian perspective.
This experience has made me painfully aware of the complicity of many American Jews in the continued oppression of Palestinians through the erasure and manipulation of the Palestinian perspective.
One of the main audiences we are hoping to reach is Jewish Americans, and I am well-equipped to specifically subvert the narratives that Jewish Americans were raised with through Lyd.
My Jewish identity also gained us access to institutions that would have ignored Rami’s requests, such as the Palmach Archive, where we obtained archival footage of Israeli soldiers admitting to the massacre and the mayor of Lyd’s office.
When we first started working on Lyd, it was a much more traditional film; straight observational news with no hypothetical or animated scenes. However, as we launched into production, we realized that we were making a film that neither of us would want to watch, and if we didn’t want to watch it, it would be a challenge to get anyone else to watch it.
For Rami, it was like every other film about Palestine, too tragic and re-victimizing. For myself, it did not do enough to break through the barriers of this often fraught subject matter. So, we went back to the drawing board.
I am a documentary filmmaker and media artist with more than 15 years of experience in the industry. Operating on a firm belief that reality has been messed with since people started telling stories and writing histories, my work is rooted in non-fiction but often uses the vocabularies of speculative fiction and fantasy to tweak and re-imagine reality. I am deeply inspired by fantasy and sci-fi writers like Neil Gaiman, Octavia Butler, Ursula Le Guin, China Melville, and N.K. Jemison.
Rami and I see our mode of storytelling as a political and playful act that simultaneously reclaims power from both dominant narratives and modes of storytelling to make something different.
Building on the momentum of mainstream works like Black Panther and Lovecraft Country and documentaries like INAATE/SE/ and Truth or Consequences, success looks like igniting conversation about what other worlds are possible and how imagining those alternatives can move this world into more liberatory and equitable directions.
About the Film Directors
Sarah Ema Friedland
Sarah is an NYC-based media artist and educator. Her work has screened at institutions including Cannes Film Festival, Lincoln Center, Anthology Film Archives, PBS, the Tang Teaching Museum, The Chelsea Museum, The Queens Museum, The 14th Street Y, and the MIT List Center. Her works have been supported by grants and fellowships, including the Jerome Founation, NYSCA, the Palestine American Research Center, the LABA House of Study, and the MacDowell Colony. Named one of the “Top 10 Independent Filmmakers to Watch” by Independent Magazine, she is a recipient of the Paul Robeson Award from the Newark Museum, and was nominated for a New York Emmy. Friedland is a member of the Meerkat Media Collective and the Director of the MDOCS Storyteller’s Institute at Skidmore College where she is also a Teaching Professor in the MDOCS Program
Rami Younis
Rami is a Palestinian filmmaker, writer, journalist and activist from Lyd. He was a 2019-20 Fellow at the Harvard Divinity School. As a journalist, he mainly wrote for the online magazine +972 and served as both writer and editor of its Hebrew sister site, “local call”, a journalistic project he co-founded, designed to challenge Israeli mainstream journalism outlets. Rami served as a parliamentary consultant and media spokesperson for Palestinian member of Knesset (Israeli parliament) Haneen Zoabi. Rami is also co-founder and manager of the first-ever Palestine Music Expo, an event that connects the local Palestinian music scene to the worldwide industry. Younis is the host of the Arabic-language daily news show, “On the Other Hand.”