#653 - Kamal Aljafari on With Hasan in Gaza

This week we’re excited to present a conversation from the 63rd New York Film Festival with With Hasan in Gaza director Kamal Aljafari, moderated by NYFF Artistic Director Dennis Lim. An NYFF63 Currents selection, With Hasan in Gaza opens in select theaters beginning May 29, courtesy of The Cinema Guild. It is 2001 in Gaza, and Palestinian filmmaker and visual artist Kamal Aljafari is traveling from north to south, accompanied by a MiniDV camera and searching for a man he met while briefly imprisoned as a teenager. Aljafari’s footage, now nearly a quarter-century old and unseen by the filmmaker himself until recently, is often tranquil: drives down the highway, walks through the market, a trip to the beach, a card game among friends. But the immediate return of Israeli shelling, captured here in detail, invokes the ever-present background of settler violence. With Hasan in Gaza is an aching witness to the beauty of this land and the struggle of its people, neither of which may soon be recognizable at all. The 63rd New York Film Festival is presented in partnership with Rolex while NYFF63 Currents features are sponsored by The Travel Agency: A Cannabis Store.