Cinema of Resistance: Occupation Every Day

What does it mean to exist, persist, and resist under enduring conditions of oppression and even occupation by a hostile military?

Perhaps in a context such as this, resistance manifests not just in grand acts of protest but in the unremarkable rhythms of everyday life. More to the point, perhaps maintaining a sense of humor can be the best way to challenge official narratives and power structures that aim to keep us submissive and hopeless that change is possible.

This month’s screening is a semi-autobiographical film with a unique comic sensibility that chronicles six decades of Palestinian history through the lens of one Arab family living in Israeli-occupied Nazareth. Told in four episodic chapters spanning from 1948 to 2008, the film uses a detached observational style to explores historical events through personal anecdotes told with deadpan humor and surrealism. The result is simultaneously laugh-out-loud funny and quietly devastating: Palestinian history told through blank stares, awkward silences, and perfectly timed absurdity.

Join us as we discuss the role of humor in living under occupation.