An expository and reflective piece on the Palestinian refugees in Lebanon. Through various interviewees and the film-maker herself, the film addresses the problems the refugees face from the lack of job opportunities to medical care and the relentless desire to return to a homeland still forbidden.
Filmed in the Palestinian refugee camps of Lebanon.

In English and Arabic with English sub-titles. 2002. 26 minutes.

 

The film has played at numerous film festivals, in the U.S., Canada, Europe and the Middle East, including: The 6th Annual Arab Film Festival (Cinemayaat) in San Francisco, the Politically Incorrect Film Festival in Slovenia, the Arab Film Festival in Cairo, Egypt, the Colorado Campaign for Middle East Peace Fund Raiserin Denver, and the Palestinian Film Festival in Chicago. It has been shown at university campuses including University of Southern California, George Washington University, Colorado State University, Concordia University (Canada), Syracuse University, to name a few. It has also aired on various television stations such as FreeSpeech TV, some PBS channels and public channels in Europe.

To see the entire film in streaming video, visit the FreeSpeech TV website (real player required).

 

comments from viewers:

I was very impressed (and more than that) by the documentary. it was very powerful. i hope someday to be able to tell such a story in my own work.

It is hard to know what to say because I am so moved. The film is powerful. I was saddened to the core about my own ignorance of the situation but then I
realized that perhaps the fact that I now know 200% more than I did when I walked into the theater is a great thing for the people of Palestine. Maybe
change happens person by person, and, if so, then you accomplished a remarkable feat by educating a roomful of people who will go on to tell others. At least, that is what I will do... I know it must have been very painful at timesto make the film but I feel you have really created an important piece. It is so well done.

Your film - powerful, moving and informative. I was extremely impacted by the film and your presence. Thank you so very much. I am one of those Americans that knows there is conflict there but has little knowledge of what is all about and how life is there.

Wow -- I was moved by your film and so impressed with both your skills and your passion in making it. I've been thinking about it all night, and just wanted to share a few thoughts in response! I thought the way you interwove your own story with that of the wider Palestinian plight was especially compelling and well done. And I very much liked the way you introduced the title, with the lone words "here" and "there," then developing the full title. I didn't think there was too much talking, or too many subtitles. You said you'd edited them down a lot -- they seemed to work very well to me. Usually, you lingered on the image long enough for one to read a two-line subtitle adequately and still look at the face of the speaker. You let them tell their own story (albeit through the frame you created) and that was very powerful, their words and faces against the backdrop of the "filth" they live amidst.

The Palestinian refugees are an aspect of Palestinian reality seldom shown in the media. Palestinians in general are mis- or under-represented and it's rare that we ever get to see a Palestinian perspective, made by a Palestinian in this case as well. The Palestinian refugees feel forgotten and left behind, and consist one of the largest refugee problems in our world today. This film attempts to offer a glimpse into that problem, the conditions the refugees live in, the hope and hopelessness Palestinians everywhere feel at once. Given that the refugee population of Palestinians worldwide is larger than that of non-refugees, one must know the fate of the refugee in order to understand one of the roots of the Palestinian problem. A just solution can only be reached once all aspects of Palestinian lives are understood and acknowledged.

 

Available for purchase: VHS (NTSC) tapes are $15, shipping and handling is $3. Request through email.