500 Dunam on the Moon
Rachel Leah Jones, 2002, 48 minutes, DVD
Ayn Hawd is a Palestinian village that was captured and depopulated by Israeli forces in the 1948 war. In 1953 Marcel Janco, a Romanian painter and a founder of the Dada movement, helped transform the village into a Jewish artists' colony, and renamed it Ein Hod. This documentary tells the story of the village's original inhabitants, who, after expulsion, settled only 1.5 kilometers away in the outlying hills.
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Arna's Children ***HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!***
Juliano Mer Khamis, 2003, 84 minutes, DVD
Five years after his mother's death, Juliano Mer Khamis returns to the Jenin refugee camp to discover what happened to the children's theater group she founded. Shifting back and forth in time, Mer Khamis's film juxtaposes the sweet-faced young boys with the militants and martyrs they become. "Arna's Children" reveals the tragedy and horror of young lives trapped by the circumstances of occupation.
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Children of Fire
Mai Masri, 1990, 50 minutes, VHS
When filmmaker Mai Masri returned to her hometown of Nablus after a fourteen year absence, she discovered a new generation of Palestinian fighters: the children of the Intifada. "Children of Fire" captures their courageous story on film and paints a daring portrait of the Palestinian uprising.
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Chronicles of a Refugee ***HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!***
Perla Issa, Aseel Mansour, Adam Shapiro, 2008, 6 episodes, DVD
'Chronicles of a Refugee' is a 6-part documentary series that looks at the global Palestinian refugee experience over the last 60 years. Filmed in over 15 countries, with more than 250 interviews of Palestinian refugees who have lived in over 25 countries, the series aims to provoke debate concerning strategy and to ask: ‘What makes the most sense for a strategy to achieve Palestinian rights as part of a vibrant and viable Palestinian national movement?’
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Frontiers of Dreams and Fears
Mai Masri, 2002, 53 minutes, DVD
Shot during the liberation of South Lebanon and the beginning of the Al Aqsa Intifada, "Frontiers of Dreams and Fears" accompanies two young girls on an extraordinary journey to the borders of exile, which separate them from each other and from their homeland.
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Gaza Ghetto - Portrait of a Palestinian Family
PeA Holmquist, Joan Mandell, Pierre Bjorklund, 1984, 82 minutes, VHS
Even as the political status of Gaza and the West Bank evolve, the uncertainties and harshness of land confiscations and military occupation remain key. Produced in 1984, this classic explores the very issues that caused the intifada and continue to this very day. Moments of tragedy and joy are intercut with scenes of Israeli politicians, soldiers. Abu El-Adel's grandchildren listen intently to their heritage, anticipating their future from their past.
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In Tents Again
Adam Shapiro and Perla Issa, 2006-2010, 45 minutes, DVD-R
'In Tents Again' presents the stories of the nightmare of post-invasion Iraq for the Palestinian refugees who ended up in camps along the Iraq-Jordan and Iraq-Syria borders.  Three short films, made with the purpose of having the refugees advocate for themselves for safe haven anywhere in the world.
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Jenin Jenin
Mohamed Bakri, 2002, 54 minutes, DVD [temporarily unavailable]
Filmed shortly following Israel's April 2002 attack on the Jenin refugee camp, this documentary includes testimony from the survivors of the camp. A large section of the camp was flattened and scores of Palestinians were killed. Numerous cases of war crimes have been documented by Palestinians as well as international human rights groups. "Jenin Jenin" shows the extent to which the prolonged oppression and terror has affected the state of mind of the Palestinian inhabitants of Jenin.
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Jerusalem 1948: Youm Ilak ou Youm Aleik
Leon Willems and Tinus Kramer, 1998, 45 minutes, DVD
The film aims, on the one hand, to explain the historical complexity of the Palestinian Nakba in 1948 while also providing insight into the diversity of Palestinian refugee experiences since then. Palestinian eyewitnesses and experts, now refugees living in refugee camps, villages and cities in Palestine, Jordan and the USA tell the story of their lives in pre-1948 Jerusalem.
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Stranger in My Home - Jerusalem
Sahera Dirbas, 2007, 37 minutes, DVD
The film relates the stories of eight Palestinian Jerusalemite families that have been turned refugees in their own city. They recall the events that occurred in the Moghrabi Quarter of Jerusalem during the 1967 war. Each family goes to see its house which was occupied in 1948, some entering their former homes and having a discussion with the current Israeli tenants.
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The Children of Ibdaa - To Create Something Out of Nothing
S. Smith Patrick, 2002, 29 minutes, DVD
This documentary shows how members of the dance troupe from Dheisheh refugee camp use their performance to express the history, struggle, and aspirations of the Palestinian people, specifically the fight to return to their homeland. The film offers insight into their families’ displacement from their villages, the physically and emotionally stressful aspects of life in a refugee camp, and the unique experience of participating in the politically motivated dance troupe.
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The Children of Shatila
Mai Masri, 2002, 53 minutes, DVD
With a focus on the lives of children in the Shatila refugee camp on the outskirts of Beirut, this documentary examines the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, life in the refugee camps, and the lasting effects of war.
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The Dupes
Tawfik Saleh, 1972, 107 minutes, VHS
This black and white film traces the destinies of three Palestinian refugees brought together by dispossession, despair and hope for a better future. The setting is Iraq in the 1950's and the protagonists, concealed in the steel tank of a truck, are trying to make their way across the border into Kuwait, the "promised land." A masterful adaptation of Ghassan Kanafani's acclaimed novella, Men Under the Sun, The Dupes is also one of the first Arab films to address the Palestinian predicament.
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until when...
Dahna Abourahme, 2004, 76 minutes, DVD
Set during the current Intifada, this documentary follows four Palestinian families living in Dheisheh Refugee Camp near Bethlehem. They talk about their past and discuss the future with humor, sorrow, frustration and hope. "until when..." paints an intimate in-depth portrait of Palestinian lives today.
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Waiting To Go
Di Tatham, 2001, 27 minutes, VHS
This program from the City Life series is set in Lebanon, where (according to the UN) there are three hundred seventy-five thousand Palestinian refugees. Palestinians are unwanted in Israel, but in war-torn, sectarian Lebanon, among fellow Arabs, they hardly fare better, and most live in poverty. Barred from working, they also have limited access to medical care and higher education. Many have been in Lebanon for over fifty years.
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