This episode began as a thought months ago, not long after the Oct 7, 2023 Hamas attack. At that time, we anticipated violence - there’s a long history of Israeli assaults on the Palestinian people. We did not, however, anticipate a genocidal campaign and widening regional war. It’s a wide ranging talk between Dennis and Dwayne since Charles was unable to join us this time.

Our conversation does not have the structure of our usual shows. There is a film, Farha, at the heart of things and we do discuss it but more as a point of reference than to critique or review. We’ll talk about Farha at greater length on a subsequent show.  

The links shared with the show notes will point you to information resources we’ve found helpful in sorting through this unfolding disaster.

Resources

Farha

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farha_(film)

The Great Book Robbery

The Great Book Robbery is a powerful and poignant chronicle of cultural destruction. It tells the story of the 70,000 Palestinian books that were looted by the newly formed State of Israel in 1948. The film weaves together a range of storylines to create a dramatic, engaging, and deeply emotional structure.

https://bbrunner.eu/movie/the-great-book-robbery/

Leila Khaled Interview: Palestine is an International Liberation Struggle

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BBvzyKL-G4

A Life in Struggle: Exclusive with Leila Khaled, Icon of Palestinian Resistance

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSv0Vqk_ILg

Solidarity with Palestine: Free Resources and Further Reading

https://www.versobooks.com/en-gb/blogs/news/solidarity-with-palestine-free-resources-and-further-reading?_pos=4&_sid=e479de814&_ss=r

The 1948 Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine by Ilan Pappé

https://ciaotest.cc.columbia.edu/olj/jps/vol36-141/vol36-141_b.pdf

Ten Myths About Israel by Ilan Pappe

https://www.jadaliyya.com/Author/4114

Gaza An Inquest into Its Martyrdom by Norman Finkelstein 

https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520318335/gaza

The Palestine Laboratory: How Israel Exports the Technology of Occupation Around the World

by Antony Loewenstein

https://www.versobooks.com/products/2684-the-palestine-laboratory

In today´s episode, we speak with Amrita De, Postdoctoral fellow in the Center of Humanities and Information at Penn State University about All That Breathes, a 2022 documentary film directed by Shaunak Sen. Let me read a bit about Amrita from her page on the Penn State University website:

Amrita´s research focuses on global south masculinity studies and affect theory. Her works have been published in NORMA, Boyhood Studies, Global Humanities and are forthcoming in other edited collections. She is also working her way through her first novel centered around contemporary Indian Masculinities. 

 Here's the synopsis of All That Breathes from the film´s Wikipedia page:

All That Breathes is a 2022 documentary film directed by Shaunak Sen. It is produced by Shaunak Sen, Aman Mann and Teddy Leifer under the banner of Rise Films. The film follows siblings Mohammad Saud and Nadeem Shehzad, who rescue and treat injured birds in India.

The film had its world premiere at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival on January 22, 2022, where it won Grand Jury Prize in World Cinema Documentary Competition. It also had a screening at the Cannes Film Festival in the special screening section, where it won the Golden Eye. It was later nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature Film.

Two brothers Saud and Nadeem were raised in New Delhi, looking at a sky speckled with black kites, watching as relatives tossed meat up to these birds of prey. Muslim belief held that feeding the kites would expel troubles. Now, birds are falling from the polluted, opaque skies of New Delhi and the two brothers have made it their life’s work to care for the injured black kites.

[...]

This was an excellent conversation and we were very glad to have Amrita as a guest. I hope, you enjoy.

All That Breathes - Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_That_Breathes

Amrita's webpage:

https://www.amritade.com/home

Variety Interview with the film makers

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbLoQ8GPxeA

ASAP Connect Interview with Mohammad Saud and Salik Rehman  

https://youtu.be/I5kL2YMb4Vk?si=I4Zx5RFMtsE-tNFs

In this brief annoucement, I talk about our September break, Ghost in the Shell (the 1995 release) and some of the things you can look forward to in upcoming shows including discussions of cinematic depictions of our home towns, Italian westerns of the 1960s and 70s, films from outside of the Hollywood orbit and more guests.

See you soon!

Oh and here's a link to the Wiki entry about Ghost in the Shell for the curious:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_in_the_Shell