‘Radical Films, Radical Forms’ – A Thinking List by Momtaza Mehri
Other Cinemas are pleased to announce our ‘Radical Films, Radical Forms’ weekender taking place on the 25th – 27th of March, which has been co-curated with filmmaker Saeed Taji Farouky. As part of the programme, we have asked Momtaza Mehri to put together a list, a syllabus, to help us explore the themes of the programme and to offer us more opportunities to read, to watch and to learn.
I Am The One Who Brings Flowers to Her Grave (2006)
- Measures of Distance, (1988), Mona Hatoum
- N ن, Dunya Mikhail
- Exile, Carolyn Forché
- The Seated Woman, Souéloum Diagho
- Sin Secreto en Dajla, Mahfud Aliyen
- The Poet Cannot Stand Aside: Arabic Literature and Exile
- Exiled in Europe: An Interview with Three Women Writers (with Samar Yazbek, Rosa Yassin Hassan, and Inaam Kachachi)
- When the Present is Haunted by the Past: A Conversation with Adania Shibli
Out on the Street (2015)
-
“El Ard”/The Land, (1969), Youssef Chahine
-
Chickens,(1977), Omar Amiralay
-
Geedka Nolosha/The Tree of Life, (1988), Abdulkadir Ahmed Said
-
Exhortation to the Village, Ateif Khieri
-
عائشة الفلاتية – سافرت ليه يا جميل/Why did you travel, beautiful?, Aisha Al-Falatiya
-
Fire in Cairo, The Cure
Ghost Hunting (2017)
- Descent Into the Water: Palestinian Notes from Arab Exile by Muin Bseiso
- Mapping My Return: A Palestinian Memoir by Salman Abu Sitta
- Yalo, by Elias Khoury
- This Blinding Absence of Light, Tahar Ben Jelloun
- The Secret Life of Saeed: The Pessoptimist, by Emile Habibi
- To Make a Poem in Prison, by Etheridge Knight
- Detaining a Poem, by Dareen Tatour
- The Attica Liberation Faction Manifesto of Demands and Anti-Depression Platform
- June Jordan reading Poem Against the State of Things
- Cairo Station (1958), Youssef Chahine
- Grey Area (1983), Monona Wali
- 3000 Nights (2015), Mai Masri
A Feeling Greater Than Love (2017)
- Jamila, The Algerian (1958), Youssef Chahine
- Beirut, Oh Beirut (1971), Maroun Bagdadi
- Beau Geste (2009), Yto Barrada
- The Tempest Society (2017), Bouchra Khalili
- Taste of Cement (2017), Ziad Kalthoum
- Mapping Lessons (2020), Phillip Rizk
- Woman Sitting at the Machine, Thinking, Karen Brodine
- To Create Ourselves Between the Day: Mark Nowak Interviewed by Voices: Poetry for the People
- Beirut, a song by Iraqi troupe Al Tariq
- Ka’an Aayshin / كأن عايشين, Michelle & Noel Keserwany
The Hour of Liberation Has Arrived (1974)
- Warda, by Sonallah Ibrahim
- Love and Revolution: On Sonallah Ibrahim’s “Warda”
- The Queue, by Basma Abdel Aziz, (translated by Elisabeth Jaquette)
- For the Self-Expression of the Arab Woman, by Heiny Srour, Salma Baccar and Magda Wassef
- اغاني ثورية من ظفار / Revolutionary Songs from Dhofar
- Flashbacks from a Continuing Struggle, by Margaret Dickinson
- Manifesto Against the Woman, Mona Kareem
- My Experience with Writing / ﺗﺠﺮﺑﺘﻲ ﻓﻲ ﺍﻟﻜﺘﺎﺑﺔ, Radwa Ashour
- The Oppositional Gaze: Black Female Spectators, by bell hooks
- When the Moon Waxes Red, essays by Trinh T. Minh-ha
- Woman Native Other – An Interview with Pratibha Parmar and Trinh T. Minh-Ha
- Sweet Sugar Rage, (1985), Sistren Theatre Collective
- The Lady of Saigon/La Dame de Saïgon (1998), Jocelyne Saab
- Bye Bye Africa (1999), Mahamat Saleh Haroun
- Up to the South (Talaeen a Junuub) (1993), Jayce Salloum and Walid Ra’ad
- Who’s Afraid of Ideology? (2017), Marwa Arsanios




About the films
I Am The One Who Brings Flowers To Her Grave – a film by Hala Alabdalla and Ammar el-Beik
This film is a cinematographic cross between the documentary, the narrative, and the experimental, in which Syrian director Hala Alabdalla blurs the boundaries between genres and time. She combines the present with the past, and merges private and public concerns. Using converging and intertwining storylines, she narrates her friends’ experiences of prison, their disappointments, stubbornness, holding on to the light in their hearts. Shot in black and white, the film aims to portray all colours of life with its sweetness and bitterness.
Out On The Street – a film by Jasmina Metwaly and Philip Rizk
Nine men gather for a workshop on a rooftop. There they perform confrontations of everyday life, with the police and at the workplace.
In the process, the actors engage a space between the theatrical and the real.
This is not a film about workers.
The factory is a microcosm, a miniature Egypt.
Ghost Hunting – a film by Raed Andoni
In order to confront the ghosts that haunt him, Palestinian director Raed Andoni assembles an eclectic group of ex-prisoners to recreate the Al-Moskobiya, Israel’s main interrogation centre, where he was himself jailed at age 18. Day after day, these construction workers, a blacksmith, an architect, an assistant director give shape to their memories of how they survived with grit and a sense of humor. As the walls of the cells rise, the tongues and the emotions loosen.
A Feeling Greater Than Love – a film by Mary Jirmanus Saba
In her directorial debut, Mary Jirmanus Saba deals with a forgotten revolution, saving from oblivion bloodily suppressed strikes at Lebanese tobacco and chocolate factories. These events from the 1970s, which held the promise of a popular revolution and, with it, of women’s emancipation were erased from collective memory by the country’s civil wars. Rich in archival footage from Lebanons militant cinema tradition, the film reconstructs the spirit of that revolt, asking of the past how we might transform the present.
The Hour of Liberation Has Arrived – a film by Heiny Srour
In the late 60s, Dhofar rose up against the British-backed Sultanate of Oman, in a democratic, feminist guerrilla movement. Director Heiny Srour and her team crossed 500 miles of desert and mountains by foot, under bombardment by the British Royal Air Force, to reach the conflict zone and capture this rare record of a now mostly-forgotten war.
Accessibility: The venue has step-free access and there is a lift, for those who might need it, to access to the main space. There is a disabled toilet. The chairs aren’t cushioned, they have a backrest but no arms rest but we are able to provide cushions. Cushioned chairs with armrests and backrests can be requested. There will be no BSL interpreter unfortunately. All the films are in Arabic and will therefore be subtitled in English.
Location: The Yellow, 1 Humphry Repton Lane, Wembley, HA9 0GL View Map
Support: These events are supported by Brent Council and The Doc Society.