Panel Discussion on Independent Filmmaking
Date: Saturday, May 21, 2016
Time: 4:00-5:00 PM
Place: Rice Media Center
FREE ADMISSION
The Houston Palestine Film Festival is celebrating our 10th annual film festival this May. This year, we invite you to join four independent filmmakers in an open exchange of ideas, dialogue and advice for first-time producers and directors or seasoned veterans. Our panelists will have a frank and informative conversation about what it takes to be in either position in this ever-changing world of filmmaking. How do you get a project off the ground and onto the big screen? How do you assemble your crew, team and cast? Learn from those who have been in the trenches, making movies and making a difference. The panel will consist of two of our featured directors, Rami Alayan and Amber Fares as well as two local filmmakers, Flash Gordon Parks and Tish Stringer. Dr. Hosam Aboul-Ela, Associate Professor at the University of Houston, will facilitate the discussion.
Immediately following the panel discussion, Cinema Palestine will play from 5:00-6:30 PM. Panel tickets and Cinema Palestine are available free of charge.
Rami Alayan
Rami Alayan is a Palestinian film producer, screenwriter and designer. He is producer-writer on the feature film, Love, Theft and Other Entanglements, which premiered at the Berlinale Panorama in 2015 and won two Best Arab Narrative Film awards. The film was also nominated for the Best First Feature award at Berlinale, Seattle Film Festival, Taipei Film Festival, Carthage and many others. The film has since been sold to over 20 territories. The film will be screened at HPFF on Saturday, May 21, 2016, at 7 PM.
Amber Fares
Amber Fares is an award-winning documentary filmmaker and photographer. Her feature length directorial debut, Speed Sisters, premiered at Hot Docs in 2015, where it was one of the top 20 Audience Choice Awards, and won the Audience Award at the Irish Film Institute Festival. Speed Sisters is currently playing in film festivals around the world. Amber’s continually expanding storytelling approach is driven by the belief that personal stories can best help connect audiences to important topics and issues. Amber has worked with organizations like UNRWA, Defence for Children International and Amnesty International and co-founded SocDoc Studios to produce story-driven films that explore social issues. Amber is Canadian and is based in New York. Speed Sisters will be screened at HPFF on Friday, May 20, 2016, at 7 PM.
Flash Gordon Parks
Flash Gordon Parks is an ethnomusicologist and filmmaker from Houston, TX. He is the director of the documentary This Thing We Do (Houston DJ Culture Revealed), which explores the history and diversity of Houston's rich music culture as seen by the DJ.
Tish Stringer, PhD
Tish Stringer is currently a Lecturer and Film Program Manager in the Department of Visual and Dramatic Arts at Rice University, where she teachers film production and manages the technical needs of Rice Cinema and a film production program. She is an anthropologist, media maker, and user and curator of endangered technologies. Her film entitled “In between: Iraqi artists in Exile” was screened at the 2008 HPFF.