IN CINEMA
Before Their Flood: Water Politics in the Arab World
Thursday, September 14 at 7PM
Tickets: $15 General Admission/$7 Reduced Price
Co-Presented with ArteEast
Everyday Life in a Syrian Village (Omar Amiralay, 1974, Syria, 83 min.)
The Marshes (Kassem Hawal,1976, Iraq, 45 min.)
Dam construction and agricultural reform have long had effects on the lives of people, altering topographies and economies, flora and fauna—and all their attendant natural and anthropomorphic socialities. In the 1970s and 1980s, Arab governments led wide-scale efforts to ‘modernize’ water and agricultural systems, which included the construction of the Aswan High Dam (1960–1976) on the Nile by Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser, the construction of the Tabqa Dam (1968–1977) on the Euphrates by Syrian president Hafez al-Assad, and the construction of the Mosul Dam (1981–1985) on the Tigris by Iraqi president Saddam Hussein. Alongside the development of these infrastructures, post-independence Arab governments were interested in the production of films to promote their image, and marshaled directors affiliated with newly-established cinema organizations towards the effort. The results were not always what they expected.
Curated by Palestinian writers Kaleem Hawa and Nadine Fattaleh, “Before Their Flood,” will present Omar Amiralay’s Everyday Life in a Syrian Village (1974, Syria) and Kassem Hawal’s The Marshes (1976, Iraq). The films, which revolve around the water politics of the Arab Socialist Ba’ath parties of Iraq and Syria, pose complex questions about national development, colonialism, sociocultural transformation, and forced displacement. Their directors—committed Arab nationalists—participated in the revolutionary projects of the Arab Cinema Clubs of Syria and the Marxist–Leninist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, respectively.
The limited-release pamphlet Before Their Flood (Lucky Risograph, 2023) will be available for purchase, featuring explorations of the films by Kaleem Hawa and Nadine Fattaleh, a translation of a rare text by Saadalah Wannus on his work with Amiralay on Everyday Life, and a reproduction of a 1971 interview between Kassem Hawal and Omar Amiralay, originally published in the pages of al-Hadaf magazine.
Post-screening discussion with Kaleem Hawa and Nadine Fattaleh
Since its founding in 2003 as a NY-based film collective specializing in Middle Eastern film programming, ArteEast has become a leading organization advocating for and supporting artists from the Southwest Asian and North African (SWANA) region engaging with U.S.-based arts communities and audiences. Through public programming, strategic partnerships, dynamic online publications, and film platforms, ArteEast serves as a bridge, facilitating the interaction of the public with, and amplifying the voices of, artists, curators, filmmakers, and arts thought leaders from the SWANA region and its diaspora.
