The feature documentary Gaza Surf Club continues its commercial screenings across the Arab world after it was first released in Kuwait as the first documentary to be screened in Kuwaiti cinemas. The film will be commercially released in Prime Cinemas at Baraka Mall in Jordan starting Thursday, 26 July.
Recently, Gaza Surf Club opened the 3rd Karama Beirut Human Rights Film Festival with a full house screening. It also witnessed several successful screenings at Cairo Cinema Days and the Goethe Institutein Cairo. The film also took part in the Haifa Independent Film Festival (HIFF) and the MONA Film Festival. In November, 2017, the film received the University Juries Award for Best Documentary at the MedFilm Festival in Rome, Italy.
Trapped in “the world’s largest open-air prison” and ruled by war, a new generation is drawn to the country’s coastline. Sick of occupation and political gridlock, they find their own personal freedom in the waves of the Mediterranean – they are the surfers of Gaza.
Directed by Philip Gnadt and Mickey Yamine and co-produced by Stephanie Yamine, Gaza Surf Club is a feature documentary film that stars Sabah Abu Ghanem, Mohammed Abu Jayab and Ibrahim Arafat. MAD Solutions is handling the film’s distribution in the Arab world.
In 2013, the film project received the Film Prize of the Robert Bosch Stiftung. The film landed its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). Recently, the film received a Special Mentionat the Days of Cinema in Palestine. It was nominated for the Social Justice Award at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival and the Halekulani Golden Orchid Award at the Hawaii International Film Festival. The film took part in several film festivals including the Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF),Carthage Film Festival (JCC), Arab Cinema Week in New York, Environmental Film Festival in Washington DC, Houston Palestine Film
Festival, Tromsø International Film Festival, International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA), MoMA’s International Festival of Nonfiction Film and Media, and the Lichter Filmfest Frankfurt International Film Festival.
Source: Albawaba
