House + News From Home

House (Bait)

Dir Amos Gitai, Israel 1980, 51 minutes, Arabic/Hebrew with English subtitles

One of Gitai's first documentaries and by no means the last to provoke controversy, House tells the story of a house in West Jerusalem owned by a Palestinian family until 1948, then requisitioned by the Israeli government as 'vacant'.

House was one of the pioneering Israeli documentaries to introduce a Palestinian perspective to the conflict, touching upon one of the great taboos: the effects of the 1948 war on the Palestinians. At the time of its release, and despite being produced by Israeli Television its broadcasting was banned.

News from Home

Dir Amos Gitai, Israel/France/Belgium 2005, 96 minutes, Arabic/Hebrew/English/French with English subtitles.

In the last film in a trilogy spanning over three decades, the microcosm that was presented in House is expanded as Gitai follows the different diasporas connected to a Jerusalem house.

This multiple perspective works like an intriguing collage, forming a fascinating picture of people, nations and histories more deeply inter-connected than one might expect, through the intimate place that is home.

Filmmaker Amos Gitai will present the films and attend a post screening discussion with the audience.