Accessibility
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This screening is presented with open captions. Wheelchair spaces and step-free seating is available for this screening – click below to book accessible seats.
Lebanon, USA202393 minArabic, English Canadian PremiereDirected By Women, Documentary, Drama, First Feature
Jude Chehab, a Lebanese American cinematographer and filmmaker, has always known her mother and grandmother to be women devoted to their Muslim faith. During a trip to Lebanon, Chehab is propelled by a curiosity to understand the quest for love, acceptance, and meaning that brought three generations of women in her family to pledge loyalty to a secretive matriarchal religious order operating clandestinely in the country.
Deftly balancing a delicate and determined approach to uncovering and documenting her family’s reflections, Chehab illuminates the unspoken ties and long-lasting consequences of loyalty that have not only bonded the women in her family, but left an unshakeable sense of longing and ostracization—for some, years after leaving the religious order. Utilizing incisive imagery and rich aural textures to evoke the sublime, Chehab asks us to question the line between love and devotion in this commanding and precisely crafted debut feature.
– Mariam Zaidi
OFFICIAL SELECTION
Tribeca Film Festival, 2023
Sheffield DocFest, 2023
Golden Apricot Yerevan International Film Festival, 2023
AWARDS
Albert Maysles Award, Best New Documentary Director, Tribeca Film Festival, 2023
Grand Jury Prize for Best International First Feature, Sheffield DocFest, 2023
Jude Chehab
Jude Chehab is a Lebanese American filmmaker based in New York and Beirut. Her cinematic interests have drawn her to the exploration of the esoteric, the spiritual, and the unspoken. Chehab’s first feature documentary has been supported by IDA, ITVS, TFI, and Sundance. In 2021, Filmmaker Magazine named her one of the 25 New Faces of Independent Film.
PG
11 Nov, 2023 5:00 pm
TIFF Bell Lightbox C3–
This screening is presented with open captions. Wheelchair spaces and step-free seating is available for this screening – click below to book accessible seats.
Join us for a Q&A immediately after the theatrical presentation with director Jude Chehab
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Founded in Toronto in 1997, Reel Asian is Canada’s largest pan-Asian film festival and a year-round cultural organization dedicated to championing Asian and Asian diasporic artists and storytellers. What began as a grassroots film festival has grown into a national platform supporting filmmakers and audiences through screenings, education, industry initiatives, artist development, and community programming presented across Toronto, the GTA, and online across Canada.
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