Join us for a talk by Rami Younis and Sarah Friedland, and a screening of their work-in-progress documentary Lyd In Exile. Younis and Friedland have spent over three years researching and filming Lyd In Exile, and are in post-production. They will screen clips from their film and discuss their work collecting stories from the fractured community of Palestinians who were exiled from the city of Lyd (Lod in Hebrew), as well as the Palestinians who remain in this city.

Sarah Friedland is a New York-based filmmaker, media artist, educator, and the director of MDOCS Documentary Storytellers’ Institute at Skidmore. Friedland’s documentaries, made with partners Esy Casey and Ryan Joseph (Thing With No Name, Jeepney, and The Rink), have screened widely in the U.S. and abroad and have aired on PBS. Their films have been supported by grants from the Jerome Foundation, the Paul Newman Foundation, the Ford Foundation JustFilms Program, and the Center for Asian American Media. In 2009, after the debut of her feature documentary Thing With No Name, she was named one of the “Top 10 Independent Filmmakers to Watch” by The Independent. She has received residencies and fellowships from the Center of Contemporary Art in Pont-Aven, France; the LABA House of Study; the Palestine American Research Center; the MacDowell Colony; and Meerkat Media.

Rami Younis is a Palestinian writer and activist from Lyd, who graduated from Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He writes for the online magazine +972, and serves as a writer and editor at the Hebrew sister site Local Call. He is one of the founders of the Palestinian activist group Khotweh, which was active on the issues of home demolitions and Palestinian identity in Lyd and Ramleh, mixed Jewish-Arab cities in occupied historical Palestine. Rami served as a parliamentary consultant and spokesperson for Palestinian member of Knesset Haneen Zoabi. Rami is also co-founder and manager of the first Palestine Music Expo, an event that connects the local Palestinian music scene to the worldwide industry.

This talk and screening are part of exhibition This Place, on view February 3 through April 22, 2018, as well as the Palestinian Voices series. The Palestinian Voices series is organized and co-sponsored by the John B. Moore Documentary Studies Collaborative (MDOCS), the Environmental Studies and Sciences Program, International Affairs, Media and Film Studies, Art History, History, Hayat, and the Skidmore College Dean’s Office.