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An Unpacking the ArteArchive program, this retrospective screening celebrates the early and little-known films of Iraqi-Lebanese filmmaker Parine Jaddo. Across the experimental works, Jaddo entangles truth and fiction to explore questions of cultural dissonance, estrangement, resistance, and desire. Shaped by her own migratory existence, her critique of patriarchy and colonialism, and influenced by deep collaborations with Black filmmakers at Howard University, the films assert an approach that is female-driven, searching, and formally inventive. This screening marks the recent digital restoration of the 16mm and 35mm works, and their first presentation to audiences in over two decades.
This program is co-presented with Prismatic Grounds as part of their 2026 film festival.
Aisha (Surviving)
Blending fiction and documentary, Aisha (Surviving) follows the gaze of an Arab-American filmmaker making a film about her immigrant cousin -- a woman whose inner voice slowly disrupts the orientalizing narrative, revealing an emotional landscape marked by estrangement, cultural dissonance, and desire.
About the Filmmaker
Parine Jaddo is an Iraqi-Lebanese film director whose works include Broken Record (Qawana), Teyh (Astray), Aisha (Surviving) and Atash (Thirst). Working across fiction, documentary, experimental film, and installation, she began making films in the early 1990’s while a student at Howard University in Washington DC. During this time, she studied and worked with Ethiopian filmmakers Haile Gerima and Abraham (Abiyi) Ford. This experience exposed her to African and African-American culture, thought and aesthetics, in which she found resonance as an Iraqi immigrant living in the west, during the era of the Gulf War. Parine’s early 16mm films Aisha (Surviving) and Atash (Thirst) explore cultural dissonance, estrangement, desire and her own migratory existence. Her personal feature-length documentary Broken Record (Qawana) is a journey through Iraq guided by the memory of a song recorded by her mother in 1960. Released in 2013, Broken Record supported by the Arab Fund for Arts and Culture and SANAD. She is currently based in Beirut, Lebanon.
- Year1999
- Runtime32 minutes
- LanguageEnglish, Arabic, Iraqi Turkmen
- Subtitle LanguageEnglish
- DirectorParine Jaddo
An Unpacking the ArteArchive program, this retrospective screening celebrates the early and little-known films of Iraqi-Lebanese filmmaker Parine Jaddo. Across the experimental works, Jaddo entangles truth and fiction to explore questions of cultural dissonance, estrangement, resistance, and desire. Shaped by her own migratory existence, her critique of patriarchy and colonialism, and influenced by deep collaborations with Black filmmakers at Howard University, the films assert an approach that is female-driven, searching, and formally inventive. This screening marks the recent digital restoration of the 16mm and 35mm works, and their first presentation to audiences in over two decades.
This program is co-presented with Prismatic Grounds as part of their 2026 film festival.
Aisha (Surviving)
Blending fiction and documentary, Aisha (Surviving) follows the gaze of an Arab-American filmmaker making a film about her immigrant cousin -- a woman whose inner voice slowly disrupts the orientalizing narrative, revealing an emotional landscape marked by estrangement, cultural dissonance, and desire.
About the Filmmaker
Parine Jaddo is an Iraqi-Lebanese film director whose works include Broken Record (Qawana), Teyh (Astray), Aisha (Surviving) and Atash (Thirst). Working across fiction, documentary, experimental film, and installation, she began making films in the early 1990’s while a student at Howard University in Washington DC. During this time, she studied and worked with Ethiopian filmmakers Haile Gerima and Abraham (Abiyi) Ford. This experience exposed her to African and African-American culture, thought and aesthetics, in which she found resonance as an Iraqi immigrant living in the west, during the era of the Gulf War. Parine’s early 16mm films Aisha (Surviving) and Atash (Thirst) explore cultural dissonance, estrangement, desire and her own migratory existence. Her personal feature-length documentary Broken Record (Qawana) is a journey through Iraq guided by the memory of a song recorded by her mother in 1960. Released in 2013, Broken Record supported by the Arab Fund for Arts and Culture and SANAD. She is currently based in Beirut, Lebanon.
- Year1999
- Runtime32 minutes
- LanguageEnglish, Arabic, Iraqi Turkmen
- Subtitle LanguageEnglish
- DirectorParine Jaddo