Chicago Palestine Film Festival

Hello Friends!

AMREEKA, a film written and directed by Cherien Dabis, is coming to theatres in the US in September! Amreeka had its US premiere at the Sundance Film Festival and its international premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, where it won critic's prize for best director! The movie has already been released in B...elgium and France and will be released in the Middle East starting in October.

The release schedule by US city is below. A synopsis of the movie and reviews of the film can be found below as well.

FOR THOSE OF YOU IN CHICAGO - Amreeka will have a special advance screening this Monday, 8/31, at the Gene Siskel Film Center at 8:15pm. Cherien will also hold a Q&A session at Monday's screening!

You can buy your tickets at ticketmaster.com. BUY YOUR TICKETS IN ADVANCE TO SECURE A SEAT!
Copy & paste entire link to buy tickets:
http://www.ticketmaster.com/event/210042EDC9EE454B?artistid=1343100&majorcatid=10005&minorcatid=59

Please pass this information on to your friends :)

AMREEKA RELEASE DATE: September 4, 2009

RELEASE PATTERN: Subject to change, theaters are not all confirmed. Expansion dependent on performance.

Date Cities Total # of Screens
Sept 4, 2009 NY & LA - 4 screens
Sept 11, 2009 NY & LA - 4 screens
Sept 18, 2009 CHICAGO/ DETROIT/ SAN FRANCISCO / additional NY & LA [OC]/DC, BOSTON - 20 screens
Sept 25, 2009 DC/ BOSTON / PHILLY/DALLAS/ AUSTIN/HOUSTON/SEATTLE - 35 screens
Oct 2, 2009 MIAMI/ORLANDO/JACKSONVILLE/PORTLAND /ATLANTA/PHOENIX/SAN DIEGO/ALBUQUERQUE/MINNEAPOLIS - 50 screens

www.amreeka.com - WATCH THE TRAILER HERE

Amreeka chronicles the adventures of Muna, a single mother who leaves the West Bank with Fadi, her teenage son, with dreams of an exciting future in the promised land of small town Illinois. In America, as her son navigates high school hallways the way he used to move through military checkpoints, the indomitable Muna scrambles together a new life cooking up falafel burgers as well as hamburgers at the local White Castle.

Told with heartfelt humor by writer-director Cherien Dabis in her feature film debut, Amreeka is a universal journey into the lives of a family of immigrants and first-generation teenagers caught between their heritage and the new world in which they now live and the bittersweet search for a place to call home.

Amreeka recalls Dabis’s family’s memories of their lives in rural America during the first Iraq War. The film stars Haifa-trained actress Nisreen Faour as Muna, and Melkar Muallen plays her 16-year-old son, Fadi. Also in the cast are Hiam Abbass, Alia Shawkat, Yussef Abu-Warda and Joseph Ziegler. Written and directed by Cherien Dabis, Amreeka was produced by Christina Piovesan and Paul Barkin. Alicia Sams, Dabis and Gregory Keever were executive producers; Liz Jarvis and Al-Zain Al-Sabah were co-producers.

National Geographic Entertainment will release Amreeka in September 2009. Amreeka is a First Generation Films-Alcina Pictures-Buffalo Gal Pictures/Eagle Vision Media Group Production, presented by E1 Entertainment in association with Levantine Entertainment, Rotana Studios and Showtime Arabia.

Amreeka made its world premiere in dramatic competition at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival, and played as Opening Night of New Directors/New Films, a co-presentation of The Museum of Modern Art and The Film Society of Lincoln Center. Amreeka made its debut internationally in Directors’ Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival.

Reviews of the film:

"Amreeka," a culture-clash dramedy whose background in Middle-East conflict is leavened with vibrant energy, balanced politics...
- Variety

"This past November, the country that Arabs call "Amreeka" proved that it's not what it had appeared to be..."
- The Hollywood Reporter

"Cherien Dabis's debut feature shows a confident director's hand"
- Santa Monica Mirror

"The strength of "Amreeka" is its ability to take on a fraught situation and avoid both stridency and
sentimentality..."
- LA Times

"New York-based filmmaker Cherien Dabis' miraculous first feature is a humanist drama inflected with humor."
- Film Society of Lincoln Center

"Dabis' film aspires to show the plight of Arab people living in the U.S. in the Homeland Security era."
- LA Weekly

"...Director Cherien Dabis talks about the film's genesis and how Tribeca helped her get to Park City."
- Tribeca Film

"...(Amreeka) was born out of a desire for change and the hope for something better."
- Moving Pictures MagazineRead More

Join us for an afternoon out with Producer/Director Jackie Salloum this SATURDAY!!!! Express Yourself: A conversation about media with Arab women will take place at Nikobees Banquets from 10:30-2:30, with a luncheon, panel discussion with arab women in the media, and even ARAB and ENGLISH KARAOKE!!! Sales of of the DVD... Slingshot Hip Hop will also be available!! Contact Mona Abdullah for tickets...708-870-9802 or email: mona24pal@comcast.net

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/event.php?eid=99208426825&ref=mfRead More