With the short films Mawtini (My Homeland) and Unibrow

Admission: Free/PWYC (no ticket required to attend) 

Event details: 

Eats & Treats for sale @ 7 pm / Showtime @ sundown (~ 9:00pm)

Programme runtime: 2hr

BYOBlanket & Chairs

Films are screened with captioning 

Lebanese-Canadian Director Amber Fares’ first feature length documentary Speed Sisters gives audiences an under-the-hood look at the first all-women car racing team in Palestine. At the centre of this year’s Spotlight on SWANA Stories programme, the film highlights four subjects, Marah, Noor, Mona and Betty, who represent Palestine on the track with national pride and a deep passion for driving. 

Fares (who is being celebrated on the festival circuit this year for her recent documentary feature Coexistence, My Ass!) uses an empathetic camera to show the growing pains these young women face outside of racing, as they find balance between home life, work and play in the face of the barriers imposed by occupation and disenfranchisement. Ultimately it is their ability to persevere and the joy driving cars competitively provides that keeps them on track to pursue their goals no matter the roadblocks, as they weave racing into the fabric of their lives a quarter kilometre at a time.