San Diego Arab Film Festival
2016 marks the fifth anniversary of the Arab Film Festival in San Diego. This year, the festival offers seven screenings. It opens with the epic Iraqi Odyssey that offers a view of modern Iraq that is missing from public discourse. It includes political satire (Very Big Shot), dramas (3000 Nights and As I Open My Eyes) and a glimpse at rising young artists and musicians from across the region (Yallah! Underground).
For the first time the festival will screen a shorts program with a sampling of narrative, documentary, animated, and experimental films. It closes with the remarkable story of Mohammed Assaf whose dreams as a child growing up in Gaza were realized when he crossed the border into Egypt to perform in the popular Arab Idol competition (The Idol).