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Another Side of the “Arab Spring”

In 2011, a mass-movement overthrew the long-standing regime in Tunisia, sparking a wave of revolution that soon rippled throughout the region. What impact has this “Arab Spring” had on the people living in the world? In this program, we take pause and look at societies that changed with dizzying speed following the uprisings, and screen works that depict their experiences from various angles.

Venues: Forum 4, Yamagata Citizen’s Hall Gallery Space

This program showcases the following films: The Reluctant Revolutionary, created by a tourist guide who is gradually pulled into Yemen’s revolution; No Harm Done, by a director who becomes victim to internet abuse because of her film questioning Islamism in politics; It Was Better Tomorrow, about a woman who lives with her child on chaotic streets, and their eager desire for normal tomorrow; A Common Enemy, which follows the first democratic election following the toppling of the previous regime in Tunisia; Crop, which records every part of the offices of the Egyptian newspaper Al Ahram using a fixed camera, pondering the past and future of Egypt; and SSS—2013 YAMAGATA mix by Japanese director Oki Hiroyuki whose work depicts the ‘here and now,’ and in this piece gives pause to think about the ‘now’ of Egypt. With a special screening of What Is to Be Done? (YIDFF 2011).