Project Detail

Unsettling

Name: Unsettling
Director: Dr. Iris Zaki
Genre: Woman Director
Released: 2018
Duration: 70 min

Synopsis

Tekoa is a trendy hipster colony for Israeli settlers on the West Bank, where none of the controversial residents want to speak to the media. From the moment filmmaker Iris Zaki arrives, tension fills the air. She sets up a small pop-up film studio in the middle of the small town, and stays put for over one month in order to meet the young settlers face to face. A simple intervention, which creates a complex chain of reactions from those who eventually agree to talk to her. From a woman who in the middle of an interview admits to being a fascist, to another who has survived a knife attack by a young Palestinian – and has forgiven him. 'Unsettling' is made by Iris Zaki alone as a social experiment that highlights the contrasts and contradictions of the settlers' self-perception, but which does so in something as rare as an active conversation with them. A conceptual ploy that places Zaki's film in the field between artistic practice and political activism, and which reaches beyond blind criticism. (CPH:DOX brochure)
Official Selection CPH:DOX 2018 - World premiere

Details

Year: 2018
Type of project: Features
Running time: 70 min
Director: Dr. Iris Zaki 1st Feature
Producer: Dr. Iris Zaki
Editor: Oren Yaniv
Screenwriter: Dr. Iris Zaki, Oren Yaniv
Director of Photography: Or Azulay
Production Note: This film was produced an element of Iris Zaki's PhD programme at Royal Holloway, University of London

Genre

Woman Director

Production Status

Complete

Production Company

UK, Israel co-production

Dr. Iris Zaki

Visit Website

Page updates

This page was last updated on 12th May 2025. Please let us know if we need to make any amendments or request edit access by clicking below.

Suggest amendments

A group of young adults born during or just after the 1994 genocide against Rwanda's Tutsi people gather to find the courage to break a powerful taboo. Rwanda is one of the few nations in the world providing specialist counselling for children conceived through rape, who number 10,000 across the country. Here, course leader Emilienne, a mother, therapist and genocide survivor, helps the group to imagine a future free from family secrets and societal stigma. In a circle of supportive peers, they tell their individual stories and face their struggles together, in the hope their participation will advocate for others facing similar trauma. Aesthetica Short Film Festival 2024 NY African Film Festival 2025

Black Woman Director

Frank Zappa reads at The Nova Convention in New York City

NOVA '78

Director: Aaron Brookner, Rodrigo Areias

Year: 2025

NOVA '78 resurrects the legendary Nova Convention, the groundbreaking three-day gathering held in New York in 1978 to celebrate William S. Burroughs and the artistic revolution he inspired. Built from newly restored, previously unseen 16mm footage shot by Howard Brookner, the film captures extraordinary performances and intimate backstage moments featuring Patti Smith, Frank Zappa, Laurie Anderson, Allen Ginsberg, Philip Glass, John Cage, Merce Cunningham and many other defining voices of the era. More than a concert film or historical record, NOVA '78 is an immersive time capsule of a fleeting moment when literature, music, art and radical ideas collided to reshape contemporary culture.

Music

Franco, Ale, and Benji walking down Leith Walk after rehearsal.

When Cumbia is On

Director: Maria Paz Gonzales

Year: 2024

When Cumbia is On follows three South American musicians and traces the sound of cumbia music through the streets of Edinburgh, asking whether this rhythm is what lets them build a sense of belonging in a foreign land.

Music Woman Director