Join us at swanky Saffron to kick off Mizna's 7th Twin Cities Arab Film Festival. Enjoy an hors d'oeuvres mezze by award-winning chef Sameh Wadi and mingle with invited filmmakers.

Featuring Fadia Afashe (Humphrey Fellow, Human Rights Activist and Artist) • Mohammed Bamyeh (Guest Editor of forthcoming Mizna journal "Literature in Revolution," Professor of Sociology, University of Pittsburgh) • Waleed Mahdi (Ph.D. Candidate, Department of American Studies) • Tania Khalaf (Filmmaker and Professor of Radio, Television, and Film, University of North Texas). Moderated by Imed Labidi (Lecturer, Department of Cultural Studies and Comparative Literature).

Ten directors acted fast and shot, with no budget and on a voluntary basis, ten short films about the January 25 revolution in Egypt. Ten stories they have experienced, heard or imagined. Drama. In Arabic, subtitled. 125 min. Film short, Voices from the Revolution, to follow: During the recent uprising in Egypt in 2011, Speak2Tweet allowed Egyptians to post their breaking news and opinions on Twitter via voicemail despite countrywide Internet cuts. The result was thousands of heartfelt messages from Egyptians recording their emotions by phone. Documentary. In Arabic. 7 min. Directed by Heba Amin.

Iraq Finally: Tarik Rasouli, a 19 year old Iraqi American, embarked on a journey to see Iraq for the first time. Documentary. In English & Arabic, subtitled. 69 min. Directed by Tarik Rasouli. Film short, My Name is Mohammed, to follow: A young refugee boy from Iraq living in Jordan is forced to clean shoes in order to support his widowed mother and little sister. Drama. In Arabic with subtitles. 11 min. Directed by Sinan Najm Abdullah, Yahya T. Hassan, & Baan S. Shihab.

Gaza Strophe: We came to Gaza in the aftermath of the war to discover the extent of the Gaza-strophe and the depth of the Palestinian's nightmare. Documentary. In Arabic, subtitled. 95 min. Directed by Samir Abdallah & Khéridine Mabrouk. Film short, Gaza Shield, to follow: Three unconventional Lebanese artists seek to protest the injustices of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by developing a conscientious online video game. Documentary. In Arabic with subtitles. 18 min. Directed by Tania Khalaf.

‘Hawi’ (magician or juggler) contemplates stories of several people in what may look like unconnected subplots. Set in the Egyptian city of Alexandria, Ibrahim El-Batout travels through his characters to a realistic portrait of ordinary people you might encounter randomly, taking for granted that they might have interesting chronicles. He stopped where others marched away and brought together different pieces of a desperate society. Drama. In Arabic with subtitles. 112 min. Directed by Ibrahim El-Batout.

Taqwacore captures 'the birth of punk Islam' following 'Taqwacore' bands touring the United States and Pakistan. Documentary. In English. 80 min. Directed by Eyad Zahra. Film short, Envy the Dead, to follow: A lone survivor struggles to navigate the wreckage of an Arab metropolis in the wake of a zombie epidemic. Horror. In Arabic. 10 min. Directed by Isa Swain. Allahu Akbar, to follow: In Islam it is forbidden to have depiction's of God or the Prophet. In this film, complex geometrical patterns are used to praise the perfection of God in nature. Experimental. In Arabic. 6 min. Directed by Usama Alshaibi.

Zeina Daccache struggled to set up Lebanon's first prison-based drama project in the country's notorious Roumieh Prison. For 15 months, 45 adult male inmates, some completely illiterate, worked together to present an adaptation of the famous stage play '12 Angry Men', here re-named '12 Angry Lebanese'. Documentary. In Arabic. 78 min. Directed by Zeina Daccache. Film short, Mish Mush, to follow.

This Way Up: The Israeli wall, constructed in East Jerusalem, runs right past the windows and doors of Our Lady of Sorrows Catholic-run nursing home. The loss of a view is not what troubles the Palestinian Christian residents most, but the separation from their families, as the home has fallen on the Israeli side. Documentary. In Arabic with subtitles. 61 min. Directed by Georgi Lazarevski. Grandma, 1000 Times, will follow: This film is designed to commemorate the many worlds of a feisty Beiruti grandmother before they are erased by the passage of time and her eventual death. Teta Fatima struggles to cope with the silence of her once-buzzing house and imagines what awaits her beyond death. Poetic documentary. In Arabic. 48 min. Directed by Mahmoud Kaabour. Film short, Beirut, My Heart, will follow: A woman follows her heart to Beirut and is left seeking answers after the man she loves disappears unexplained. Through her diary, the woman tells the man her story. Drama/romance. In Arabic. 10 min. Directed by Sabah Haider.

Man Without a Cellphone: When he’s not working in his cousin’s concrete business, college dropout Jawdat (Razi Shawahdeh), who lives in a quiet Palestinian town inside Israel, usually spends his free time looking for new women to chat up on his cell phone. But when his wireless flirting starts to extend into the West Bank, it catches the attention of the Israeli authorities. Comedy/drama. In Arabic & Hebrew, subtitled. 83 min. Directed by Sameh Zoabi. Followed by Fiasco: A cross-cultural comedy about an Arab girl, Noura, who is secretly married to her gay, American best friend Daniel in order to obtain a green card to prolong her stay in America and become a famous artist. Comedy. English. 35 min. Directed by Nadia Hamzeh.

Noha changes her mind prior to her wedding. Tensions in her family rise, mirroring those of 1976 in Lebanon.

City of Life: An urban drama that tracks the various intersections of a multi-ethnic cast, examining how random interactions and their consequences can irrevocably impact another's life. As the name suggests, City of Life's inordinately humane kaleidoscope of converging experiences introduces a city that is in itself a living pulsating character. Drama/romance. In Arabic, English, and Hindi. 89 min. Directed by Ali F. Mostafa. To Rest in Peace will follow: Occupied Kuwait, 1990. Two dead bodies lie in the street. Day after day, everyone passes them by, afraid to stop. Except one man. Drama. In English. 19 min.

Egyptian talk show hostess Hebba shakes the authorities with stories of betrayed women. Drama. In Arabic. 135 min. Directed by Yousry Nasrallah.

Back to the Origins of the Book tells the story of the sacred Scriptures of Islam and looks at archeological investigations of the most ancient existing Koranic manuscripts. Documentary. In Arabic, English, & German. 52 min. Directed by Bruno Ulmer.

In Algérie, Images d’un Combat Jérôme Laffont comes back on the life of René Vautier filming on the side of the Algerian fighters. Documentary. In French. 52 min. Directed by Jérôme Laffont. If Fog Had Roots will follow: A three-voice tale told by the filmmaker, Axelle and Ali, who calls up in snatches his political struggles, his times in jail and his death sentence meted out by the French authorities. Periods mingle and stories take shape, making breaks with desynchronized sound, working at once on gaps and proximity, moments and times, voices. Documentary. In French. 53 min. Directed by Dounia Bovet-Woltèche.

Triumph67: After his brother suddenly dies, a Palestinian- American man grapples with his past, and forges a bond with his new-found family. But not without a cost. Drama. In English. 99 min. Directed by Dan Tanz. The film, Quarter Magic, will follow: Figuring out how magic works is what keeps people interested - doesn't matter if you're making a quarter or a 25 foot wall disappear. Comedy. In English. 17 min. Directed by Jacob Kader.

Kidnapped in mid-80s, during the war in Lebanon, Ramez re-emerged twenty years later. He returned to his family who lost all hope of finding him alive. Ramez is very much affected psychologically and morally. His return shakes him and his family. During his wanderings in the heart of Beirut city, he crosses the path of a woman who is anxious for the return of her husband who was kidnapped at the same period. Drama. In Arabic. 100 min. Directed by Bahij Hojeij. The film, Teta, will follow: Sarah is a teenager living with her grandmother Marta and younger sister in Byblos, Lebanon. Stigmatized by their community because Sarah’s mother has left, the family’s life is turned upside down when a Virgin Mary icon in Marta’s shrine starts leaking oil ‐ it’s a miracle! Marta becomes the center of attention in town, while Sarah’s skepticism strains their already-fragile relationship. Comedy/drama. In Arabic. 24 min. Directed by Merva Faddoul.

An intimate semi-biographical portrait of Palestinians living as a minority in their own homeland between 1948 and the present day, from the acclaimed director of the film, Divine Intervention. Drama. In Arabic, English, and Hebrew. 109 min. Directed by Elia Suleiman.