Documentary Film
A thirty minute documentary released in 2002 and entitled "The Children of Ibdaa: To Create Something Out of Nothing" focuses on the Ibdaa Cultural Center's children's dance troupe. The children's performance expresses the history, struggle, and aspirations of the Palestinian people, specifically the right to return to their homeland.
The documentary producer, S. Smith Patrick, interviews the dance troupe's refugee camp children, ages 10 to 14, to explore the history of displacement from their villages in historical Palestine, the physical and emotional stress of life in a refugee camp, and how they mix politics and dance.
The video documents the dance troupe during their United States tour sponsored by Ibdaa's long-time partner the Middle East Children's Alliance, and in Dheisheh refugee camp. The video culminates in a visit by the children to their grandparents' demolished villages from which they were expelled in 1948. The members of Ibdaa bring the Palestinian story to Western audiences through performance of the traditional debke dance, preserving Palestinian culture in a creative and non-violently method while addressing the brutal political reality of their lives in a refugee camp.
The film has won dozens of awards and been screened internationally.
Read more about this topic: Ibdaa Cultural Center
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