ICA Projects

Edward Said, Professor of English & Comparative Literature at Columbia University, was a prominent literary critic of the late 20th century and a leading spokesperson for the Palestinian cause in the US. Born to a Palestinian family in Al-Quds (Jerusalem) in 1935, he and his family were dispossessed in 1948 and settled in Cairo. Educated in the US, he lived in New York for many years. Said was a member of the Palestine National Council. After resigning from the PNC in 1991, Said wrote critically about the post-Oslo peace process, the political failures of Yasser Arafat and the PLO. Said was diagnosed with leukemia in 1991 and struggled with the disease while continuing to write and teach. He stopped giving interviews but made an exception less than a year before his death in 2003, speaking about his illness, work, Palestine, politics, life, and education. The last interview is the final testament of this passionately committed intellectual.

Drawing from 40 years' worth of film footage and tape recordings her father sent to family members in India, filmmaker Sandhya Suri crafts a personal history that also explores the experiences of Indian expatriates. After moving to Great Britain in 1965, Yash Pal Suri chronicled his discoveries about his new home along with his feelings of alienation. The fruits of his labor appear in this film that received a Grand Jury Prize nod at Sundance.