Coming Home
2022 · 10m · USA
Directed by Naim Naif, Margot Bowman
Genres: documentary
Tones: contemplative, provocative, tender, whimsical
An intimate 16mm portrait of the Freedom Dabka Group, a Palestinian-American dance collective in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, who use traditional Levantine folk dance to preserve their cultural identity and sense of home in diaspora. Weaving present-day footage with archival photography from the Palestinian Museum, the film celebrates belonging as an active, joyful act.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
Palestinian-American dabka dancers in Bay Ridge on 16mm, deliberately refusing the trauma frame. The framing choice is brave and overdue — sign me up.
Naif and Bowman shoot Palestinian-American Dabka dancers on 16mm, deliberately countering trauma-cinema with celebration — a position made more consequential by the moment, not less. The Palestinian Museum archive integration is curatorially serious.
16mm under 2020-21 constraints centering Palestinian joy rather than trauma — that's a deliberate counter-narrative production choice, and 16mm grain on dabka dance bodies is gorgeous formal alignment. The subjects' 5M TikTok followers tell you the energy is real.
Reviews
Hypnotic and wondrous, this mixed media profile of Bay Ridge, Brooklyn based Palestinian-American dance collective Freedom Dabka Group is a compelling portrait of resilience.
Marvelous black and white camera work documenting how Palestinians of NYC dance to remember, to honor, and to maintain fraternal links.
Festivals
- South by Southwest (SXSW) 2022
- Palm Springs International ShortFest 2022
- Nantucket Film Festival 2022
- Palestine Cinema Days 2022, Best Short Film
- Rooftop Films Summer Series 2022
- Jecheon International Music & Film Festival 2022