Maysles Documentary Center

Saturday, April 4th at 7PM
A STATE OF PASSION
Carol Mansour & Muna Khalidi, 2024, 90 min.

After 43 horrific days working round the clock under constant bombardment in the emergency rooms of Gaza’s Al Shifa and Al Ahli hospitals, British-Palestinian reconstructive surgeon, Dr. Ghassan Abu Sittah, emerged to find himself as a face of Palestinian resistance.

With news footage of him pale and shell-shocked reverberating around the world, he spoke of a catalogue of horrors from lacerated bodies, to amputations without anesthetics, orphaned children with no surviving family, and the deliberate targeting of medics and hospital facilities.

This was Ghassan’s sixth and most horrific Gaza “war”. Why does he do it? Where does he find the strength to face it again and again? How does it impact his family? How do they process the risks he takes? The answer lies simply in their shared passion: Palestine, a passion they articulate through their support of his perilous humanitarian work.

Filmmakers Carol Mansour and Muna Khalidi, close friends of the Abu Sittahs, share that same passion. They were waiting anxiously for Ghassan to emerge from Gaza, following a long and terrifying journey through the night, to meet him in Amman. Determined to capture his raw emotions they began filming him the moment he arrived through the door. Following him to Beirut, Amman, London, Kuwait and Dubai, they and he explore their common State of Passion.

+ Post-screening discussion with Dr. Muhammad Ali Khalidi, board member of the Institute of Palestine Studies; and CUNY philosophy professor and Doctors Against Genocide doctor, Dr. Salman Khan

Ticket link in bio!

Tonight we screen the legendary documentary Gimme Shelter (1970) by Albert Maysles, David Maysles and Charlotte Zwerin—-following The Rolling Stones on their 1969 tour and capturing the historic Altamont Free Concert.

See it the way it was meant to be seen: in a theater.

🎟 Tickets moving fast.

Part of Cinema Week NYC, limited number of free tickets available in person at the Maysles Box Office.

Happy St Patrick’s Day! Celebrating the legacies of Irish freedom struggles as part of a movement against global colonialism. On Saturday March 21, we screen St Clair Bourne’s “The Black and The Green” which documents African American civil rights activists visiting Northern Ireland during “The Troubles”

Part of “World of Black Documentaries” LINK IN THE BIO
(Restored print courtesy of )

Photo #1: Activist/writer Jean Carey Bond

Photo #2: Matt Jones

Photo #3: Jim Dunn (left) and Jean Carey Bond (right)

On this International Working Women’s Day we remember the life and legacy of Jessie Maple (1937-2023) one of the first African American women to direct a feature length film. Maple was also the first ever African American woman member of the Camera Operators Union, an experience she recalls in her book “How to Become A Union Camerawoman” Along with her husband Leroy Patton, Jessie Maple founded the influential 20 West Theater in Harlem, a Black cinema and spiritual forerunner of the Maysles Documentary Center.

We will celebrate Jessie Maple on March 24 with a screening of “Will” Check out our bio and links for information forthcoming.