Jehad in Motion (2007)

Jehad Aliweiwi is a Palestinian Canadian who lives in Toronto but regularly returns to visit his family in Hebron. Rendered on two screens, Jehad in Motion is a double portrait both of the man and of the two cities he calls home. In Hebron, Jehad takes us to the old market where Jewish settlers have colonized the upper stories forcing Palestinians to build a horizontal fence to protect themselves. In Toronto, we walk around Thorncliffe Park where he works providing services in one of the city’s key neighbourhoods for newly arrived immigrants. In Hebron, he celebrates his sister’s wedding at a feast for one thousand people. In Toronto, he cooks at a Passover Seder for peace. Jehad synthesizes the challenges and possibilities in these two very different but overlapping worlds. Jehad in Motion ruminates on diaspora, urban space, and the interpenetration of politics and cultures. It is also an intervention into the practices of documentary media, portraiture and installation art.