Slingshot Hip Hop braids together the stories of young Palestinians living in Gaza, the West Bank and inside Israel as they discover Hip Hop and employ it as a tool to surmount divisions imposed by occupation and poverty. From internal checkpoints and Separation Walls to gender norms and generational differences, this is the story of young people crossing the borders that separate them.

(PALESTINE/U.S. | 2008 | 83′ min | DigiBeta, Betasp or HDCAM | Color | Arabic, English & Hebrew | Subtitles available in English, Arabic, French)

Featuring:

DAM from Lyd

PR (Palestinian Rapperz) from Gaza

ABEER from Lyd

Arapeyat from Akka

Mahmoud Shalabi from Akka

Also featured: WE7 from Nazareth and Ibrahim from Gaza

Director/Producer/Editor

Jackie Reem Salloum is a New York based artist and filmmaker. Drawing on her Palestinian and Syrian roots, her pop-infused work focuses on challenging the stereotypes of Arabs in the media. She has directed several shorts exploring this issue, including Planet of the Arabs, which received the International Editing Award at the 2005 CinemaTexas Film Festival and was an official selection in that year’s Sundance Film Festival. After receiving her MFA from New York University, Salloum began directing her first feature length documentary Slingshot Hip Hop. Five years in the making it made it’s premiere at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival-Documentary Competition. Salloum’s work is also the basis of a youth education program on Palestine, and she frequently speaks at universities and conferences internationally.

Producer

Rumzi Araj, a Palestinian-American, has worked with Salloum on many of her art and film projects and was an Associate Producer on the short film Planet of the Arabs, a 2005 Sundance selection. He is currently completing his law degree while pursuing his interest in film production.

Producer/Editor/Visual Effects Supervisor

Waleed Zaiter is an Arab-American multimedia artist born in Beirut,Lebanon. Growing up in the United States, he began his career as a street artist in Boston. He currently resides in NYC where he freelances as an animator. His work can be found on-line at www.freehabib.com