Zero Degrees of Separation

Please join us for a two part event with filmmaker and photographer Elle
Flanders, director of the award winning film Zero Degrees of Separation.

WHAT: Screening of Zero Degrees of Separation (reception and Q&A with
the director to follow)

WHEN: October 2, 2007

TIME: 7:00 PM with a reception and discussion to follow

WHERE: 104 Howell Building at UNC-Chapel Hill



WHAT: /Contextualizing Representations of Sexual Politics in the Middle
East, /a panel discussion and reception with Elle Flanders, Rebecca
Stein (Duke Anthropology), and Negar Mottahedeh (Duke Literature)

WHEN: October 3, 2007

TIME: 4:30PM reception, with panel to follow

WHERE: East Duke Building Parlors


Zero Degrees of Separation breaks away from the sensationalistic media
coverage of the violence in the Middle East by examining the current
conflict through the eyes of two mixed Palestinian and Israeli gay
couples. Courageous and outspoken, their relationships are as complex
and volatile as the politically-charged world around them. Selim, a
Palestinian, and Ezra, an Israeli, fight for the right to live together
in Jerusalem. Already stigmatized for their socially taboo relationship,
they live under constant threat of Selim’s deportation, despite a family

connection to the city. Edit and Samira, a lesbian couple, try to figure
out how to bridge the divide between their cultures. Faced with modern
injustices of work visas, checkpoints, harassment and family separation
on a daily basis, they remain surprisingly hopeful and compassionate.
Their stories are skillfully interwoven with archival footage that
depicts an idealized Israel of the 1950’s. These rare, haunting images,
taken by the filmmaker’s own grandparents, depict a fledgling nation
brimming with pioneering joyous youth, immigrants, refugees and endless
open vistas of the Holy Land. Through modern eyes, these same images now
evoke larger questions of humanity, conflict and nationalist aspiration.

Zero Degrees of Separation is an award winning film, achieving award
recognition at the follow festivals: the USA Columbus International Film
and Video Festival, the 28^th French International Women’s Film
Festival, the India Mubai International Film Festival, the USA San
Francisco International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival, the Spain
Barcelona Mostra Internacional de Films de Donnes, and the Canada
Toronto Inside Out Lesbian and Gay Film and Video Festival.

Born in Montreal in 1966, and raised in Canada and Israel, Elle Flanders
is a filmmaker and photographer based in Toronto and New York City. Her
recent feature-length documentary, Zero Degrees of Separation, premiered
at the Berlin International Film Festival and has toured extensively,
winning awards internationally. Bird on a Wire, a dual-screen film
projection with a live music performance, also premiered at the 2006
Berlin International Film Festival, with subsequent screenings in
Toronto and Taipei. It will continue to tour in New York, London and
Ramallah in 2007. Flanders is currently in development on a new
experimental documentary, 12 months/2 square miles. Her photo
installation, What Isn’t There, is an ongoing project that has been in
the making for the past fifteen years, and was recently exhibited in
Toronto.

Presented by Duke's Program in the Study of Sexualities, the UNC-CH
Program in Sexuality Studies and the Robertson Scholars

Please contact Erin Norris at Duke at _erin.norris@duke.edu
_ or Elyse Crystall at UNC-CH at
_ecryst@mindspring.com_ for more information