Lyd

NY Premiere

Q&A Details

• Fri Apr 26, 7:30pm: with directors Rami Younis + Sarah Ema Friedland, moderated by the Executive Director of the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights Ahmad Abuznaid
• Sat Apr 27, 5:00pm: with directors Rami Younis + Sarah Ema Friedland, moderated by filmmaker Winnie Cheung
• Sat Apr 27, 7:00pm: Extended Q&A with directors Rami Younis + Sarah Ema Friedland, moderated by Editor-in-Chief of Jewish Currents Magazine Arielle Angel
• Sun Apr 28, 7:00pm: with director Sarah Ema Friedland, moderated by filmmaker Zeshawn Ali
• Mon Apr 29, 7:30pm: Extended Q&A with directors Rami Younis + Sarah Ema Friedland, moderated by novelist, essayist, and photographer Maaza Mengiste
• Tue Apr 30, 7:30pm: with directors Rami Younis + Sarah Ema Friedland, moderated by filmmaker Ahmed Mansour
• Wed May 1, 7:30pm: with director Rami Younis and musician Firas Zreik, moderated by filmmaker Sana A. Malik
• Thu May 2, 7:00pm: with directors Rami Younis + Sarah Ema Friedland, moderated by DCTV's Dara Messinger
  
  
  

Lyd, by Rami Younis & Sarah Ema Friedland, is a feature-length, speculative documentary that follows the rise and fall of Lyd – a 5,000-year-old metropolis that was once a bustling Palestinian town until it was conquered when the State of Israel was established in 1948. As the film unfolds, a chorus of characters creates a tapestry of the Palestinian experience of this city and the trauma left by the massacre and expulsion, while vivid animations envision an alternate reality where the same characters live free from the trauma of the past and the violence of the present. Using never-before-seen archival footage of the Israeli soldiers who carried out the massacre and expulsion, the personified city explains that these events were so devastating that they fractured reality, and now there are two Lyds — one occupied and one free. As the film cuts between fantastical and documentary realities, it ultimately leaves the viewer questioning which future should prevail. Lyd dares to ask the question: what would the city be like had the Israeli occupation of Lyd never happened?

Lyd premiered at the 2023 Amman International Film Festival where it won the Jury Prize for Best Documentary and the FIPRESCI prize from the International Critics Association.