Naila and the Uprising

Award-winning filmmaker Julia Bacha (Budrus) chronicles the remarkable journey of Naila Ayesh, who played a key role in the nonviolent Palestinian uprising known as the First Intifada. When the uprising broke out in the late 1980s, Naila was living in Gaza. Faced with a choice between love, family and freedom, she embraced all three, joining a clandestine network of Palestinian women who led a movement that put Palestinians on the map. The film inventively combines animation with archival images to explore this hidden history. During production, the film won the DOC NYC Pitch Perfect competition and now makes its debut.