PBS program features documentary on Ramallah “Mayor”, free streaming July 26-Aug. 25, 2021
Acclaimed Emmy-Award Winning Filmmaker David Osit Returns to POV With Latest Feature Documentary, Mayor. Film follows the mayor of Ramallah, the de facto capital of the Palestinian National Authority, as he manages his city duties against the backdrop of the Israeli occupation. PBS STREAMING WINDOW: July 26th – August 25th
American Documentary | POV is proud to announce the national broadcast premiere of David Osit’s Mayor on Monday July 26th at 10 p.m. (check local listings) and online at pov.org. The film will also be available to stream for free on pov.org until August 25th, 2021.
Mayor is director David Osit’s second film to broadcast on POV after his documentary Thank You For Playing, which won the ‘Outstanding Arts & Culture Documentary’ at the 2017 News and Documentary Emmy Awards. Mayor was named a New York Times Critic’s Pick and has picked up awards from Full Frame Documentary Film Festival and CPH:DOX, among others.
Exploring the dynamics of public service and international politics, Mayor offers a nuanced perspective of the Palestinian struggle for autonomy through the eyes of former civil engineer-turned-mayor, Musa Hadid.
Hadid has been the mayor of Ramallah, home to 60,000 people and located in the central West Bank, since 2012. He approaches his duties with practicality–he paves sidewalks, cleans sewage spills, approves city advertising campaigns, builds a new fountain and makes sure the local school buildings are built so that children can play in the sunshine.
Yet, not even the most mundane of Hadid’s responsibilities is left untouched by the Israeli occupation, with raids and government strictures casting a continual shadow over the city. Balancing the deadpan, bureaucratic humor of his everyday job with the continued encroachments of global and regional politics, Mayor highlights the constant, less-publicized injustices of the occupation on the public servant as well as on the city he serves.
Mayor offers a much-needed injunction against the narrow representations of Palestinians in the media. A historically Christian city in the Middle East, Ramallah is surrounded by greenery, has snow in the winter and its residents are enthusiastic celebrators of Christmas. Hadid’s mayoralty is beset by the same problems that plague public servants around the world, but what separates Hadid’s job from so many of his fellow officials is best captured by the Israeli patrols that bombard his city with teargas during dinner time.
Funny, tragic and compassionate, Mayor captures Hadid and the citizens of Ramallah as they struggle to move forward under difficult circumstances, ultimately asking the question: how do you run a city if you don’t have a country?
“I’m thrilled to share Mayor with American audiences on POV, in my opinion one of the most progressive, valuable, and vital nonfiction programs we have in the entire country. During production I would describe the film as something like “Parks and Recreation” set in Palestine, and it says everything about POV that they were eager to hear more. I’m so excited to work with them to bring Mayor Musa and Ramallah to American viewers,” said director David Osit.
Chris White, executive producer of POV, said, “David is an astute observer and a master of his craft. He captures the monotony of municipal governance and the idiosyncrasies of a place under the omnipresent cloud of occupation. Yet, through his lens, he manages to do so with the same wry wit as his protagonist. In Mayor Musa you will find hope, humor, and humanity.”
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Credits:
Director, Producer, Cinematographer: David Osit
Editors: David Osit, Eric Daniel Metzgar
Executive Producers: Maxyne Franklin, Teddy Leifer
Co-Executive Producers: Abigail E. Disney, Laura Durning
POV (www.pbs.org/pov/)
Produced by American Documentary, POV is the longest-running independent documentary showcase on American television. Since 1988, POV has presented films on PBS that capture the full spectrum of the human experience, with a long commitment to centering women and people of color in front of, and behind, the camera. The series is known for introducing generations of viewers to groundbreaking works like Tongues Untied, American Promise and Minding The Gap and innovative filmmakers including Jonathan Demme, Laura Poitras and Nanfu Wang. In 2018, POV Shorts launched as one of the first PBS series dedicated to bold and timely short-form documentaries. All POV programs are broadcast nationally on PBS, POV.org and the PBS Video app.
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Ray Hanania is an award winning political and humor columnist who analyzes American and Middle East politics, and life in general. He is an author of several books.
Hanania covered Chicago Politics and Chicago City Hall from 1976 through 1992 at the Daily Southtown and the Chicago Sun-Times. He began writing in 1975 publishing The Middle Eastern Voice newspaper in Chicago (1975-1977). He later published “The National Arab American Times” newspaper (2004-2007).
Hanania writes weekly columns on Middle East and American Arab issues as Special US Correspondent for the Arab News ArabNews.com, at TheArabDailyNews.com, and at SuburbanChicagoland.com. He has published weekly columns in the Jerusalem Post newspaper, YNetNews.com, Newsday, the Orlando Sentinel, Houston Chronical, and Arlington Heights Daily Herald.
Hanania is the recipient of four (4) Chicago Headline Club “Peter Lisagor Awards” for Column writing. In November 2006, he was named “Best Ethnic American Columnist” by the New American Media. In 2009, Hanania received the prestigious Sigma Delta Chi Award for Writing from the Society of Professional Journalists. He is the recipient of the MT Mehdi Courage in Journalism Award. He was honored for his writing skills with two (2) Chicago Stick-o-Type awards from the Chicago Newspaper Guild. In 1990, Hanania was nominated by the Chicago Sun-Times editors for a Pulitzer Prize for his four-part series on the Palestinian Intifada.
His writings have also been honored by two national Awards from ADC for his writing, and from the National Arab American Journalists Association.
Hanania is the US Special Correspondent for the Arab News Newspaper, covering Middle East and Arab American issues. He writes for the Southwest News newspaper group writing on mainstream American issues.
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