PODIUm (you have three minutes)

a film by rachel leah jones

expected release in 2026

Since Israel was established and its legislature — the Knesset — first convened, Palestinian lawmakers have served alongside Jewish ones. They’ve included poets, playwrights, philosophers, doctors, lawyers, educators and feminist activists. Be they communists, liberals, nationalists, or Islamists — every Arab parliamentarian steps up to the podium with pain, frustration, anger, and hope (otherwise they wouldn’t be there). Yet, regardless of tone or tenor (provocative, poignant, polarizing, pacifying or indignant), most of their words fall on deaf ears. Were we to listen to a collection of 3-minute speeches by these elected representatives in the parliament of their colonizers — like a relay race across the generations and against the political odds — what would we hear? A hungry appeal for a rightful place at the table of governance, sovereignty, and self-determination, rather than the carrot, the stick, and civil rights crumbs begrudgingly swept off of it.

Rachel Leah Jones (Writer/Director/Producer)

Philippe BellaÏche (Producer/Director of Photography)

Libby Lenkinski (Executive Producer)

Yael Bitton (Editor)

Raz Bdv (Associate Producer)

Edo Konrad (Assistant Director)

Coproducers:

Joelle Bertossa

Paul Cadieux

Serge Gordey

Anne Kohncke

ADVISORS:

Dr. Areen Hawari

Dr. Ameer Fakhouri

Dr. Honeida Ghanem

Dr. Shira Robinson

Dr. Sherene Seikaly