Identity—and the way it manifests in documentary—is not monolithic. Palestinians are divided not only by occupation, displacement, and siege, but dispersed across the world in contexts of migration, exile, and cultural hybridity. Yet international documentary culture has often flattened this multiplicity into a single story of crisis and loss, leaving little room for the full range of what Palestinian filmmakers are actually making, or for honest conversation about how that work gets funded and shown. The Palestine Film Institute (PFI), dedicated to preserving and promoting Palestinian cinema beyond its most visible narratives, brings a delegation of four filmmakers with documentary projects currently in development to Getting Real '26. Each will present a short clip from their work-in-progress before the conversation opens to the harder questions: what ethical funding for Palestinian documentary actually looks like, what responsibilities festivals bear in bringing these stories to screen, and what freedom of expression and protection from censorship mean for filmmakers working today. Moderator: Casey Asprooth-Jackson (Palestine Film Institute)Panelists: Khalil Mozian&nbsp;(Gaza Hot Chilli), Sarah Moweswes, Hana Elias (If These Stones Could Talk), Jameelah Shelo (Fractured) Biographies: Sarah Mowaswes is a first-generation Palestinian-American filmmaker based in New York. Her producing credits include Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj (Netflix), Mind Over Murder (HBO), Never Let Him Go (Hulu), and Fanatical: The Catfishing of Tegan and Sara (Hulu). Recently she produced the musical biopic This a Film About the Black Keys which had its world premiere at SXSW 2024. She was recently part of the Palestine Film Institute’s 2025 cohort at the Cannes Film Festival producer network. She is currently producing a feature length, all archival film on Palestinian intellectual, Edward Said. Hana Elias is a filmmaker and journalist working between Palestine and New York. She has written for The Nation, +972 Magazine, and 7iber on environmental justice and colonial violence. As a 2024 video fellow at Democracy Now!, she produced segments on grassroots politics and student movements. Hana directed the short documentaries The Rooftops of Jerusalem, Holding Fire, and Where the Wind Blows, which won the 2022 IF/Then x The Redford Center Nature Access Pitch and was selected for DOC NYC and awarded Best Short Documentary at the 2024 Arab Film and Media Festival. She is a Firelight Media Documentary Lab Fellow, BRIC Film &amp; TV Lab resident, and UFO Short Film Lab fellow. Jameeleh Shelo is a Chicago-based writer, producer, performer, and filmmaker. A native Southsider, she earned her B.A. in Television Writing and Production from Columbia College Chicago and has worked across television, comedy, documentary, and independent film. She is an Emmy Award-winning writer and Telly Award-winning producer, with credits connected to TBS, Comedy Central, HGTV, DIY Network, Harpo, and TLC.Jameeleh is the former Executive Director of the Chicago Palestine Film Festival and the author of&nbsp;Laith the Lion Goes to Palestine&nbsp;and&nbsp;Sayf’s Eid Adventure. She is also a 2025 Safina Filmmaker Fellow. She is the producer of&nbsp;Fractured: Humanitarian Aid Under Fire&nbsp;and Executive Producer of the Emmy-nominated documentary short&nbsp;Khsara. Khalil Mozian is a Palestinian film director, screenwriter, and cultural organizer. He is the Director of the Red Carpet Human Rights Film Festival in Gaza. His work spans documentary, narrative fiction, and animation cinema, with a strong focus on human rights, social reality, and Palestinian identity through visual storytelling. Casey Asprooth-Jackson is a filmmaker and producer from Rochester, NY. Since 2018, he has worked with the Palestine Film Institute, bringing Palestinian projects in development to leading film festivals and markets around the world.

What We Can Learn From Palestinian Documentary Today

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Getting Real is a biennial conference designed for and by documentary practitioners and focused on the business and art of nonfiction storytelling. The sixth edition of Getting Real will celebrate a decade of what is now the largest peer-to-peer gathering of its kind in North America.

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