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In a Hyperallergic essay titled “Between Worlds,” editor-in-chief Hakim Bishara recounts taking his son to kindergarten, reflecting on his father’s death and attending a New York Film Festival screening of a documentary about Edward Said. Bishara describes crying during the film and connects its emotional impact to images of Jerusalem, Haifa, Nazareth and New York. The source does not provide the documentary’s filmmakers, release details or further screening schedule.
Hyperallergic editor-in-chief Hakim Bishara has published a personal essay, “Between Worlds,” linking a screening of an Edward Said documentary at the New York Film Festival with questions about grief, parenthood and belonging. Bishara writes that he cried throughout the film and later saw images of Jerusalem, Haifa, Nazareth and New York, placing the screening within a series of ordinary encounters that sharpened his thoughts about death and identity.
The essay opens with Bishara driving his son René to kindergarten. After the child asks, “What’s the point of all this?”, Bishara recalls a conversation the previous morning about death and his difficulty explaining where his own father is now. The exchange gives the piece its central personal thread: a parent confronting a child’s questions while carrying his own grief.
Bishara describes a day that moves between family life, city scenes and encounters with art and history. At an event at the International Studio & Curatorial Program in Brooklyn, he eats several fortune cookies before settling on one that reads, “Who gives should never remember. Who receives must never forget.” Later, while traveling to the film screening, he notices a subway passenger wearing a shirt spelling “coexistence” with religious symbols. Bishara writes that the sight irritates him because the passenger is standing in his way.
During the screening, he says, he cries repeatedly. Afterward, the essay moves through brief observations: a Carl Jung book on a sidewalk, a person in a bunny costume and a sparrow feeding from trash. In the reflection of a Hermès store window, Bishara writes that he sees places including Jerusalem, Haifa and Nazareth, as well as New York and his son’s face. The source identifies the film as a documentary about Edward Said but gives no production or distribution information.
A Film Screening Meets Family Grief
The essay’s news value is its account of how one screening became a lens for personal grief and questions of belonging. Bishara does not offer a review or a factual account of the documentary’s content; instead, he describes his emotional response and the associations it triggered. That distinction matters: the film’s effect on the writer is documented, while conclusions about its argument or broader audience reception are not supplied.
For readers, the piece connects the intimate experience of a child asking about death with larger references to Palestinian and American places and to public ideas about coexistence. Bishara’s closing images do not resolve those tensions. They show how memories, family and geography coexist in his own perception, without presenting the essay as a general claim about other viewers or communities.
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The Essay’s Everyday Encounters
“Between Worlds” is presented within a Hyperallergic newsletter that also features art-world reporting and listings. The surrounding material mentions, among other items, the Milwaukee Art Museum’s return of two jars to descendants of Dave the Potter, an enslaved 19th-century Black American artist. That report appears separately from Bishara’s essay; the source does not say it prompted his reflections or connect it directly to the film.
The essay itself is structured as a sequence of daily observations rather than a conventional film review. Its scenes include a rainy Bushwick stop, a conversation overheard through a laptop, the subway ride and a storefront window. The New York Film Festival screening is the named event at the center of its title and emotional turn, while the surrounding moments supply the personal context.
Edward Said was a literary critic and scholar, but the provided source offers no biographical detail about him and no account of the documentary’s treatment of his life or work. It also does not identify the director, title beyond “Between Worlds,” screening date or venue. Those details cannot be established from the newsletter excerpt alone.
““What’s the point of all this?””
— René, Bishara’s son, as recalled by Hakim Bishara
emotional documentary films about identity
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Film Details Still Missing
The newsletter excerpt does not identify the documentary’s director, production company, full title, release plans or screening date. It also does not summarize the film’s content, so the reasons for Bishara’s reaction beyond the personal connections he describes cannot be independently assessed from this source.
The essay is a first-person account, not a report of audience response or a statement from the festival. It is not clear whether the film had other festival screenings, whether additional showings are planned or whether the piece is part of a longer series. The source also does not specify when the essay was published.
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Further Screening Information Needed
No next screening or release date is listed in the supplied material. Readers seeking to watch the documentary would need further information from the New York Film Festival or the film’s distributor, if one is announced. Hyperallergic’s newsletter is the only publication source identified here.
Until more details are available, the confirmed development is limited to Bishara’s published essay and his account of attending the screening. Any information about the film’s availability, the filmmakers’ plans or festival follow-up remains unconfirmed by the source.
films about Jerusalem and Middle East
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Key Questions
What is “Between Worlds” about?
The Hyperallergic essay recounts Hakim Bishara’s reflections on grief, parenting and identity, including his experience at a New York Film Festival screening of a documentary about Edward Said. The source does not describe the documentary’s contents in detail.
Who wrote the essay?
Hakim Bishara, identified in the source as Hyperallergic’s editor-in-chief, wrote the first-person piece.
What does Bishara say about the screening?
He writes that he cried throughout the film. He later describes seeing Jerusalem, Haifa, Nazareth, New York and his son’s face in the reflection of a store window.
When and where can the documentary be watched?
The source says Bishara attended a screening at the New York Film Festival, but it does not provide a date, further screening schedule or release information.
Source: rss
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