Synopsis:

Twenty years after his death, renowned Palestinian-American scholar, musician, and intellectual Edward Said shares the untold history of Palestine in his own words through sweeping never-before-shared footage and recordings. Tracing the evolution of his political awakening, his personal struggles, and his reckoning with a life of exile, this is the first documentary to be granted full access by the Said Family and estate. Through a kinetic assemblage of archive featuring never-before-seen material from the family archive, the Said archive at Columbia University, decades of unseen home movies, rare television appearances, documentaries, and lectures the film spans seven decades from Said’s childhood in Jerusalem in 1935 to his untimely death in 2003 in NYC. Twenty years after his death, Said invites audiences to ask the question of who exactly has the right to tell their own story.

Director’s profile:

Maiken Baird is a Danish-American film director and producer. Baird directed the films Venus and Serena and Ghislaine Maxwell: Filthy Rich for Netflix. Baird was an EP of the Academy Award-winning film Icarus and produced Tantura (Sundance ’22) and Folktales (Sundance ’25). She is also an EP on the acclaimed new Palestinian feature All That’s Left of You (Sundance ’25), an epic multi generational story of exile. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Producer’s profile

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 a member of the television arts and sciences academy.