Synopsis: In the 2000s Nassib Elias returns to his home town of Shef-Amr to an inherited piece of land to replant the garden and build a home, after having been away for over 50 years in the USA. Nassib guides his family into communal practices at the olive press and picking wild Za’tar. His own visual documentation of his homeland reveals how his nostalgia haunts him, as he seeks to repair his bonds in a changing landscape. His wife Maha, the daughter of Palestinian refugees from 1948 returns to find her roots, as gardening becomes a mark of her resilience. Through the years, his daughter Hana picks up the camera to continue filming this lifetime project as she searches for her sense of belonging. For their son Zane, who is an ecologist he must find a way to nurture his community both in diaspora and in Palestine. The whole family questions how they can persist to tend to the land in the face of Israel’s ongoing ethnic cleansing. As the story unfolds, Hana’s lens expands beyond the garden, documenting Palestinian land practices. Seeing these shared practices become profound acts of refusal against efforts to erase Palestinian identity and culture.

Director Profile: Hana is a Palestinian-American filmmaker and journalist who works to amplify stories of underrepresented communities as they envision alternative realities. She published in outlets like The Nation, +972 Magazine, and 7iber, exploring the intersection of environmental justice and colonial violence. As a former 2024 video fellow with Democracy Now! She produced segments highlighting grassroots politics and student movements. Hana has directed three short documentaries: The Rooftops of Jerusalem and Holding Fire. Her latest short documentary, “Where the Wind Blows”, winner of the 2022 IF/Then x The Redford Center Nature Access Pitch, was selected for DOC NYC and voted the Best Short Documentary at the 2024 Arab Film and Media Festival. She has been awarded a Firelight Media Documentary Lab Fellowship (2024-25), a BRIC Film and TV Lab residency, and the Best Pitch Award at the Thessaloniki Film Festival for the film If These Stones Could Talk.

Producer Profile: Asmahan Bkerat is a Palestinian-Jordanian documentary filmmaker. She started her career as a photographer and social justice advocate. Bkerat’s first short documentary “Badrya'' won the Jury Prize for Best MiniDoc at the Sebastopol Documentary Film Festival. She is currently directing /Producing her first feature-length documentary “Concrete Land” and producing the feature doc “Harvest Moon”, and “If These Stones Could Talk” alongside a few other short doc films. She is an alumna of Sundance, Hot Docs, IDFA, DFI, SDI, The Whickers, The American Film Showcase, Cannes Docs, Dhaka doc lab, DMZ, Doc Edge, AIDC and IMS.

Producer Profile: Anakha Arikara is a documentary filmmaker from Bangalore, India. She began her career as a food journalist before transitioning into reporting for The Better India where she focused on stories of women, culture and technology. After graduating Columbia School of Journalism, she received the Al Jazeera Fellowship where she edited two short documentaries that aired on Al Jazeera Close Up. She is the producer and director of Aged and Confused, a short documentary which follows youth in New York City’s foster care system as they transition to adulthood. Currently, Anakha is a production manager at Story Syndicate, focusing on premium documentary content and has worked for a variety of networks including National Geographic, HBO and Netflix.