THERE IS A FIELD

There is a Field tells the story of Aseel Asleh, a 17-year-old Palestinian citizen of Israel killed by police in October 2000. In 2016, Seattle-based author and filmmaker Jen Marlowe created a play about his death and its aftermath, based on primary sources and personal interviews that she collected in Israel and Palestine over the course of 14 years. Then, in 2020, she filmed a cast of African-American actors and Black Lives Matter activists performing the play, and reflecting on the parallels between Aseel’s story and their own experiences, and between the systems of oppression affecting Black Americans and Palestinians in Israel.

In October 2000, a police officer shot and killed unarmed 17-year-old Asel Asleh. His story is tragically familiar for Americans, but Asel was not killed in Ferguson, New York City, Atlanta, or Minneapolis. Asel was a Palestinian teenager who was murdered by Israeli police as he participated in a demonstration, calling for an end to the Israeli occupation and settler-colonization.

Learn more here.

We have limited and restricted access to this film. To get a link to watch the film at your convenience, send a message to seattlemideastfocus@gmail.com. You will get the link around 4 p.m. on Wednesday, March 17 and have until 8 p.m. on Friday, March 19, to watch the film. Watch the film on your own and join the discussion on February 19 at 8 p.m. using this Zoom link.

with special guest: filmmaker Jen Marlowe