If These Stones Could Talk
Work In Progress
Synopsis:

After 50 years of nomadic living, Nassib returns to his hometown to build a house for his family. As the family seeks to understand their heritage by tending to the land, they confront their estrangement from the country as Palestinian citizens of Israel. Planting, gardening, and picking, If These Stones Could Talk, is a meditation on return.

Filmmakers:
Hana Elias

Hana Elias is a documentary filmmaker and journalist. Her work explores interrelationships between land, labor, and identity in the Middle East and the United States. Hana is currently a cinematographer, and Archival Producer working on feature documentaries between Jordan and New York. As an associate producer, she has worked on two documentary series with Left/Right TV, co-produced with CNN and the New York Times. Hana is a graduate of the Columbia journalism school, and was selected as a Pulitzer Center campus consortium fellow for her short documentary 'Holding Fire.'

Anakha Arikara

Anakha Arikara is a documentary filmmaker from Bangalore, India. She began her career as a food journalist, before expanding to reporting on stories of women, culture, and technology at The Better India. As an editor, her work has been featured on Al Jazeera and The Kitchn. Anakha is currently based in New York City, where she works in production management at Story Syndicate, a production company focusing on premium documentary content.

Zane Elias

Zane Elias is a Brooklyn born Palestinian storyteller and researcher, melding practices in the cognitive sciences, sociology, and art. As an undergraduate from the University of Waterloo, Zane majored in Environmental Studies and is formally trained in social sciences, and ecology with a focus on restoration. He investigates a range of environmental questions but is most concerned with questions at the intersection of humanities, technology, decolonization, and water problems.