Pure Nonfiction: Inside Documentary Film

Pure Nonfiction: Inside Documentary Film


186: Yousef Srouji on Palestinian Home Movies

May 09, 2024

During the Second Intifada in the early 2000s, Yousef Srouji was a boy living with his family in the West Bank town of Beit Jala. His mother Suha used a camcorder to capture family life including when they were forced to take shelter from gunfire and explosions. Years later, Yousef discovered the footage and turned it into the film Three Promises that won the top jury prize at the Camden International Film Festival. Now the film is opening in New York at the DCTV Firehouse Cinema.

Pure Nonfiction host Thom Powers interviewed Yousef from his home in Ramallah. They discuss his career as "an accidental filmmaker" and his motives to return to Palestine after his family moved away.

On Instagram: @purenonfiction @thompowers1