Cooking Lessons-A Palestinian American Story

Short Synopsis

Cooking Lessons-A Palestinian American Story (working title) turns an intimate lens on what it means to be Palestinian in America through the story of the Hakim family, who were among the first Palestinian refugees granted immigrant visas to America in the 1950s. A feature-length personal documentary narrated by first born son and photographer Najib Joe Hakim and directed by daughter-in-law Laurie Coyle.

Description/Treatment

Synopsis:
Cooking Lessons-A Palestinian American Story (working title) is a feature documentary exploring what it means to be Palestinian in America in telling the story of the Hakim family, who were among the first Palestinian refugees granted immigrant visas to America in the 1950s. Elias and Josephine Hakim raised five children and achieved the American dream. But as their son photographer Najib Joe Hakim reveals, his parents were so anxious to fit in that they never told their children they were Palestinian. Fifty years later, Josephine is silenced by a brain tumor. Joe must take over her kitchen and find his own voice to tell the family story. Drawing on universal themes of identity, love and loss, Cooking Lessons turns an intimate lens on the broader narrative of the Palestinian refugee problem, and its complex legacy today.

Treatment:
In voice over, Joe begins: It’s as if we are invisible even to ourselves. In the movies, the Palestinians are the bad guys. Kill them or be killed. We don’t see ourselves reflected the way we were in our own home movies. We lived our lives as Americans, but how do we live once we discover we are Palestinian in America? Home movies flicker, inter-cut with brief Hollywood clips of Palestinian bad guys. A romantic Arabic ballad plays, increasing the whimsical and ironic effect of the images.

In 1956, the Hakims were among the first Palestinian refugees granted immigrant visas to America. When we arrived in New York harbor, Dad had $12 in his pocket and a lot of drive. He landed a job at Chase Manhattan bank and Mom worked nights. They lived the classic immigrant saga of sacrifice and hard work, and achieved the American dream. But they were so anxious for their five kids to fit in that they never told us we were Palestinian. It wasn’t until I became a teenager that I figured it out. When I grew up, I understood my parents’ reasons for hiding our heritage from us: although we came of age during the Civil Rights era; it was also a time of increasing American hostility to Palestinian rights and national aspirations. When I went off to college, I reappraised the choices my parents had made and grappled with my country’s policies and attitudes toward the Arab-Israeli conflict. In an effort to gain firsthand experience, I went to live in Israel and became the first diaspora Palestinian to attend Hebrew University. I also experienced how profoundly uncomfortable Americans became when I mentioned Palestine, and I learned to pick my battles carefully.

In 2006, my mother was diagnosed with terminal cancer. I suddenly faced losing her, as well as the story she had always kept to herself. I became acutely aware that the generation who'd left Palestine in 1948 was slipping away and that the baggage she had been carrying contained precious treasures. But my more immediate dilemma was how to take care of Mom and Dad. My partner Laurie and I moved back east to help out. There were many tough and painful choices facing us as Mom’s disease progressed. I’m the only one of my siblings who learned to cook my Mom’s traditional dishes, and when she got sick, I took over her kitchen. Laurie got the job of caring for Dad, an irascible 86-year old who was estranged from his kids and used to being waited on hand and foot. With his routine upset and the future looking bleak, all hell broke loose and Dad’s past came tumbling out in powerful memories. Laurie filmed Dad as he told his life story and much more.

Cooking Lessons chronicles our family crisis and my search to reclaim my parents’ legacy. It’s about losing the person who’s been the heart of the family, and mustering the courage to find my own heart. Ultimately this journey will reconnect me to my extended family living in the global Palestinian diaspora and celebrate a community whose contributions to America have yet to be recognized.

Point of view
Cooking Lessons-A Palestinian American Story is a personal documentary narrated through the lens of photographer and Co-Producer Najib Joe Hakim. As the son of Palestinian refugees, Joe brings a unique perspective to the story as a Palestinian American with a distinct relationship to his identity and history. Like most first generation immigrants to America, he straddles at least two worlds and is the character with whom most viewers will connect. As the filmmaker and Joe’s partner for 18 years, Director Laurie Coyle is as an insider juggling roles as documentary maker, cook and confidante —one step away though hardly removed. Without being overly self-reflexive, the camera of necessity becomes a player in the story when she stops filming to take someone’s temperature, or Elias yells Stop fooling around with that camera and help me!

Themes  
The central thesis of Cooking Lessons emerges from the question, what does it mean to grow up Palestinian in America? How do you find your voice when your country turns a deaf ear to your history? How do you represent yourself when you are unseen? Fearful of discrimination in an America indifferent and even hostile to the plight of the Palestinians, the Hakims’ turning away from the past is part of the collective experience of Palestinian Americans. Featuring quirky individuals who never fail to say or do what we least expect, Cooking Lessons will dispel stereotypes and foster understanding. A Christian Palestinian, Elias Hakim peppers his speech with Yiddish slang and invocations to Allah. As a young woman in Palestine, Josephine spoke five languages and dressed in the sophisticated trousers of 1940s movie stars. Sharing their story will be a poignant, humorous and important glimpse into an immigrant community that has been little understood and much maligned.

Structure
The arc of Cooking Lessons is framed by Joe’s personal quest to come to terms with his family history and identity when faced by a family crisis that is about to destroy the life they have had together. The catalyst for Joe’s search is his mom’s terminal brain cancer and the urgency he feels to capture and share his family story before it slips away. The action moves between the present day story of our struggle to cope and the past revealed as a series of reminiscences. The past isn’t simply dug up and delivered; it’s triggered by emotions and events in the present. The opening section introduces the family history. A middle section interweaves the course of Josephine’s illness with memories and revelations, especially Elias’. A final section takes the story beyond both parents’ deaths to our extended family scattered throughout the Palestinian diaspora. It points towards our children’s future while embracing the legacy of the past.

Format & style
Cooking Lessons is blessed with rich visual resources, including twenty years of 8mm home movies made by Elias Hakim, an avid amateur with a passionate hobby. Elias began taking pictures with a box camera when he was a teenager; as an adult, he shot over twenty years of 8 mm home movies—a remarkable visual record that forms the soul of Cooking Lessons. From his reels capturing the wonder of New York City, to baptisms, baseball games and graduations of their five children; from their first scantily furnished apartment to a brick home in the suburbs; from chubby boys in shorts to teen rebels in jeans…Elias films his family grow up and grow away as they become more Americanized.

The present day family drama is captured primarily with handheld mini DV. These elements are complemented by reflective sit down interviews, family gatherings and b-roll filmed by Vicente Franco. A more lyrical style evokes the past with the Hakim home movies and visual tableaux blending photos, mementos, letters, recipes, and religious iconography. The sound design will evoke the war of 1948, New York City streets in the 1950s, the beginning of teenage rebellion and counterculture in the 1960s and beyond. Family voicemail messages and letters read aloud in Arabic and English will provide texture. The musical elements will include an original score using instruments like the oud, referencing traditional Palestinian folk tunes and contemporary pan-Arab music influences. We will budget to license at least one rock tune popular when the Hakims were becoming “Americanized.”