The Arab Film Festival (AFF) is one of the largest independent forums for Arab movies outside of the Arab world. It is being evicted from its San Francisco office just months before the launch of the festival, slated for Oct. 16-25 of this year, reports KQED Arts.
The AFF’s office is located in a building that was purchased nine months ago by The Prado Group, who gave the AFF until the end of August to move out.
“When they called for a meeting, I was expecting them to say ‘It’s going to be two times your current rent,'” executive director Serge Bakalian said. “But they didn’t even give us an option. They just said, ‘Here’s 60 days.’ I asked for a couple months and to their credit, they did give us an extra month.”
Before receiving the eviction notice, the AFF intended to increase its staff from seven employees to eight, and hire two interns.
The Prado Group has yet to reply to KQED’s request for comment.
The AFF was founded in San Jose, California in 1996 with a mission to “enhance understanding of Arab culture and foster a space for independent Arab filmmakers to screen their work for the public.” It has been headquartered in San Francisco since 2002 and has been located at its Mission District offices for the past six years.
In addition to the San Francisco festival, the AFF has expanded around the world with satellite festivals in Berlin, London, San Diego and Los Angeles.
A crowd-funding campaign has been started to help keep the AFF in San Francisco.
