Preceded by shorts: The Pupil of Her Handin the Palm of Her Eye (Claire Dannenbaum, 1994). Morocco isthe site for the pursuit of an unseeable phenomenon, the evil eye.Cryptic bodily ornamentation, herbal talismans, and other opaque relicscreate cultural chimeras before Dannenbaum's inquiring gaze. (9 mins,B&W, 16mm, From the artist). Measures ofDistance (Mona Hatoum, U.K., 1988). Reading letters sent byher mother in Beirut, Hatoum constructs a visual scrim of separationfrom her Palestinian roots. This same separation resonates within theidentity of family and self. (15 mins, Color, 3/4" video, FromWMM) Hidden Faces is a work of contradictions.Originally intended as a portrait of the renowned feminist writer NawalEl Saadawi, this fascinating documentary partly abandoned its declaredtopic in favor of a more intimate look at the lives of contemporaryEgyptian women. Collaborator Safaa Fathay returns to Egypt to interviewEl Saadawi only to be disillusioned by her 'privileged' status. Fathaythen journeys to her family's home to discover the lives of her motherand cousins fraught with the complex ironies of a culture sustained bytradition yet yearning for the rewards of modernity. Her mother'sdecision to return to the veil and her cousins' submission to the ruralpractice of clictoridectomy reveals the tenacious hold of Islamicconservatism. Yet it is also clear from Hidden Faces that the efforts offeminist-minded women such as Saadawi have shaken, however quietly, thefundaments of Muslim culture.-Steve Seid