Daughters of Abraham

DOCUMENTARY FILM TRAILER 02’59”

IDC Films

IMDb: Daughters of Abraham

Daughters of Abraham
Newsweek Cover (2002)

Daughters of Abraham (2004) It was an indelible Newsweek cover photograph: two teenage girls who looked so alike they could have been sisters. Instead, one was a Palestinian girl who blew herself up in a Jerusalem grocery store killing a 17-year-old Israeli girl. Daughters of Abraham is an unblinking portrait of two lives on a fateful collision course.

Daughters of Abraham (2004) was later extended by HBO Films, extended to feature length and broadcast as To Die In Jerusalem (2007).

Production Crew

Produced By: Medalia
Producer: Hilla Medalia
Assistant Director: James Saldaña
Cinematographer: Chrissy Mazone

Produced by Medalia, James Saldaña directed the Palestinian portion of Daughters of Abraham (2004) and Chrissy Mazone was the primary cinematographer. We did not participate in the HBO extension of the film but our footage and creative direction were integrated into To Die In Jerusalem (2007).

Honors and Awards

Special Screening – Sundance Film Festival
Outstanding Documentary – Angelus Awards
Competition Winner – BEA Festival of Media Arts
Carole Fielding Grant Winner – University Film and Video Association

Daughters of Abraham - Front Cover Art
Cover Art – Original
To Die In Jerusalem - Front Cover Art
Cover Art – HBO
Daughters of Abraham - Cover Art
Cover Art (back, spine, front)

Production Photos (Palestinian West-Bank)

Poster on the outside of Ayat al-Akhras house
Poster on the outside of Ayat al-Akhras house

News Articles

New York Times: Grieving Mothers on 2 Sides of a Suicide Bombing

Student filmmaker creates documentary confronting Israeli-Palestinian conflict

‘Daughters of Abraham’ to premier tonight

“Daughters of Abraham” returns to campus

Saldaña (right), Mazone (far right) with Ayat's al-Akhras family
Saldaña (right), Mazone (far right) with Ayat al-Akhras family

Legal: The derivative work To Die In Jerusalem (2007) is a fixed in tangible medium that includes elements of the original Daughters of Abraham (2004) film, a previously copyright-protected work. The original work Daughters of Abraham (2004) is referred to as the original, parent, or underlying work, and the work that incorporates it is referred to as the derivative To Die In Jerusalem (2007).

Daughters of Abraham (2004) was Hilla Medalia’s graduate masters thesis project at Southern Illinois University and later expanded to become To Die In Jerusalem (2007).

James Saldaña and Chrissy Mazone reserve all rights to media we produced for or creative direction contributed to Hilla Medalia’s graduate masters thesis project, Daughters of Abraham (2004) and the derivative film To Die In Jerusalem (2007).

Thanks to my fellow UIC Alumni at mozaffarlaw.com