Edward Said: Between Worlds

Celebrated as a prophet and vilified as a terrorist, Edward Said was America’s most outspoken, charismatic, and eloquent supporter of Palestine for over 25 years. This fascinating documentary traces Said’s personal and professional life—born a Catholic in Jerusalem in 1935, he went on to teach at Columbia University—alongside the history of the Palestinian people, from the Nakba to the Intifadas. It deftly weaves together Said’s political awakening with the larger geopolitical and ideological tensions that defined his life’s work.

To tell this story of personal and social change, filmmaker Maiken Baird unearths never-before-seen-material from Said’s family archive. Through skillfully edited clips from interviews, lectures, and popular talk-shows (from Donahue to Charlie Rose), Said defends his monumental book Orientalism and the rights of the Palestinian people. Provocative and complex, Edward Said: Between Worlds offers not only a fascinating sketch of a groundbreaking humanist thinker, but also a profound examination of exile, identity, and oppression.