Remembering Water: a film by Tom Callahan

Please join us for a screening of 2025 Chicago Palestine Film Festival Official Selection, Remembering Water. The short documentary film (40 min. with captions) will be followed by a group conversation co-facilitated by Philly Irish for Palestine and the filmmaking team.

About the film: Are Irish Americans alive if we can watch the genocide of Gaza and act like it's normal? This is the question that Irish American protest filmmaker Tom Callahan asks his Irish ancestors. 

Ireland has been heralded for resistance to empire. Yet, while trying to connect with Irish radical traditions, Tom is confronted with the imperialist realities that lie beneath certain facades of solidarity. Remembering Water follows Tom's journey as he films Chicago's movement for justice in Palestine and learns from anti-colonial voices near and far.

But Tom's growing understanding of Irish history, culture, and politics brings waves of disillusionment from the romantic narratives that built both his white authority, and his dreams of transcending it. Will Tom be able to face his own heritage, transform complicity into solidarity, and help break cycles of genocide - for Palestine, and us all?

Tom Callahan is a filmmaker who works with a range of social justice, revolutionary and abolitionist organizations in Chicago and beyond to support and amplify their work and our collective visions of a new world.  It brings him great joy and fulfillment to tell stories in community and build  relationships through this work. You can see more of his work at www.sensitivevisuals.com