Edward Said: Between Worlds + Q&A

Edward Said: Between Worlds

2026 | Documentary | USA | English, Arabic | 1h 47min

Born in Jerusalem in 1935, academic Edward Said spent his life between Jerusalem, Cairo, and New York, becoming one of the 20th century's most influential intellectuals: revered by many, among the sharpest critics of the West, and a fierce advocate for a liberated and self-determined Palestine. Built entirely from archival material, Edward Said: Between Worlds follows Said across seven decades, from his Jerusalem childhood to his death in New York in 2003. Moving through the Nakba of 1948 and the 1993 Oslo Accords, the film shows how a life lived in exile shaped his scholarship and his advocacy.

Director Maiken Baird, the first filmmaker given full access to the Said family and estate, teams with Palestinian-American producers Sarah Mowaswes and Razan Ghalayini, with Said's daughter, Najla Said, as consulting producer. They weave the Columbia University archives, rare television appearances, and decades of family home movies into a moving portrait in Said's own words. Two decades on, Palestine's freedom and liberation, the cause he devoted his career and life to, remains as urgent as ever, and so does his insistence that Palestinians control how their own histories are told.

DIRECTOR

Maiken Baird is a Danish-American documentary film director and producer. She co-directed the documentary film Venus and Serena (2012) and directed and produced Ghislaine Maxwell: Filthy Rich (2022). She was an executive producer of the Academy Award–winning film Icarus (2017). Edward Said: Between Worlds is her latest film.