Infiltrators: Two films by Alex Rivera, two films by Khaled Jarrar
Begins March 4, 2026
All screenings take place at Burning Books
Squeaky Wheel presents two films each by directors Alex Rivera and Khaled Jarrar that take on displacement, resistance, and the human toll of borders and settler-colonies. Featuring both cult classic works and acclaimed documentaries, the films by the two artists – with Rivera’s work focusing on the maintenance and violence of the US border, and Jarrar’s focusing on power struggles, in particular as they relate to Palestine and the Palestinian diaspora– this pairing showcases the logistical, ethical, and bureaucratic logics of border regimes, and points to intertwined solidarities.
The screenings will be accompanied by a virtual artist talk with Alex Rivera and Khaled Jarrar. All screenings will take place at our friends at Burning Books. This event series is supported by Teiger Foundation and the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. Thank you to our co-presenters at Jewish Voice for Peace – Buffalo. Khaled Jarrar’s Infiltrators is courtesy of Third World Newsreel, and his film Notes on Displacement is courtesy of Cinema Politica. Special thank you to Paige Sarlin and Leo Goldsmith.
For attendees
The screening will take place at Burning Books located at 420 Connecticut Street, Buffalo, NY 14213. Street parking is available. For transportation by bus, it is near stops for the 3, 19, 22, and 101 bus lines. Seating is first-come, first-serve.
Event dates
Wednesday, March 4th, 7pm
Khaled Jarrar’s Notes on Displacement
Wednesday, March 11th, 7pm
Alex Rivera & Cristina Ibarra’s Infiltrators
Thursday, March 19th, 7pm
Alex Rivera’s Sleep Dealer
Wednesday, March 25th, 7pm
Khaled Jarrar’s Infiltrators
Date TBA
Online: Artist talk with Alex Rivera and Khaled Jarrar
Biographies of the artists
Alex Rivera is an award-winning filmmaker whose work explores themes of globalization, migration, and technology. Rivera’s first feature film, Sleep Dealer, a cyberpunk thriller set on the U.S./Mexico border, won awards at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival and the Berlin International Film Festival, was screened at the Museum of Modern Art, and had a commercial theatrical release in the U.S, France, Japan, and other countries. Rivera’s second feature, The Infiltrators, won the NEXT: Audience Award and the Innovator Award at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival. The Infiltrators uses documentary and scripted forms to tell the true story of Dreamers who ‘infiltrate’ a detention center to get immigrants out. Rivera is currently developing a few new cyberpunk projects and, with support from the Ford Foundation, a feature documentary on the history of deportation titled Banishment. Alex Rivera is a 2021 MacArthur Fellow, Sundance Fellow, Creative Capital Grantee and was The Rothschild Lecturer at Harvard University. He studied at Hampshire College and lives in Los Angeles. He is an Associate Professor of Filmmaking Practice at ASU’s Sidney Poitier New American Film School.
Khaled Jarrar was born in Jenin, Occupied Palestine in 1976. He lives and works in Ramallah. Jarrar completed his studies in interior design at Palestine Polytechnic University in 1996. Upon graduating he smuggled himself to work as a carpenter in Nazareth, living as an underground “illegal” worker. In 1998 Jarrar enlisted in an intensive military training which resulted in working for Arafat as a personal body guard until Arafat’s death in 2004. Attempting to create a life between the military and an artistic practice, Jarrar entered the field of photography in 2005. Jarrar graduated from the International Academy of Art – Palestine, Ramallah in 2011 and completed an MFA in fine art from the University of Arizona in 2019.
Jarrar, a multidisciplinary artist, explores modern power struggles and their sociocultural impact on ordinary citizens through highly symbolic photographs, videos, film, and performative interventions. His State of Palestine project was featured in the 7th Berlin Biennale. Where We Lost Our Shadows, his filmic collaboration with Pulitzer prize winning composer Du Yun, was shown at Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts. Jarrar’s work has been featured at Maraya Art Centre, Sharjah; the New Museum, New York City; the University of Applied Arts, Vienna; the 15th Jakarta Biennale; 52nd October Salon, Belgrade; Al-Ma’mal Foundation, Jerusalem; and the London Film Festival. Infiltrators, Jarrar’s first feature length film, was a documentary about the business of Palestinian’s “illegally” crossing and won the FIPRESCI Award for Best Documentary, Jury Special Award and the Muhr Arab Documentary Special Jury Prize at the Dubai International Film Festival in 2012. Notes on Displacement, his second feature length, about a Palestinian refugee’s flight from Syria to Germany, received a world premiere at the IDFA Envision Competition in November 2022.
