The Egyptian and Tunisian uprisings, whose dimensions continue to unfold in the region, have been made possible by years, if not decades, of sustained social, cultural, and political work. While much has already been written about the social networks, institutions, and technologies that have been mobilized to sustain large, disciplined, and effective protest, far less attention has been paid to the role of arts institutions and interventions in recent bids for freedom in the Arab world. This paper initiates such an investigation by tracing the activist life of a single film—Annemarie Jacir’s “Salt of This Sea”—from its funding and production through its screening and distribution. While the Palestinian case and political field differ significantly from that of Egypt or Tunisia for a number of reasons, the impossibility of a meaningful Palestinian politics since the Oslo Accords has led to the development of a particularly active Palestinian arts scene as a sphere of political and cultural agency. Siegfrid Kracauer hypothesizes that cinema, because of the collaborative nature of its production, is more likely than other art forms to reflect, disseminate and strengthen the zeitgeist or spirit of a particular time and place. I expand on his theory to consider the extraordinary community- building potential inherent in film by virtue of its nature as a communicative act and as a created and circulated object. I argue that a filmmaker can exploit these two features of cinema to organize and speak at the local and global level through the film itself, as well as through the life of the film in the world. By thwarting two film genres, the romance and the road movie, Jacir’s film eloquently captures a Palestinian zeitgeist: frustration at the lack of meaningful politics, desire for freedom, and a claim to an inalienable sense of agency. At the same time, the collaborative work of creating and disseminating the film is transformative of both local and transnational communities precisely because it is collaborative and creative, infused with the ethics and vision that inform the film itself. In addition, this work brings together groups that would not otherwise engage with each other (activists, funders, and museum patrons, etc.). As a result, wider, stronger, and wiser networks are created that have the potential to affect the nature and outcome of future political action.