This annual pan-Arab event shows that cinema is not yet a pan-Arab medium. Don’t expect to see films from Saudi Arabia or Iraq, but more modern or stable countries such as Tunisia, Egypt, and Lebanon are well-represented—along with France, Holland, and the United States. The first weekend’s offerings range in location and tone from an earnest Lebanese documentary to a culture-clash roundelay set in Amsterdam. Beirut Diaries: Truth, Lies, and Videos (at 6:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 27; at 8:30 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 28) documents a heady period in 2005 when youths camped in Beirut’s Martyrs’ Square, attempting to bridge religious and political chasms to create a new and inclusive nationalism in opposition to Syrian, Israeli, and American influence. Kicks (at 8:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 27; at 6:30 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 28) overlaps characters from Amsterdam’s Moroccan, Turkish, and “cheesehead” populations, linked by an event that could happen almost anywhere: the shooting of an unarmed immigrant by a possibly racist cop. Also featured this weekend are Downtown Girls (at 8:45 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 27; at 6 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 28), a social comedy about the daily commute of Cairo pink-collar workers, and Zaina: Rider of the Atlas (at 6 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 27; at 8 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 28), in which an 11-year-old girl bonds with her long-absent father as they cross the Atlas Mountains on horseback to Marrakech. The series runs to Sunday, Nov. 4, At AMC Loews Dupont Circle 5, 1350 19th St. NW; see Showtimes for this week’s films; see filmfestdc.org/arabiansights/index.cfm for a complete schedule. $9. (202) 724-5613.