5 Broken Cameras

[PalestineMyHeart 1,897]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQampNYtcYk

BILIN, West Bank — Emad Burnat was born to the land and, like generations of his family in this hilltop West Bank village, he has eked out a modest living from its rocky soil. But six years ago, at the birth of a son, he was given a video camera and turned unexpectedly into the village chronicler.

There was a great deal to record. Israel was building a separation barrier on village land that included some of his family’s own. The rationale behind it was to stop suicide bombers, but the move confiscated most of the village’s arable land and allowed for the expansion of an enormous Israeli settlement.

Bulldozers uprooted centuries-old olive trees while settlers drove up with furniture and mobile homes. Villagers stood in the way; soldiers arrested them. Mr. Burnat was there, day in, day out, filming with his new camera.

Now, working with an Israeli filmmaker, Guy Davidi, Mr. Burnat has taken his years of video and turned them into a compelling personal tale. The film, “Five Broken Cameras,” won two awards in November at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam, including the Audience Award, and is one of about a dozen films competing at Sundance this week in the World Documentary category.

As Bilin became the center for Palestinian popular resistance — weekly demonstrations joined by Israeli and foreign activists, and a partial Supreme Court victory forcing the barrier to be moved and some land returned — Mr. Burnat’s images became crucial. They were used not only by journalists but by those fighting charges in Israeli military courts. Accusations of assault were sometimes countered with a common refrain: let’s go to Emad’s videotape.

The new documentary intersperses scenes of villagers fighting the barrier with Mr. Burnat’s son Gibreel’s first words (“cartridge,” “army”), undercover Israeli agents taking away friends and relatives, and Mr. Burnat’s wife, Soraya, begging him to turn his attention away from politics and be with his family. Over six years, Mr. Burnat went through five cameras, each broken in the course of filming — among other things, by soldiers’ bullets and an angry settler. At the start of the film, Mr. Burnat lines up the cameras on a table. They form the movie’s chapters and create a motif for the unfolding drama — the power of bearing witness. Mr. Burnat never puts his camera down and it drives his opponents mad.

“Tell him if he keeps filming I will break his bones!” a settler declares to a soldier. Mr. Burnat keeps filming. The settler approaches him and, as the camera rolls, throws it to the ground, breaking it. The screen goes blank.

“When I film, I feel like the camera protects me,” Mr. Burnat says in his soft-voiced narration of the movie, making a point familiar to all journalists. “But it is an illusion.”

In one scene, soldiers come to Mr. Burnat’s house (“Now it’s my turn,” he says into the camera) to arrest him on charges of throwing stones and assaulting a soldier — charges he denied and of which he was later exonerated, according to an army spokesman. He films the soldiers’ entry into his house and their surreal assertion that he must turn off his camera because he is in a “closed military area.” “I am in my own home,” he replies. He spends three weeks in prison and six weeks under house arrest. It takes three years for the case to be dismissed.

A subtheme of the film is the activism of Mr. Burnat’s two close friends, Adeeb and Bassem Abu Rahma, who were cousins. Bassem was nicknamed “Phil,” the Arabic word for elephant. Both were playful, big-hearted guys at the front of the demonstrations. Phil was killed at a demonstration in 2009, and Mr. Burnat originally thought of making the movie about him.

But Mr. Davidi and an Israeli organization called Greenhouse, which pairs regional filmmakers with European mentors and is financed by the European Union, persuaded Mr. Burnat to place himself at the center of his story. It was a crucial move that gave the film its power and intimacy. But it did not come naturally.

...

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/23/world/middleeast/documentary-from-emad-burnats-camera-competes-at-sundance.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2

[ready4ONE 5,400]

Intense. Thanks for sharing.

[PalestineMyHeart 1,897]

Here are some maps to help understand what is happening in Bil'in, and why the villagers are protesting.

Bil'in is in the West Bank, not far from the so-called "Green Line" - the pre-1967 armistice line between Israel and the West Bank - well within the Palestinian territory.

This closer view shows what is going on:

The green dashed line is the "Green Line." The red line is the route of The Wall - Israel's so-called security fence which juts deep into Palestinian land on the Palestinian side of the Green Line.

Notice how The Wall encircles Israel's illegal settlements on the Palestinian side of the Green Line (outlined in blue,) as well as additional swaths of territory - much of it farmland belonging to the Palestinian residents of the villages of Bil'in and Saffa (outlined in black.)

This is what the villagers have been protesting - the building of The Wall on their land, in order to confiscate it for the expansion of the illegal settlements. For more than 7 years, they have staged weekly non-violent protests during which many activists have been shot at, maimed and even killed (as shown in the film.) They've also spent more than 7 years of fighting in the Israeli courts.

In 2007, the Israeli Supreme Court ordered the route of The Wall to be changed. The order would restore some of Bil'in's land, but not all of it.

This is what the new route is supposed to look like - notice the large chunk of Bil'in's land that would still be annexed by Israel (the aerial view shows it clearly - that green triangular piece between the illegal settlements of Modi'in Illin and Lapid.)

However, the Israeli army refused to begin to implement the order until June 2011. At this date, it has not been completed.

[ready4ONE 5,400]

Bump.

I would be interested to see the whole film, the clip was very interesting. It always amazes me when a very interesting thread withers on the vine, and this one is not getting the attention it deserves.

[PalestineMyHeart 1,897]

Bump.

I would be interested to see the whole film, the clip was very interesting. It always amazes me when a very interesting thread withers on the vine, and this one is not getting the attention it deserves.

The clip was extremely powerful - I can't wait to see the entire piece.

By the way, it was an Israeli filmmaker, Guy Davidi (working with an Israeli film organization called Greenhouse) who met Emad Burnat in Bil'in, learned of his footage, and persuaded him to place himself at the center of the film and narrate it himself. Davidi and Burnat are credited as co-directors.

Kino Lorber, Inc. has picked up all North American rights for "5 Broken Cameras," and it is supposed to be released this summer to theaters in the U.S. and Canada, followed by a home video/digital release by the end of the year.

And - the film won the "World Cinema Directing Award: Documentary" at Sundance last month.

[luckytxn 2,263]

I would like to see the whole movie myself.

[PalestineMyHeart 1,897]

I found some more reviews that describe additional scenes not included in the trailer:

At one point, tired of the late night raids on the village, a group of children march up to the wall, chanting “We want to sleep! We want to sleep!”

...

At one point in the film, the peace activists discover that Israeli special forces have disguised themselves as Palestinians and began creating chaos at a demonstration before hauling people away to be arrested by their comrades at the top of the hill. Another scene shows one of the most outspoken activists, Daba, being isolated by a group of police officers who then calmly and deliberately shoot him in the leg.

...

But the most devastating part of the document was watching the impact of the events and the violence on Emad’s children.

Gibreel is a happy, sunny child who grows more and more serious after witnessing many of the events in the village and at large. He witnesses the protests, watches as older boys are seized in the middle of night by the Israeli army, see countless arrests, and kicks around spent catridges as if they are toys. As a baby, Gibreel toddles over to an Israeli soldier and hands him an olive branch with a sweet smile on his face. A couple of years later, Gibreel asks his father why he can’t just kill the soldiers with a knife, after he realizes that one of his dear friends was shot down during a protest. Emad pays careful attention to the children trying to contextualize their lives, asking “How will they be able to bear their anger?” Gibreel’s innocence is lost before he turns five–while it pains Emad to acknowledge this, he also realizes that in order for Gibreel to survive, he will have to be exposed to reality.

“Dreaming can be dangerous,” notes Emad. “The only protection I can offer him is letting him see everything.”

http://www.racialicious.com/2012/01/27/sundance-pick-5-broken-cameras/

She also got a really good interview with Bernat and Davidi:

http://www.racialicious.com/2012/01/27/sundance-exclusive-interview-with-emad-burnat-and-guy-davidi-of-5-broken-cameras/

[ready4ONE 5,400]

I will watch the film when it comes out. The clip was incredible.