Archive
A Very Difficult Movie: “This is My Land…Hebron”
Last night I attended a screening of “This is My Land…Hebron” at the Human Rights Watch Film Festival at Facets Multimedia. The award-winning film by Giulia Amati & Stephen Natanson not only records various day-to-day encounters between Palestinians and the 600 or so Jewish settlers living in the old city of Hebron, but also intersperses commentary from all sides of the conflict. On screen interviews include Palestinian and settler residents as well as commentary by folks like a journalist, a former Knesset Member, various B’tselem officials and former IDF members from Breaking the Silence.
[Note: The film is being rescreened, today, Friday, June 3 at 8:30PM at Facets Multimedia, 1517 W. Fullerton]
It is a very powerful and disturbing movie. As with most documentaries, it is clear that the filmmakers have a point of view, and it is impossible to tell what lies on the cutting room floor. Nevertheless, the virulent anger, hatred and racism of the settlers is palpable. Their very real belief that this land was given to them by G_d is clearly authentic. But the negative energy which springs from this belief is as icily scary as anything seen in the Exorcist. And this fear is not the result of any manipulation by the filmmakers, but from the fiery hatred in the settlers eyes, the stones and garbage thrown from their hands, and the profane venom spewing from their mouths.
FYI
The Human Rights Watch Festival continues through the 9th. You can see a schedule here – and Saturday night’s film “The Green Wave” comes highly recommended.
By providing an animated backdrop for the urgent blog posts and tweets that became a lifeline to Iranian pro-democracy activists, The Green Wave recounts the dramatic events of the most severe domestic crisis in the history of Iran.
Dir. by Ali Samadi Ahadi, Germany/Iran. 2010, 80 mins. In English and Farsi with English subtitles.
From the widespread hope of political change in Iran through the 2009 elections to the brutal suppression of the mass protests against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s re-election, The Green Waverecounts the dramatic events of the most severe domestic crisis in the history of the Islamic Republic. In May 2009, the youthful green-clad crowds were enraged and the atmosphere was explosive. Yet Election Day in June was a disappointment on a massive scale. The film recounts the ways in which the authorities violently crushed the protests that took place directly thereafter and exposes the arrests and interrogations that followed in intense detail.Interweaving animated blogs and tweets, video footage caught by those present, and extensive interviews, The Green Waveis a remarkable portrait of modern political rebellion, an exposé of government-sanctioned violence, and a vision of hope that continued resistance may galvanise a new Iran.Danny Postel, editor of The People Reloaded: The Green Movement and the Struggle for Iran’s Future, and Kaveh Ehsani of DePaul University will be here for a Q&A after the 7 pm screening on Saturday, June 4th.Trailer Official site Guardian UKShowtimes:Sat., June 4 at 7 pm purchase tickets
Tues., June 7 at 6:30 pm purchase ticketsX
beyondzerosum 