An Israeli Soldier views a documentary about the aftermath of the Israeli invasion in Jenin camp. He was one of the drivers of the bulldozers that caused massive destruction in the camp. The camera moves between demolished homes and alleys, echoing the hopes and fears of the Palestinian people and their basic right to live in peace. This is the story of simple dreams being wiped out by the invasion.
Nizar Hasan -- 60’ (Palestine: 2002)
Elia Suleiman’s segment, Irtebak, was part of To Each His Own Cinema (Chacun son cinéma), a French anthology film commissioned for the 60th anniversary of the Cannes Film Festival. The film is a collection of 34 short films, each 3 minutes in length, by 36 acclaimed directors. Representing 5 continents and 25 countries, the filmmakers were invited to express "their state of mind of the moment as inspired by the motion picture theatre.”
Born in 1960 in Nazareth, Elia Suleiman lived in New York from 1981 to 1993. While in the United States, he has directed his first two short films: Introduction to the End of an Argument and Hommage by Assassination, winning numerous awards.
Elia Suleiman -- 3’ (2007)
A few days after the April 2001 invasion of the Jenin refugee camp by the Israeli military, a camera crew shoots at the site: it captures the camp at a time when the people still have not fully understood what happened. The film is not an informational report about these events, but a description of the traces left by the events that marked the souls of the inhabitants. It depicts resistance, heroism and victory despite disasters, despite victims, and despite the destruction of lives.
Mohammad Bakri was born in the Palestinian village of Bi'ina in the Galilee in 1953. He attended elementary school in his hometown and received his secondary education in the nearby city of Acre. He studied acting and Arabic literature at Tel Aviv University in 1973 where he graduated two years later.
Mohammad Bakri -- Documentary, 54’ (Palestine: 2002)
British comedian Jeremy Hardy makes a rash decision to travel to Palestine in March 2002 just before the invasion of Bethlehem and the siege of the Nativity Church. He joins a campaign to protect Palestinian farmers against the hostility of settlers but finds himself caught up in the events of the invasion. He decides to return later, but this time - in a manner of speaking - to take on the Israeli army.
Leila Sansour is the founder and CEO of Open Bethlehem. She was born in Moscow to a Palestinian father and a Russian mother and grew up in the occupied West Bank. Leila Sansour studied at the Sorbonne, Paris, at Moscow State University and at Warwick University in the UK. She holds a Masters degree in philosophy.
Leila Sansour -- Documentary, 52’ (UK/Palestine: 2002)
A few weeks after the beginning of the final stage in the Palestinian-Israeli peace process, a Palestinian-American filmmaker embarks on a journey back to his city of ancestry, Jerusalem. Instead of finding his Israeli neighbors mobilizing for peace, he encounters unexpected hostility. It was an ominous sign. Days later, the Jerusalem Uprising breaks out after Sharon's fateful incursion into the Noble Sanctuary (Al-Aqsa). The filmmaker finds himself in the eye of the storm as a witness to tragedies of fellow Palestinian Jerusalemites who are gunned down mercilessly by Israeli soldiers before his very eyes.
At the Makassed Hospital in Jerusalem, the filmmaker lives the drama of a number of Jerusalemite families as they cope with death, injury, and injustice. As the toll mounted, one person symbolized the tragic losses of the first day of the Intifada. On Friday September 29, 2000, the 23-year-old Osama Mohammad Jaddah, an African-Palestinian from the Old City of Jerusalem, was on his way to give blood but was gunned down by an Israeli sniper at the Makassed Hospital. According to the Israeli media, his mother Wafa sent him to die for a cash reward and a photo opportunity. This couldn't be further from the truth…
Hazim Bitar is a Palestinian-Jordanian producer, writer, and director. He founded the Amman Filmmakers Cooperative, which serves as the launching pad for some of Jordan's leading independent filmmakers. Since its founding, the Amman Filmmakers Cooperative has provided cinema education to hundreds of Jordanians and Palestinians, mainly in disadvantaged areas.
Hazim Bitar -- 5' (Palestine/USA: 2001)
Born in 1942 in Palmilla, Chile to Palestinian parents, is a major Latin American director and screenwriter. Littin has had a long and distinguished career as a filmmaker and screenwriter in his home county and in Europe.
Miguel Littin (1980)
Abu Laila used to be a judge, but because the government doesn't have the means to renew his assignment he is forced to be a taxi driver. On the day his daughter Laila becomes seven years old his wife insists that he'll be at home early and bring her a present and a cake. Abu Laila's has nothing else on his mind then completing this mission. But the daily life in Palestine has other plans.
Rashid Masharawi was born and raised in Shati refugee camp, Gaza Strip. He is a self-taught filmmaker, beginning to work at eighteen in the cinema industry and acquiring skills on over twenty films before starting himself to write and direct his own. Masharawi’s films portray his knowledge of living under the Israeli Occupation in refugee camps, the new space of the intifada, as well as his constant reflection on cinema narrative.
Rashid Masharawi -- 71’, Arabic (Palestine/Tunisia/Netherlands: 2008)
In this documentary the late 19th century birth of Zionism—and its repercussions for Palestinians—is detailed with original source documents, Zionist leaders' quotations, rare archival footage, testimonies of witnesses and interviews with historians. All help to illustrate that the expulsion of the indigenous Arab population from Palestine was far from an accidental result of the 1948 war. This award-winning film shines a spotlight on the ethnic cleansing of Palestine by the Zionist movement.
Maryse Gargour was born in Jaffa. She has been a journalist and a producer at the Office de Radio Diffusion et de la Télévision Française in Beirut. She has worked at UNESCO in Paris, at the International Council for Cinema and Television, and has also been a freelance journalist for international television news services in Paris.
Maryse Gargour -- Documentary, 61’ (2009)
