Film List

Films on Palestine/Israel, Iraq, Middle East

Details on these films can be found at the Web site of the distributor. Availability and prices may be subject to change.

Please send your suggestions for additions and changes to friends@fosna.org.

American Friends Service Committee
AFSC Video & Film Library, 2161 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA 02140
tel: 617-497-5273; www.afsc.org

Lines in the Sand
12 minutes. 1991. Donation $10-$15
Exposé of the Pentagon’s media coup during the 1991 war with Iraq. Featuring footage shot in Iraq right after the war, the film furthers the debate on how the Pentagon managed the news to manipulate public opinion. It traces the evolution of miliatry press and information control strategies from Vietnam through Central America in the 80s to the Persian Gulf war.

Americans for Middle East Understanding (AMEU)
Riverside Drive, Room 245, New York, NY 10115
tel: 212-870-2053; fax 212-870-2050; email: ameu@aol.com; www.ameu.org

The Bedouin of Israel
1998. 2 hrs. Sale $30
Filmed by a Fulbright Scholar living in Israel for a year, this film provides a rare glimpse into the life of the migratory Bedouin people under Israeli rule. Much of their traditionally held land has been taken over by Israeli “settlements,” and many of their people have been “transferred” to hamlets that offer no means of work for family providers and danger to the continuance of their culture. The film includes interviews with the Israel’s notorious Green Patrol.

Beyond the Mirage: The Face of the Occupation
2002. 47 minutes.
This documentary is an attempt to hear from people who actually live in Israel and the Occupied Territories and get beyond what we read and hear in the American media.
Produced by Americans for a Just Peace in the Middle East, PO Box 1086, Santa Barbara, CA 93102. www.ajpme.org

Imagine
Imagine . . . you were a student in the West Bank.
Moving the Rock Productions, Americans for a Just Peace in the Middle East, PO Box 1086, Santa Barbara, CA 93102. www.ajpme.org

Checkpoint: The Palestinians After Oslo (1997)
1997. 58 minutes. Sale $27.
Directed by Tom Wright, this Studio 52 production documents the post-Oslo Peace Accord of 1993 situation. The film uses off-beat humor and historical insights provided by Palestinian and Israeli activist such as Naseer Arad and Hanan Ashrawi.

Dispatches: The Killing Zone
2003. Sale: $10.
A Channel 4 (UK) production on the shocking violence in the Gaza Strip, including the killing of peace volunteer Rachel Corrie.

500 Dunams on the Moon
2002. 48 minutes. Sale $25
Documents the 1948 depopulation of the village of Ayn Hawd.

Frontiers of Dreams and Fears
2002. 58 minutes. Sale $43.95
Filmmaker Mai Masri traces the friendship that evolves between two Palestinian girls: Mona, from a Beirut refugee camp, and Manar, an occupant of Bethlehem’s Al-Dheisha camp under Israeli control. The film focuses on the plight of Palestinian children. The film won First Prize Documentary at the International Festival of Films by Women (Turin, 2002).

People and the Land
1997. 57 minutes. Sale $25.00
A film by Tom Hayes. The filmmaker airdrops viewers into the universe of an occupied people, unreeling images of a new form of apartheid based on ethnicity. Challenging U.S. foreign policy and the conventions of the documentary form itself, the film examines the concrete realities of Israel’s conduct in the West Bank and Gaza, the level of U.S. support for that conduct through foreign aid, and the human cost of that aid in Palestine and the U.S.

Children of Shatila, 1999. 58 minutes.

Arab Film Distribution
10035 35th Avenue NE, Seattle WA 98125, www.arabfilm.com

Gaza Strip
74 minutes. 2002.
U.S. documentary filmmaker James Longley traveled to the Gaza Strip in January 2001. He stayed for more than 3 months, shooting over 75 hours of material. Filmed in verite style, Gaza Strip covers the first major armed incursion into Area A by IDF forces and focuses on the realities of Palestinian life and death under Israeli military occupation.

Jenin Jenin
54 minutes. 2002. Winner: Carthage Int’l Film Festival Best Film
The film, directed and co-produced by Palestinian actor and director Mohammed Bakri, includes testimony from Jenin residents after the Israeli army’s April 2002 attack on the refugee camp. The operation ended with Jenin flattened and scores of Palestinians dead. Banned in Israel, Jenin Jenin is dedicated to Iyad Samudi, the co-producer of the film. On June 23 he was shot and killed by Israeli forces in besieged Yamun.

Paradise Now
90 minutes. Feature film. 2006. Best Foreign Language Film Golden Globes; Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Language Film.
Paradise Now follows two Palestinian childhood friends who have been recruited for a strike on Tel Aviv and focuses on their last days together. Shot on location in both Palestine and Israel, Paradise Now is an enthralling drama about the possible motivations and actions of two suicide bombers. Director Hany Abu-Assad meticulously researched the subject before co-authoring the script with colleague Bero Beyer, and fought off a few armed Palestinians in Nablus, which is where the bulk of the film's shooting took place. The story follows two young Palestinian men, Said (Kais Nashef) and Khaled (Ali Suliman), whose lives in the West Bank city have ground to a halt. But when a shadowy figure named Jamal (Amer Hlehel) offers them a shot at martyrdom by carrying out a suicide attack in Tel Aviv, the two men's lives are suddenly invigorated. The film follows their final days, as they grapple with their consciences, visit family and friends--and in Said's case, a young woman he has been flirting with--and prepare for the attack. But they find both practical and emotional issues stand in their way, leading to an anguished and entirely moving finale to Abu-Assad's film. In Arabic with Optional English, Spanish, French Subtitles. Director: Hany Abu-Assad

Bullfrog Films
www.bullfrogfilms.com
tel: 1-800-543-3764; email: bullfrog@igc.org

Palestine Is Still the Issue
53 minutes. Video. 2002. Sale $25. Rental $85. Sale to grassroots groups: $39.00 plus shipping. In 1977 award-winning journalist and filmmaker John Pilger made a documentary on Palestine. In 2001 he returned to the West Bank and Gaza, and to Israel, to film this documentary. He asks why the Palestinians, whose right of return was affirmed by the UN more than 50 years ago, are still caught in a terrible limbo: refugees in their own land, controlled by Israel in the longest military occupation in modern times. He asks what this denial of basic human rights means to the region and to the wider world.

Paying the Price: Killing the Children
74 or 48 minutes. Video. 2000. Long version: Sale $275, Rental $95 Short version: Sale $225, Rental $75. Sale for grassroots groups: $39.00 plus shipping.
Journalist John Pilger investigates the effects of UN sanctions on the people of Iraq. He takes the former UN Asst. Secretary-General, Denis Halliday, back to the crippled country for the first time since Halliday quit in protest of the sanctions in 1998. Ten years of extraordinary isolation have killed more people in Iraq than the two atomic bombs dropped on Japan.

In Whose Interest?
27 minutes. 2002. VHS public performance purchase $195, rental $45
Filmmaker David Kaplowitz questions the effects of U.S. foreign policy over the past 50 years. Revealing a pattern of intervention, the film focuses on Guatemala, Vietnam, East Timor, El Salvador, and Palestine/Israel. Archival footage, photographs, and media tidbits are interwoven with personal accounts and commentary. Recommended for use with grades 10-12, college, and adult audiences.

Canadian Friends of Sabeel
3 Sandstone Court, Ottawa, ON K2G 6N5 Canada
email: marples@cyberus.ca

Stuck with the Truth
30 minutes. Video. 2002. This video is based on the February 2001 Sabeel international solidarity gathering in Jerusalem and includes clips from conference speakers, interviews with key Sabeel members, scenes from worship services, and background footage of Palestinian communities in Jerusalem and the West Bank. The film is intended primarily for the education of faith groups seeking insight into the conflict in Israel/Palestine, with the hope that viewers will be inspired to become active in striving for justice and peace for the region.
Available from Friends of Sabeel—North America, PO Box 9186, Portland, OR 97207 USA. tel: (503) 653-6625; friends@fosna.org

Democracy Now
www.democracynow.org/roy.shtml

Come September
Arundhati Roy discusses the war in Iraq, U.S. foreign policy, the current situation in Palestine, and corporate globalization in this speech delivered in New York in September 2002. Since September 11, Roy has emerged as one of the most eloquent critics of the Bush administration’s so-called war on terror. Arundhati Roy is the author of the Booker-prize-winning novel The God of Small Things, and of The Cost of Living and Power Politics. Her newest book, War Talk, is a collection of essays analyzing issues of war and peace, democracy and dissent, racism and empire.

Filmakers Library
www.filmakers.com
tel: 212-808-4980; fax: 212-808-4983; email: info@filmmakers.com

Crossing the Lines
60 minutes. Video.
Interviews with Israelis and Palestinians filmed during “Compassionate Listening Delegations” in 2001 and 2002 led by Rabbi Leah Green.

Encounter in Ramallah
53 minutes. Video. Sale $295. Rental $75.
In 1996 two soldiers, one Israeli and one Palestinian, fire their automatic weapons, wounding each other. The film traces how these two “brothers,” descendants of Abraham, ended up enemies. Not strong in analysis.

In the Line of Fire
47 minutes. Video. Sale $325. Rental $75.
This film exposes the harsh reality of covering news from Israel and the Occupied Territories. The documentary follows two Reuters cameramen, Mazen Dana and Nael Shyoukhi, as they work in the West Bank city of Hebron. Although they try to stay on the sidelines, journalists often find themselves the target of attack by the Israeli army. After years of being the object of violence themselves, the Hebron cameramen decided to compile a video archive of beatings, shootings, and humiliation they have endured. For the first time this video archive is brought to light in this film. Israel’s army has investigated only a handful of cases despite vigorous lobbying from The Committee to Protect Journalists, Reporters Sans Frontiers and the Foreign Press Association in Israel.

Speaking of Peace
32 minutes. Video. Sale $195. Rental $55.
Israelis and Palestinians, working on issues of human rights in Israel and the Occupied Territories, speak about the abuses of the Israeli military occupation: torture in interrogations, confiscation of land, and the destruction of Palestinian homes.

First Run/Icarus Films
32 Court Street, 21st floor
Brooklyn, NY 11201
tel: 800-876-1710; fax: 718-488-8642; email: mail@frif.com; www.frif.com

Palestine: Story of a Land, Parts 1 and 2
60 minutes. each part. Video. First Run/Icarus.
Two-part film by Simone Bitton. Succinct and effective history of Palestine in the 18th and 19th centuries, the subsequent establishment of Israel and the development of the Occupied Territories.

The Bombing
59 minutes. Video. 1999. Sale $390; Rental $75. A film by Simone Bitton.
The personal stories of the victims, the bombers, and the grieving families after three Palestinian youths blow themselves up on a downtown Jerusalem street on September 4, 1997. The strength of the film lies in its presentation of viewpoints rarely seen or heard. It allows us to glimpse a complex, human reality usually hidden by sound bites, experts, and politicians.

Bethlehem Diary
57 minutes. Video. 2001. Sale $390. Rental $75.
This film by Antonia Caccia focuses on two Palestinian families and a human rights lawyer around Christmas of 2000. The town of Bethlehem has been closed off by the Israeli army. Violence and economic uncertainty affect the lives of the people whose everyday lives we witness in this film. The film was featured in the 2002 Human Rights Watch Film Festival.

Close, Closed, Closure
52 minutes. Video. 2002. Sale $390. Rental $75. A film by Ram Loevy.
Enclosed by an electric fence, the Gaza Strip covers 111 square miles. Lacking internal resources, it is one of the poorest places on Earth. Like a prison with one million inmates--that’s how the people of Gaza regard their land. Shot in and around Gaza, the film shows the scars of 35 years of the Israeli occupation on both societies.

Human Weapon
54 minutes. 2002. Video Sale $390. Rental $75. Directed by Ilan Ziv.
The film provides an indepth examination of the complexity of the suicide bombing phenomenon. Filmed in Iran, Lebanon, Sri Lanka, Israel, Palestine, Europe, and the United States, Human Weapon interviews key militants and supplements dramatic footage with powerful human stories. The film is not primarily concerned with suicide bombing as a part of a particular conflict but rather it tries to understand how this weapon unleashes a different kind of warfare.

Naji Al-Ali: An Artist with Vision
52 minutes. 1999. Video. Sale $390. Rental $75.
The late Palestinian cartoonist Naji Al-Ali was an uncompromising critic of a regressive Arab political culture and of Western intervention in Arab affairs for over 30 years. He was shot and killed in London in 1987. It has not been revealed--after extensive investigation by Scotland Yard and by MI 5, whether he was murdered by the Mossad or the PLO.

The Settlers
52 minutes. 2001. Video. Sale $390; Rental $75. A film by Ruth Walk.
In the midst of the densely populated Palestinian city of Hebron in the Occupied Territories, a seven Orthodox families and their 43 children constitute the Jewish settlement of Tel Rumeida. The community refuses to acknowledge the existence of their Arab neighbors. Despite the settlers’ distrust of the media, the filmmaker built trust relationships with the families. The resulting accessibility provides a unique insight into their lives and psychology.

Power and Terror: Noam Chomsky in Our Times
60 minutes. 2002. Video.
Power and Terror presents the latest in Noam Chomsky’s thinking through interviews and talks he gave during the spring of 2002. As he has done countless times since September 11, Chomsky places that terrorist attack in the context of American foreign intervention throughout the postwar decades--in Vietnam, Central America, the Middle East, and elsewhere. Beginning with the fundamental principle that the exercise of violence against civilian populations is terror, regardless of whether the perpetrator is a well-organized band of Muslim extremists or a powerful state, Chomsky challenges the United States to apply to its own actions the moral standards it demands of others.

The Israeli Wall in Palestinian Lands
Andrew Courtney and Emily Perry, 2004, 43 minutes.
In this film, Palestinians from different walks of life are asked how the wall affects them. They include a businessman from Abu Dis, a young mother from Dheishe Refugee Camp, a music student from Ramallah, a community center director from Jerusalem, a farmer from northern Qalqilya, the director of the Stop the Wall campaign, and a member of the African-Palestinian community.

Real People Productions
Documentary Video Service
02217 US31 South
Charlevoix, MI 49720
tel: 231-547-2333; realpeoplevideo@core.com
www.realpeoplevideo.com

Sucha Normal Thing
2004. 60 minutes. (VHS) NTSC $20, (VHS) PAL TBA, DVD $20 + $4 Shipping/handling.
In October 2003 Rebecca Glotfelty and 6 others from Traverse for Peace in northern Michigan traveled to Occupied Palestine (West Bank). During their 4-week tour, including visits to Hebron, Nablus, Qalqilya, Ramallah, Jerusalem and numerous small villages, Glotfelty interviewed both Palestinians and Israelis regarding the economic, social, and political situation in both Israel and the West Bank. The documentary captures the uncertainty of a “normal” day for average Palestinians, and the frustration and despair of both peoples, as well as the courage and commitment of those working for a just peace.

Palestine Online Store
www.palestineonlinestore.com

Rachel - An American Conscience
Yahya Barakat, 2005.
This documentary offers rare footage of Rachel talking to a camera and describing Israeli human rights violations against a Palestinian civilian population. The film opens with grim images of dinosaur Caterpillar bulldozers turning urban Rafah into a garbage pile of destroyed buildings. It continues with interviews of Rachel's fellow International Solidarity Movement volunteers, and concludes with comments from her parents.

A Portrait of Edward Said
Emmanuel Hamon, 2002, 54 minutes.
This intimate documentary offers a glimpse at some of Edward Said's final reflections on the themes that dominated his life's work. Known as one of America's great contemporary intellectuals and a prominent spokesperson for the Palestinian cause in the United States, Said died in September of 2003 at the age of 67. Shortly before his death, a French film crew spent several weeks with him and his family.

Hanan Ashrawi: A Woman of Her Time
Mai Masri, 1995, 50 minutes.
In this very personal portrait, Palestinian filmmaker Mai Masri profiles Hanan Ashrawi, exploring how she manages to juggle her responsibilities as political activist, writer and mother - against the backdrop of challenges facing the Palestinians in the struggle to build a viable state.

Mahmoud Darwich: As the Land Is the Language
Simone Bitton, 1997, 60 minutes.
This film, which follows Darwich from the Cisjordanian desert to Paris via Cairo and Beirut, tracing the path of his exile from Israel, sets out to understand this popular fervor and share the emotion distilled by Darwich’s words and inimitable rhythm. It not only allows the viewer to appreciate his work in its totality, but also places it in a political, historical and cultural context.

Rana's Wedding
Hany Abu-Assad, 2002, 90 minutes.
Shooting on location in East Jerusalem, Ramallah and at checkpoints in-between, Palestinian director Hany Abu-Assad (Ford Transit) sees the Palestinian-Israeli conflict through the eyes of a young woman who, with only ten hours to marry, must negotiate her way around roadblocks, soldiers, stonethrowers, overworked officials ... and into the heart of an elusive lover.

Tragedy in the Holy Land - The Second Uprising
Denis Mueler, 2002, 71 minutes.
This film covers the origins of the dispute between the people of this region and offers a rare look at the confrontation from a Palestinian point of view, with profound remarks and insight from Palestinians, Jews and other noted scholars. The film addresses the core issues of land and identity, and probes the evolution of the conflict from a historical perspective.

Rebuilding Homes Campaign
PO Box 610061, Redwood City, CA 94061
www.rebuildinghomes.org

The Right to a Home and a Homeland
20 minutes. Video.
The film describes not only the terrible impact home demolitions have had on Palestinians, it also outlines the Rebuilding Homes Campaign’s international movement to rebuild Palestinian homes and to encourage peace through strategic Palestinian and Israeli cooperation. It is designed especially for home audiences to encourage financial support for this joint Israeli-Palestinian effort (Global Exchange in San Francisco is the group’s U.S. fiscal sponsor).

Other Films

Children of the Nakba
26 minutes, 2005.
For Palestinians, the events between 1947 and 1949 are remembered as a time when Israeli military forces destroyed over 500 Palestinian villages and expelled between 700,000 and 900,000 Palestinians from their lands—about 85 percent of the Palestinian population at that time. These refugees have lived exiled from their land since then. Today Palestinians represent one-third of the global refugees and internally displaced population. Learn about the Palestinians who call these events the Nakba, an Arabic work meaning “catastrophe.”: both Palestinians and Israelis are children of the Nakba, heirs to a story of dispossession. Building a shared future of justice, equality and reconciliation for both peoples will mean grappling with this history. Mennonite Central Committee, Box 500, Akron, PA 17501-0500
tel: 717-859-1151 or 888-563-4676; www.mcc.org

Dehumanized in Gaza: The Movie. Filmed between May 2000 and October 2001 by a Palestinian crew at the request of B’Tselem, human rights group in Israel.

Gaza Ghetto: Portrait of a Palestinian Family
82 minutes. 1984.
Even as the political status of Gaza and the West Bank evolve, the uncertainties and harshness of land confiscations and military occupation remain key. Produced in 1984, Gaza Ghetto explores the very issues that caused the first intifada and continue at the heart of the conflict.
New Day Films, 22D hollywood Ave., Hohokus, NJ 07423
tel: 888-367-9154; email: tmcndy@aol.com; Web: www.newday.com

Hidden Wars
Documented material on the Gulf War. Interviews with Ramsey Clark (former U.S. Atty. General), Denis Halliday (former UN official in Iraq), Phyllis Bennis (Institute for Policy Studies), Scott Ritter ( former member of UNSCOM), Dr. Labib Kamhawi, (president of Human Rightts Association of Jordan), Michel Haj (journalist), and others.
JusticeVision, 1425 W. 12th St., #262, Los Angeles, CA 90015
tel: 213-747-6345; email: democracyu@aol.com Web: www.justicevision.org

Palestine, Under Siege 41 minutes. 2002.

Peace, Propaganda & the Promised Land
80 minutes, 2004
Provides a striking comparison of U.S. and international media coverage of the crisis in the Middle East, zeroing in on how structural distortions in U.S. coverage have reinforced false perceptions of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This pivotal documentary exposes how the foreign policy interests of American political elites--oil, and a need to have a secure military base in the region, among others--work in combination with Israeli public relations strategies to exercise a powerful influence over how news from the region is reported. Through the voices of scholars, media critics, peace activists, religious figures, and Middle East experts, Peace, Propaganda & the Promised Land carefully analyzes and explains how--through the use of language, framing and context--the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza remains hidden in the news media, and Israeli colonization of the occupied territories appears to be a defensive move rather than an offensive one. The documentary also explores the ways that U.S. journalists, for reasons ranging from intimidation to a lack of thorough investigation, have become complicit in carrying out Israel's PR campaign. At its core, the documentary raises questions about the ethics and role of journalism, and the relationship between media and politics. Interviewees include Seth Ackerman, Mjr. Stav Adivi, Rabbi Arik Ascherman, Hanan Ashrawi, Noam Chomsky, Robert Fisk, Neve Gordon, Toufic Haddad, Sam Husseini, Hussein Ibish, Robert Jensen, Rabbi Michael Lerner, Karen Pfeifer, Alisa Solomon, and Gila Svirsky. Media Education Foundation. www.mediaed.org

Sacred Space Denied: Bethlehem and the Wall
25 minutes, 2005. Peter J. Nagle, Friends of Bethlehem.
The DVD gives an excellent visual record of the reality of the Wall around the Christian triangle (Bethlehem, Beit Sahour, and Beit Jala) and the ominous presence of the encroaching settlements. The film provides an informative report on the Wall and how it impinges on the right of the Palestinian residents.
Email: friendsofbethlehem@fastmail.fm

Salt of the Earth: Palestinian Christians in the Northern West Bank
Available in DVD, in Arabic with English subtitles. The DVD is multi-regional, NTSC format. Marthame and Elizabeth Sanders lived in the mostly Christian Palestinian village of Zababdeh from August, 2000, through December, 2003. Volunteers with the Presbyterian Church (USA), their ministry was one of ecumenical support to the Church in the land of its birth. Salt of the Earth documents the lives of nine Palestinian Christians living in the northern West Bank. This film grew out of a desire among their Palestinian neighbors to share their stories, and a desire among Christians in the West to hear them. The Sanders describe the project as "a labor of love, a response to the graciousness, warmth, hospitality, and welcome we received from our Palestinian neighbors and colleagues." www.saltfilms.net

The Iron Wall
Documentary directed by Mohammad Alatar. Following the 1967 occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, more than 200 settlements and outposts have been built in these territories, in violation of international law. The Iron Wall exposes this phenomenon and follows the timeline, size, and population of the settlements, reveals how their construction has been a cornerstone of Israeli policy, and demonstrates how the Wall secures them as permanent and irreversible facts on the ground. Released April 2006. 2nd Ed. November 2006. 52 Minutes. Language: Arabic, English, Hebrew, with English subtitles. Official Selection, Al-Jazeera Television Production Festival. PalestineOnlineStore.com

The Dividing Wall
23 minutes, 2004.
This video explores the humanitarian, social and political impact of the Israeli-built “security fence.” The barrier, which will run about 700 kilometers (430 miles), is a series of walls and electrified and razor-wire fences meandering through the occupied territories. It separates many Palestinians from their land, water, jobs, families and friends. Study guide included. For grade 9 to adult.
Mennonite Central Committee, Box 500, Akron, PA 17501-0500
tel: 717-859-1151 or 888-563-4676; www.mcc.org

The Shape of the Future
Produced by John Marks. In July 2005, Shape of the Future became the first TV series ever simultaneously broadcast on Israeli, Palestinian, and Arab Satellite TV. The series explores—on a very human level—how Israelis and Palestinians might make peace. The emphasis is on building the future, not on reliving the past.
Common Ground Productions, www.sfcg.org

The Way to Peace: There is Leadership in Palestine
This film by Betsy Mayfield of the Sabeel Iowa group provides an overview of our regional conferences with Palestinian and Israeli speakers, footage of life under occupation and much more. $15 for DVD includes shipping.
Mail to: Friends of Sabeel, PO Box 9187, Portland, OR 97207