Why I’m happy ‘5 broken cameras’ didn’t win Oscar - Review

Why I’m happy ‘5 broken cameras’ didn’t win Oscar - Review

Gaza, April 29, ‘Five Broken Cameras’ is an award-winning documentary  (94 minutes) that was directed and created  by Emad Burnat and Guy Davidi. It’s also an Academy Award nominee for “Best Documentary feature”. The plot is a mere adaptation of reality. Its about a portion of a Palestinian farmer’s life, Emad burnat, and his nonviolent resistance against occupation and oppression which leads to the damage of five cameras. Emad never stops filming even after getting shot, being arrested and facing a lethal accident that left him with serious injuries that took a long while to heal. But will his emotional scars ever heal?

Its important that Palestine was represented at the Oscars this year, although our existence doesn’t need any further proof. Most predicted that the documentary wont win, but its participation was enough.

I’m happy that the documentary didn’t win an Academy Award because it deserves more, its beyond Oscar winning. If it won an Oscar it will be known as the Palestinian Documentary that won an Oscar, which in my opinion is very limiting and handicapping, this documentary held the plight of the Palestinian people and their devotion for peace, freedom and resistance. Its better be known as the documentary that told a huge part of the Palestinian story from a native narrative. Its larger than any award it can ever win.

‘Five Broken Cameras’ won the “World Cinema Directing” award on the category of Documentaries at the Sundance Film Festival, and the “Special Jury and Audience” award at IDFA Film Festival. It was described by The New York Times as “A moving and rigorous work of art”.

You would think 94 minutes are too long but not in this case. I sailed through those long minutes very smoothly yet very emotionally provoked by the organic, real and raw material. It’s a very colorful documentary, lets not forget that black is also a color.

Its narrated by Emad Burnat, who is also one of the directors and the one who took most of  the footage since this revolves around his family, his struggle, his village and his friends. Emad is a self-taught cameraman who found in filming a passion and a way of resistance, nonviolent resistance.

It starts with the birth of Gibreel, Emad’s fourth son, in 2005, Emad gets his first Camera. Gibreel comes with the spark of popular nonviolent resistance in the form of peaceful unarmed protests against the separation wall and the gobbling of Palestinian lands by violent and vicious Israeli settlers who are always backed by the Israeli police and army.

Emad takes us through his first-hand accounts of the gathering and organizing of the nonviolent protests that happen each week in the West Bank and gives justice for the Israeli and foreign activists who help Palestinians a great deal in this peaceful resistance. Many of them have died and got seriously injured by the Israeli Army but they are always there to help Palestinians.

The documentary pinpoints many other crucial issues that the mainstream media tends to neglect:

1-      Palestinian women and the importance of their role in the society.

2-      Children arrests that are usually done by the Israeli army at night, dragging little kids out of their beds (not shown in the documentary, only the arrests are shown).

3-      How vicious and violent the Israeli military is, and how they can arrest anyone unrightfully.

4-      How vicious the Israeli settlers can be, and how violent, especially when backed by the Israeli military.

5-      The amount of teargas that Israel uses against civilians protesting nonviolently is like pouring rain, teargas is very dangerous and suffocating, and if the canister hit the body directly it can cause death.

6-      How the Israeli military jeeps are always around in the West Bank.

7-      How united Palestinians are in both Gaza and the West bank despite the political separation.

8-      How selfless Israeli and foreign activists are, they endanger their lives to protest peacefully side by side with the Palestinians and always pay a high price for it by either being killed or injured or deported.

Perhaps one of the most shocking and frightening scenes was when Bassem Abu Rahmah’s brother gets arrested by the Israeli army, they blindfold him and then shoot him in the leg on a very close range. The documentary included many chilling scenes like the weekly protests and how violent they can get, Emad’s lethal accident that leaves him nearly dead and the arrest of little children and how devastated their mothers would be.

But the most chilling, horrifying and most devastating scene is when Bassem Abu Rahmah gets shot directly in the head and chest with a teargas canister by an Israeli soldier and dies nearly instantly. I lost my breath. The ambiance that you feel whenever the scenes included Bassem was happy and smiley and hopeful. Children loved him and he was always smiling, singing and spreading hope. He was never violent or armed, they killed him when he was shouting “You just shot an Israeli girl”, he was trying to save the Israeli activist. His death shocked the whole village and everyone participated in his funeral.

The documentary is filled with a mixture of happy and sad moments, not really ambiguous, just the contradictions of real life that we all pass through, sometimes on a daily basis. I will be contacting both Guy and Emad for a possible screening and appearance in Gaza, hoping that this will shorten the gap between Gaza and the West Bank.

The documentary offers a native narrative and personal accounts not just a perspective. Its very raw, real and revolutionary. Its shows, even if on a small scale, the Palestinian determination and their defiance of oppression and occupation. Nonviolent resistance has been a trending method in Palestine adopted by many people and backed by international activists.

This documentary turns the Palestinian life from a number or a name into a story and an existence. Emad keeps the camera rolling even during his most intimate moments, he shows us his family and home, he shares his friends with us and fights against occupation with a camera, or shall I say Six cameras? Each Camera has its own story and marks a phase in Emad’s life.

The documentary ends with a promise (or a pledge) made by Emad to keep filming no matter what it takes, which resembles and the fight of Palestinians against occupation which also continues no matter what it takes.

The Audio bridge was on point. Le Trio Jubran’s music made the documentary even more chilling and supported the narration and the events very well.

'Five Broken Cameras' generated a huge media buzz, specially in the US. Many interviews conducted with the directors and many articles tackled different sides of it whether its the production or the funding or the experience. The documentary even made it on HBO's "Veep", a television comedy series. It was mentioned in a provocative way, it sparked a controversy that  many stood with and against, watch the segment here:

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3POTr9poyIs

In conclusion, ‘Five Broken Cameras’ is a must watch, see it for yourself and tell me what you think. You can watch it online here: 

http://viooz.co/movies/15366-5-broken-cameras-2011.html

And if you are interested in a more detailed look into the pre and post production info, budget and filming, you can check: 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5_Broken_Cameras

Peace and love,

Omar from Gaza

"Visit Palestine" poster by Franz Kraus - what does it stand for?

"Visit Palestine" poster by Franz Kraus - what does it stand for?

Gaza, March 20, I came across this “Visit Palestine” poster somewhere and I stopped to admire my homeland’s beauty. Honestly, the portrait is beautiful. The past two years have been a sole proof that when “its too good to be true, then its probably NOT true”. I took a closer look. I spotted writings in Hebrew and the name of the artist behind it. I was right. A quick note: This poster was made in 1936.

Franz Kraus, Israeli graphic designer, was the artist behind this beautiful poster. More curious than cats, I immediately turned to google to know more about Mr. krausz. Here is some info about him:

Franz Kraus (also known as Franz Krausz; 13 May 1905, St. Pölten, Austria – 1998, Tel Aviv, Israel) was an Israeli graphic designer. Kraus grew up in Graz, Austria, and claimed that his favorite place was the art studio of brother Emil Kraus. Kraus lived in Berlin 1926–33, where he eventually assumed the position of the sole graphic designer of the Friedrich Ernst Hübsch-Verlag (publisher). The job fulfilled his early desire to become an artist; he had envied brother Emil's talent. As a night student, he studied in the Reimann Schule in Berlin, the city where he met his wife-to-be Anni. Due to the frightening public antisemitic incidences there, he and Anni decided to immigrate to Palestine. (WikiPedia)

If you wish to learn more about Franz Kraus, check this WikiPedia Link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Kraus

When you take a first look, you would think Franz was a Pro-Palestinian Jew\Israeli. Think again. Yes, this portrait was done in 1936 (before the Palestinian Nakba, Foundation of Israel). Yet, Franz painted a wide range of similar portraits “celebrating” the beauty in Palestine and asking Jews everywhere to come and redeem their land. Yes, you read it well, redeem their land and yes “again” this was prior to the foundation of Israel. Some of Franz’s portraits had titles like: “Blessed Land of Israel Awaits Redemption”, “Redeem the Land”, “Zionist Pioneer - Krausz Draft”, “Yakhin Jaffa Oranges - Jordan Jaffa Oranges”, “Guide to New Palestine”, “Invest in Palestine - Build the Jewish State”, and “Eretz Israel - The Country of Our Future”.

I don’t know what redemption Franz was talking about if all those portraits –those with redemption and Zionist titles- was made between 1935 and 1936. If Israel was founded in 1948, what land do they want to redeem exactly? Ok, I wont be turning to google or WikiPedia or different links to tell you about the history of Palestine. I am not a history teacher, nor do I have the intention of giving you a lecture in history.

So, Palestine was Palestine until some Zionist Jews like Mr. Franz decided they wanted redemption. Redemption of a land that was never theirs, AGAIN Israel was founded in 1948. So Zionist Jews inside and outside of Palestine decided to expel Palestinians and take their land because they wanted redemption. Palestinians tried to fight against this ethnic cleansing but unlike Israel, we were not armed by the British occupation, so we lost. So who should ask for redemption? Prior to 1948, Israel didn’t exist, Palestine did, yet we have no right to claim that the land is ours???!!!

Franz wanted Zionist Jews to come occupy Palestine and take everything, even the name of the country they will take by force. Instead, they came and took over but changed the name into Israel. Well, he did mention Eretz Israel as the country of their future in one of his portraits. He failed to mention that it will be built on the ruins of a country, ruins of a nation and on the ruins of Palestinian corps.

Israel relied on “smuggled” Western, Soviet and Czech weapons to ethnically cleanse my people and my land. I give Israel A for repeating history in such a shockingly replicated way. They performed and still performing an on-going “holocaust” against Palestinians but we aren’t allowed to talk about it or we will be labeled as “anti-Semitic”. As if, Palestinians themselves aren’t Semites. They forced Gaza to rely on “smuggling” tunnels after imposing an unjust siege using the pretext of “Shalit”, an Israeli soldier who was released weeks ago, yet Gaza remains under SIEGE.

Ok, ready to hear something hilarious? I came across another link related to “Visit Palestine” poster that was done by Franz Kraus. The article featured David Tartakover, sixty, the graphic artist behind the appearance — or reappearance — of this poster. David is an Israeli who won a top prize for design in 2002.  He expressed his anger when he saw the same poster hung, painted and portrayed by Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. He considered this as “Hijacking” the art of his fellow Zionist –We are talking about Franz Kraus here- and how Palestinians did it in a very cheap way.

So an Israeli has the right to feel angry and accuse us of hijacking a poster that portrayed OUR land. Yet we CAN NOT ACCUSE Israel of hijacking our land, hijacking our culture and killing civilians. Hush, you are Palestinian. You were born to die with no voice or rights.

Have you heard of this expression: “He believed his own lie”? I think it implies on Israelis.

We differentiate between a Jew and a Zionist, but its not enough. We call for peace, but its not enough. We condemn the killing of Israeli children in local accidents, but that’s not enough. We condemn the death of Jewish children in international accidents, but its not enough. We shout loudly to explain that not all Gaza’s 1,800,000+ residents are militants, but they don’t believe us and its not enough. We swear that most of us are civilians, they don’t believe us and its not enough. Its never enough. 

Its our land, we are the victims yet WE ARE OBLIGED TO ALWAYS EXPLAIN OURSELVES. We are the occupied not the occupiers. Civilians are killed here while Israel claim self defense, feel free to check Israel statistics about the number of civilians killed by Palestinian “militants” each year and you will find a simple single digit if not 0. Yet, check the number of Palestinian children killed in Gaza by Israel, the number would be so damn high.

You have to be really super dumb, brainless and idiotic to not see the truth.

Palestine existed before 1948 and exists now, yet some Israelis tell us Palestine doesn’t exist because its Israel now. Here is my message for them:

“Dears, if you steal a land from someone that doesn’t make it yours. Dear, if you decided to change the Oranges name to Apples that doesn’t make an apple out of an Orange. Dear, wake up because you are living a lie fed to you by propaganda with an agenda.”

Free Palestine.

Yours truly,

Omar from Gaza

Revealing "The Guardian" lies: Hamas didnt stop Christmas in Gaz

Revealing "The Guardian" lies: Hamas didnt stop Christmas in Gaza

Gaza, December 26, I can’t help but share my fury after reading “The Guardian” and seeing their false and misleading article and how its full of mistakes. Let’s dissect their mistakes one by one:

1-      Their headline: Gaza Christians long for days before Hamas canceled Christmas. Correction: Hamas didn’t cancel Christmas and Christians celebrate it every year. In fact, last night Latin Patriarchate Church held a mass celebrating Christmas and flocks of Christians attended it.

2-      They published the article on 23^{rd of} December. Correction: Christmas in on the 25^th.

3-      They mentioned that over 1.5 million of Gazans live in Gaza. Correction: According to Statistics centers in Gaza, over 1.8 million Gazans live in Gaza

4-      Christians are fewer than 1,400. Correction: Christians in Gaza are between 2,000 and 3,000 according to Al Arabiya.net and Wikipedia.

5-      Hamas attacks Christians in Gaza. Correction: Attacks on Christians in Gaza were carried out by individuals or extremist groups not by Hamas or the regular people of Gaza.

6-      The Guardian mentioned in an indirect way that racism is carried out against Christians in Gaza. Correction: Christians in Gaza live and pray freely, they are treated with equality.

7-      The Guardian wanted to show how the Palestinian division affected Christians mostly. Correction: The Palestinian division affected all Palestinians.

8-      The Guardian failed to mention the repercussions of the Israeli unjust illegal siege on Gaza and chose to blame Hamas for everything.

9-      They blamed the bad economy in Gaza on Hamas not on the Israeli illegal blockade.

10  They didn’t mention that Israel puts age limitation for Gaza’s Christians. They let those who are under 16 and over 40 only visit Bethlehem.

Need I right more?

If you aren’t convinced yet, I wrote an article for the media line about Christmas in Gaza and how Christians celebrated it, check it here:

http://www.themedialine.org/news/news_detail.asp?NewsID=34046