Today is the fourth day of the festival and the energy is amazing. Opening night was completely sold out and we had to turn people away. The opening night film, Jaffa, was a hit. The story of a Jewish girl from Yaffa falling in love with a Palestinian and bearing his child was a promise of what could be if Palestinians and Jews were less afraid of one another. The film is more a fantasy than anything else, and has a lot of heart. At the party afterwards people couldn’t stop talking about it.
One of the stars of the film, Mahmoud Shalabi landed in Newark at 4:10 and was there for the Q and A at 9:00. He was charming and let us in on all the secrets behind the story that Jaffa tells (Keren Yedaya who wrote the script had a romance with a Palestinian Israeli).
He appeared at my house for a brunch along with all of the festival guests on Saturday. He is young and full of life. The conversation was lively, and despite some disagreements, we all agreed that the politicians have failed in creating a platform for co-existence, and now our only hope is dependent on the artists.
Saturday night we screened Laila’s Birthday. In this moving film we follow a dignified judge in Ramallah, who is forced to drive a taxi due to political corruption. Mohammad Bakri turns in a stunning performance as the tightly buttoned judge Abu-Laila. The film gives us a picture of the absurdity of daily life in Ramallah, and boldly criticizes some of the internal issues of Palestinian life in the west bank. But the bottom line is of the film, is that above all, is family, and one could not help but admire the warm family celebrating their daughter’s eighth birthday.
Yesterday Other Israel screened three short films from our film festival. There were over 50 people at the SAJ who watched the films and participated in the discussion which I lead and Itzi came to save me when I made a mistake.
Films, I decided, are really Rorschach tests and what the viewer sees on the screen is interpreted wholly on the basis of that person's view point.
An Example. In one film their was no dialogue and no music. It showed a boy of about 17 or 18 olive skinned but could be Arab, Jewish, Israeli or really from anywhere. He leaves his house in the morning and picks a few oranges from his neighbor's tree - this done under the scrutinizing gaze of the neighbor who chops down the overhanging limb and then when the boy trespasses to take some oranges he chops down the tree. I won't tell you the end.
The SAJ audience varied widely- some of them thought both were Arabs (mostly because we knew from the titles that the film makers and actors were Arabs) but one man who I know for years and know to be very intelligent said that the film was an anti-Zionist film and that the neighbor was an Arab and the boy a Jew and that the Arab would rather cut down his tree than let the Jew have his oranges! There was nothing in the film to suggest any particular ethnic group. In fact, one can see the story to actually be about a metaphor for the modern conflict and the boy represents the Arabs and the neighbor is the Israeli government. When I suggested that just as Jewish film makers have made movies about Arabs for years - there is nothing to prevent Arab film makers to make movies about Jews! Everyone thought this idea uproariously funny. We all come to the table with preconceived notions that create an individualized screening experience. Arab, jew, zionist, anti-zionist... no one is more objective than the other. The key is to try to hear the other...
What do you think?
What’s up with the Toronto Film Festival? The actors supporting a boycott of the Israeli Film industry have gotten it all wrong. Boycotting Israel’s film industry is divisive, serves nobody’s interests. One of the films in the TFF is The Time That Remains a movie made by an Elia Sulieman a Palestinian-Israeli who lives in France and has made all his movies in Israel (with some scenes in the West Bank). He refused to take any money from any of the Israeli Film Funds because of the “Situation”. That is his right, of course, but notice he never signed this ill-conceived petition to boycott the TFF. Jane Fonda has now retracted her statements (she claimed she did not read it carefully enough). I would hope that Danny Glover would also consider the matter again.
I believe The Other Israel Film Festival stands as a more pro-active approach to change through art and open the dialogue by sharing films from the region that are not commonly seen. We support the need for change in Israel but do not create further borders by boycotting a program.
Israelis and Palestinians in the film industry and the theatre have worked together for half a century and there is no arena that supports the idea that Israelis and Arabs can work together successful and productively. Many of the Israeli films to come out in the last 20 years have been critical of Israel - however more to the point- none of the film makers are remotely connected to the government and its policies - although most are funded by government funds. The younger generation has gone further, many young actors and actresses have gone on to marry across ethnic lines. It is working out just fine - I would love to hear from you what you think of this boycott.
A supporter of our festival, Professor Hamid Dabashi, spoke to us this week and noted that sometime in the future Arabs and Jews will have to learn to live together. When that happens there will need to be a unifying culture. Israeli film and art that includes Arabs and Jews equally is the basis for this culture and will be the foundation of a way of life.
We know what Natalie Portman, Jerry Seinfeld and Sacha Baron Cohen think- it is completely counterproductive to boycott a festival that is showcasing the best of what Israel had brought to the world of cinema - They are not saying Israel right or wrong- they are saying art is a means for social change and means of expression of artists- stopping this------What are they thinking? Please let me hear you weigh in.
