West London Palestine Solidarity Campaign invite you to a screening on Tuesday 30th April at 7pm of
the Academy-nominated and award winning documentary ‘5 Broken Cameras’ directed by Emad Burnat & Guy Davidi
Admission is free. Doors open 6.30. Refreshments served.
Presented by West London Palestine Solidarity Campaign
([email protected]; www.palestinecampaign.org)
When his fourth son Gibreel is born in 2005, self-taught cameraman Emad Burnat, a Palestinian villager, gets his first camera. While the people of his village, Bil’in in the West Bank, begin to resist the construction of a separation barrier that will consume their farmlands, Burnat films their non-violent struggle. Very soon, events begin to affect Emad and his family. There are daily arrests and violent attacks while protesters are shot at and detained by Israeli police. As Emad documents these events, one camera after another is smashed – and each camera becomes a chapter in his struggle.
“If you are wounded you will always remember your wound, even after it’s healed. But what if you are injured again and again… you forget your scars. But the camera remembers and so I film to heal”.Emad Burnat
Notes for editors:
An extraordinary work of both cinematic and political activism, 5 Broken Cameras is a deeply personal, first-hand account of non-violent resistance in Bil’in, a West Bank village threatened by encroaching Israeli settlements and the building of the separation wall.
Shot almost entirely by Palestinian farmer Emad Burnat, who bought his first camera in 2005 to record the birth of his youngest son, the footage was later turned into a galvanizing cinematic experience by co-directors Guy Davidi and Burnat.
Structured around the violent destruction of a succession of Burnat’s video cameras, the filmmakers’ collaboration follows one family’s evolution over five years of village turmoil. Burnat watches from behind the lens as olive trees are bulldozed, protests intensify, and lives are lost. “I feel like the camera protects me,” he says, “but it’s an illusion.”
Background:
In 2009, Emad approached Isaeli film maker, Guy Davidi, to make a film together. The idea was to focus on two characters Adeeb and Phil. Phil was killed during the resistance and Emad wanted to create a film that would memorialize Phil. The film was developed through the Greenhouse Program with Dutch filmmaker John Appel as a mentor. During the Greenhouse sessions the script was written telling Emad’s story from a personal perspective.
“It was a very hard decision for me to make a personal film. This is not something people here can understand easily. It means exposure of some difficult moments like my arrest or my accident.”
Personal statement :
“As an Israeli and a Palestinian, we knew we would be criticized for making a film together even before we began. Indeed, the differences in our cultural backgrounds, life experience, access to the outside world, and privileges afforded us presented immediately and were unavoidable. By necessity, we learned to use these complications to our benefit.
We made 5 BROKEN CAMERAS to inspire people in their own lives, beyond the scope of political discourse. Although politics are an inherent foundation of the film, we made sincere attempts to challenge our own biases, setting aside cliché and ideological traps. In the end, we have opened our hearts to viewers, and hope they will respond in kind.”
EMAD BURNAT and GUY DAVIDI
Co-Directors, 5 BROKEN CAMERAS
The documentary was nominated for an Academy award for Best Documentary Feature at the 2013 Oscars.
Received World Cinema Directing Award at Sundance Festival 2012
Event flyer for downloading is attached. For any further information please contact:
West London Palestine Solidarity Campaign