Veronika Lišková: The Visitors

Oh, what an intelligent film with many layers, was my thought after the 85 minutes in company with Zdenka and her family in Svalbard. Including not only the young Czech social anthropologist going to the Arctic with her family to study the life of the people, who have chosen to live there, and how the community is built up, but also existential questions like “what can we give back to other people”, when you are – as she says, clever Zdenka – “a short time visitor or a long time tourist”. In a skype talk Zdenka has with her mentor, the latter tells her that you can not be an anthropologist and a social worker. This is one of the many qualities of the film that it takes the protagonist from being the neutral interviewer to become involved in the complex mindset of being a Svalbard citizen, who tries to be at home or build a home. Is it Norwegian, Svalbard, not really the film says through the many conversations Zdenka has with citizens of Longyearbyen – what a name for a city. Zdenka talks to a journalist, a mining engineer (the mining industry is to stop or has stopped), the mayor of Longyearbyen, a priest, a librarian, a biologist, a student, a goldsmith, an Ethiopean, Zdenka has helped but who has no job and can not get a place to stay… the anthropologist breaks down, “I can’t help you”, she says in that scene.

I/we would like to stay here, my kids (she has three of them) consider this their home, she speaks good Norwegian, she gets along with everybody, she has a nice husband. But what is home and she misses the green trees and the smell of spring back home in Czech Republic?

Which brings me to the thought that Veronika Liškova must have had in mind, while making this beautifully shot (the icy sceneries, the tiny kids in the extraordinary nature playground) respectful and also personal documentary about the good human being, who wants to understand and help: But has to realize that it is not possible for a Zdenka or a film director Veronika, who will stay the short time visitor. But less is more and again a skilled documentary director has taken her audience to a mythical place on the earth. Enjoyable and food for thought.

Czech Republic, 2022, 85 mins.

Anneta Papathanasiou: Laughing in Afghanistan

There is quite an interview in this both entertaining and scary documentary: Mohammad Sadic Akif Mujahir, spokesman for the Ministry of Propagation of Virtue and prevention of Vice, says that music is a satanic art… and reflects, rather he states that there are three kinds of smiles: There is the one where the lips are sealed, then there´s the smile where you can see the teeth, and then there´s the loud laughter. Which is a bad thing in our society, he says. A mullah, just after the interview, shouts that loud laughter is not allowed in the new (taliban) Afghanistan, which leaves no space for charming actor Karim Asir, the protagonist of the film, who wants to be the Afghan Chaplin, and that he can fill in that role, is demonstrated elegantly by Anneta Papathanasiou, organising small Chaplin b/w sketches as we know them. They make us laugh but they can not be performed in the home country of Karim, the country he had to leave after death threats when he had performed.

Anneta Papathanasiou could have made a reportage style film with interviews, she decided “to go with” the actor, tell his story, do it in a way full of charm and funny episodes – and then cut to Karim to have him express emotionally NOT to be in his country and make people happy with his art. Touching!

According to Anneta Papathanasiou the film has done well in cinema screenings, it will be shown at Al Jazeera Balkan and at festivals, I am sure, it has an audience. My recommendation!

Greek Documentary Association

… was built up in May 2013 “by professionals of all disciplines – directors, producers, screenwriters, cinematographers, editors … – with a common passion for Creative Documentary…” with the vision “From the start, we sought to support the Documentary as a distinct form of filmmaking in Greece and to work for its further recognition and promotion internationally, by Organizing spezialized educational events/ Developing ways and means for the promotion and distribution of documentaries/ Building collaborations with similar organizations, international festivals and markets/ Fighting for the recognition and standing that the Greek Creative Documentary deserves from state authorities” – quoted from the website of the association, https://en.hellasdoc.gr.

In June same year, 2013, the public broadcaster ERT was closed and this raised a lot of protests, also from the Association. On this site we brought a text sent to us by filmmaker Marianna Economou, I quote again “…

“We, the creators of documentaries, united citizens and peoples, will fight for the immediate re opening of ERT, so that Greek creativity and culture reaches every house. We will fight the bill that the government announced as it continues and even strengthens the interference of the political parties and their control of public television. We will make propositions for necessary reforms in order for this voice to acquire its important educational, cultural and ethnic role, especially during these difficult times that we are traversing.

We are the only country in the world that has a black out on the public television screen and where the radio waves are silenced. Let’s fight, so that these media become the essential means, guardians and catalysts for the promotion of education and culture.” The whole text is here: https://filmkommentaren.dk/greek-documentary-association-protest/. ERT exists today, don´t know for how long time there was “black screen”!.

The Association has around 200 members today, it organizes documentary events, is active at the Thessaloniki Documentary Film Festival and arranges its own small festival for new Greek documentaries and projects in development. I was invited to come to Athens to do two masterclasses, one was for makers, who wanted to know more about how to prepare projects, pitch (writing, showing via a teaser/trailer, talking) where I had the pleasure to make a case study together with talented Ukrainian/Greek Vera Iona Papadopoulou and her work-in-progress “Nova Opera – The Art of War” AND do a presentation (the second day) of the narrative diversity of the documentary genre of today showing clips from Denmark, Sweden, Eastern Europe including Georgia. Not with the same countries but with the same INSPIRATION goal as 25 years ago (!), where I was invited to do the same but with more days. It was indeed a wonderful come back to friends from the documentary scene in Greece – including memories from numerous visits organized by Kostas Spyropoulos in the periods 2009-12 and 2013-17, through Storydoc.

… and you are treated well in Greece. That’s what I chose as a photo taken by a waiter with the cell phone of Marianna Economou, who is the one in yellow on the left side of the table. On FB there are other photos with introductions.

 

Festival East By Southeast

Under den 12. udgave af festivalen East by Southeast præsenterer Cinemateket 10 af de bedste helt nye fiktions- og dokumentarfilm film fra lige så mange lande i Central- og Østeuropa. Formålet med festivalen er ikke mindst at give et dansk publikum mulighed for at stifte bekendtskab med kulturen og den rige filmproduktion i vores europæiske ’nabolande’. Alle ti film har danmarkspremiere under festivalen, der får besøg af fem instruktører.

Under den 12. udgave af festivalen East by Southeast præsenterer Cinemateket 10 af de bedste helt nye fiktions- og dokumentarfilm film fra lige så mange lande i Central- og Østeuropa. Formålet med festivalen er ikke mindst at give et dansk publikum mulighed for at stifte bekendtskab med kulturen og den rige filmproduktion i vores europæiske ’nabolande’. Alle ti film har danmarkspremiere under festivalen, der får besøg af fem instruktører. I de fleste central- og østeuropæiske film er karaktererne stadig vigtigere end plottet, men i forsøget på appellere til et større (hjemme)publikum, udnytter regionens filmskabere i stigende grad en række genrekonventioner, som det sker på kreativ og effektiv vis i det rumænske actiondrama ’The Father who Moves Mountains’ og i den tjekkiske thriller ’Suppressed’. Mange instruktører i regionen udsender dog stadig meget personlige værker. Det gælder f.eks. ungarske Dimitry Ljasuk, der besøger festivalen med den inspirerende feel-good-film ’Island of Good Hope’, hvor hovedpersonen/instruktøren går i selvvalgt eksil på en lille ubeboet ø ved Tisza-søen. Et andet eksempel på en personlig tilgang er Agnieszka Zwiefkas ’Vika!’ – et bevægende portræt af den 84-årige polske dj, Wirginia Szmyt. Den slovakiske instruktør Peter Kerekes præsenterer under festivalen sit prisvindende drama ’107 Mothers’ der følger den autentiske historie om 107 mødre i et fængsel i Odessa. Kerekes har desuden været producer på den rørende dokumentar, ’Fragile Memory’, hvori den unge instruktør, Igor Ivanko, portrætterer sin Alzheimers-ramte bedstefar, Leonid Burlaka, der i perioden 1964 til 1999 stod bag kameraet under produktionen af 30 film fra det berømte Odessa Film Studio. East by Southeast åbner filmgrænserne den 2. november med danmarkspremiere på den forrygende litauiske komedie ’Parade’ (2022), instrueret af Titas Laucius, som selv vil introducere sin film og svare på spørgsmål fra publikum, og Litauens Ambassade byder på et glas vin i Asta Bar efter filmen. Tak til de central- og østeuropæiske ambassader, der yder støtte til gæstebesøg og afholder receptioner i forbindelse med forestillingerne. Mette Camilla Melgaard og Jesper Andersen, programredaktører / Cinemateket

IDFA Opening film

The artistic director of IDFA Orwa Nyrabia announced yesterday what will be the opening film of the 2023 festival: A Picture to Remember. Here are the words about the film from IDFA’s website:

Olga Chernykh spent her childhood in Donetsk in the 1990s, before moving with her parents to the Ukrainian capital Kyiv. Her grandma stayed in the Donbas region, large parts of which were occupied by pro-Russian rebels in 2014. The Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, and the ensuing war, only increased the sense of distance between Chernykh and her grandmother.

A Picture to Remember is an essay-style account of the war from the perspective of three generations of women. There are frequent video calls between Chernykh, her mother (a pathologist working above a morgue, where it feels surprisingly safe during bomb attacks) and her grandmother. Recordings of their conversations are interspersed with photos and videos from the family archive, and news reports, as well as images of the parasites Chernykh’s mother observes with a microscope.

The result is a kaleidoscopic and personal film. Traveling fluidly through time, it connects the current violence in Donbas with the destruction there during the Second World War—as related by Chernykh’s grandmother. A sense of absence and loss prevails throughout.

And take a look at the photo (still?) from the film. Reminds me of Latvian Herz Frank. and the opening of “Bridges of Time” by Kristine Briede and Audrius Stonys

IDFA Press Conference 2023

… was held yesterday afternoon with artistic director Orwa Nyrabia in the leading role after Head of New Media Kaspar Sonnen had introduced the DocLab: Phenomenal Friction. For more than an hour Nyrabia talked us through the 2023 program with a start of mentioning the atrocities going on in the world, the conflicts, the wars, stressing that the festival is also a place to debate – and let´s try to listen. He invited the audience to enjoy the new old place Vondelpark, that will be one of the venues for meetings and screenings during the festival. (I remember sitting there being in the jury in 1996 together with wonderful Diane Weyermann, who is no longer with us). Wang Bing is guest of honor and has chosen 10 films, Chinese, from 1999-2012, and he has a retrospective of 8 films of his own. Great initiative. And there is a chance to enjoy 5 films of Peter Greenaway + an unfinished film from the “dissident of Cinema” as Nyrabia characterised him.

Before going into details with two sections of the festival – “Envision” and “International Competition” – Nyrabia mentioned section after section, I sometimes mention a couple of director names: “Fabrications” (Safi Faye, Shirley Clarke), “16 Worlds on 16” mm (Varda, Maysles), “Corresponding Cinemas”, “Best of Fests” (Alisa Kovalenko, Mariam Chacia & Nik Voigt…), “Special Screenings” (Raul Ruiz with a film from the Allende period, restored after having been on the shelf as it was critical to Allende and Ruiz decided to nor show it after the death of the President), “Signed” (previously mentioned on this site, focus on the filmmaker rather than on the film), “Paradocs”, “IDFA on stage”, Competitions – youth, short, “Frontlight”, “Luminous”, where Nyrabia said that Love was a strong theme – and colonialism!

“Envision” – what is evident after Orwa Nyrabia became artistic director of IDFA is the diversity in geography. Here there are films from Brazil, Japan, Thailand, Russia, China, Tunisia and glad to see Macedonian Kumjana Novakova’s strong “Silence of Reason” selected, was also in Sarajevo FF.

And re: the International Competition, “the best films of the year”, Orwa Nyrabia was highlighting “The World is Family”, the first really personal film by Indian master Anand Patwardhan. But also the Danish surprise (for me as well) “As the Tide Comes in” by Spanish/Danish Juan Palacios on the island Mandø (the only time I did not understand Orwa Nyrabia’s pronunciation…) is there and “Limitation” (PHOTO) by Elene Asatiani and Soso Dumbadze from Georgia, really happy for them, they worked hard on the film (also) during the Film Mentoring Program of CinéDoc Tbilisi this year. And many many other films like Jaboly´s “Life is Beautiful” from Norway/Gaza, and films from Armenia, Central African Republic, Taiwan, Poland… Global? Oh Yes!

And the Opening Film, praised by a proud Orwa Nyrabia is “A Picture to Remember” by Olga Chernykh from Ukraine, 3 generations.

IDFA takes place 8-19th of November 2023.

Alas, I will not be there but hope to watch a lot from home with a newly replaced hip…

Yes, HipHipHurra for IDFA!

DOKLeipzig Awards 2023

Last night the DOKLeipzig awards were distributed – and there were many. The festival has always been good at finding sponsors for the awards to their sections of long, short and animations films. Here is a copy paste of the press release:

The seven Golden Doves and two Silver Doves of the 66th edition of DOK Leipzig were awarded at the Schaubühne Lindenfels in Leipzig on Saturday.

In the International Competition Documentary Film, the Golden Dove Feature-Length Film went to Peter Mettler, to whom this year’s homage was dedicated, for “While the Green Grass Grows” (Photo). This cinematic diary draws upon the Swiss-Canadian filmmaker’s own memories and family relationships as it looks at life cycles and the way the world is constantly changing. “An unpredictable film whose quality of observation makes the viewer see everyday events, places and objects in a poetic new light” is how the jury described it. The 10,000-euro Golden Dove is sponsored by Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk. The award was presented by MDR commission editor for documentaries Thomas Beyer.

The Golden Dove Short Film, which includes 3,000 euros in prize money, was presented to Bo Wang for “An Asian Ghost Story” (Netherlands, Hong Kong), a search for traces based on the 1965 US embargo against “communist” real hair wigs from Asia. The jury called it “a smart, hip, funny amalgam of fact and fiction made with exceptional craft”.

The films that have earned Golden Doves in the International Competition Documentary Film qualify for nomination for the annual Academy Awards®, provided they meet the Academy’s standards.

The Silver Dove Feature-Length Film, sponsored by 3sat, for the best feature-length documentary by an up-and-coming director, was awarded to Hovhannes Ishkhanyan for the Armenian-French production “Beauty and the Lawyer”. The jury praised it as “a film that builds an intimate relationship with its characters who generously let us into their lives as they invent a new path to deal with a homophobic world”. Johannes Dicke, head of programming at 3sat, presented the filmmaker with the 6,000-euro award.

The Silver Dove Short Film, which includes 1,500 euros for the best short documentary by an up-and-coming director, sponsored by the Sächsische Landesanstalt für privaten Rundfunk und neue Medien (Saxon State Agency for Commercial Broadcasting and New Media, SLM), went to “30 Kilometres per Second” by Jani Peltonen (Finland). The jury described it as “a film which, by using the montage as its main strategy, unveils potentialities for this cinematic direction.” The award was presented by Katja Röckel from the SLM’s Media Council.

The winners of the International Competition Documentary Film were selected by Jennifer Fox, Radu Jude, Marie-Pierre Macia, Steven Markovitz and Rima Mismar.

In the International Competition Animated Film, the newly created Golden Dove Feature-Length Film, endowed with 3,000 euros, went to Xu Jingwei for “No Changes Have Taken in Our Life” (China), the story of a musician who tries in vain to find work after graduating from university. The jury called it “a courageous and challenging film that is as specific as it is universal, and as critical as it is witty, tackling the uncomfortable subject of dreariness and a lack of perspective”.

The Golden Dove Short Film in conjunction with 1,500 euros, sponsored by the Deutsches Institut für Animationsfilm e. V., was awarded to Barbara Rupik for “Such Miracles Do Happen” (Poland). In its statement, the jury said: “The film uses outstanding technique of a kind of liquid stop-motion animation, which is also irreplaceable and deeply connected to its theme.” Dr Volker Petzold (chairman of DIAF) addressed the audience at the award ceremony.

The film that earns the Golden Dove Short Film qualifies for nomination for the annual Academy Awards®, provided it meets the Academy’s standards.

Jury members Pavel Horáček, Anne Isensee and Irina Rubina also awarded a Special Mention to Tomek Popakul and Kasumi Ozeki for the animated Polish short film “Zima”.

In the German Competition Documentary Film, the Golden Dove Feature-Length Film went to “One Hundred Four” by Jonathan Schörnig, a real-time documentation of a rescue at sea on the Mediterranean. “The film team and the crew of the rescue ship show us clearly what it means when we look the other way every day. But they also show that help is possible and needed,” the jury emphasised. This 10,000-euro award is sponsored by Doris Apell-Kölmel and Michael Kölmel.

The Golden Dove Short Film, in conjunction with 1,500 euros, was awarded to Franzis Kabisch for “getty abortions” (Germany, Austria), a desktop video essay that explores how media illustrate the topic of abortion. “Our award-winning film finds a convincing contemporary form to address an ancient and at the same time highly topical issue,” said the jury comprised of Birgit Kohler, Claus Löser and Serpil Turhan.

This year’s winner of the Golden Dove in the Audience Competition was selected by jury members Billie Bauermeister, Fritz Czaplinski, Anna Eulitz, Charlotte Hennrich and Annegret Weiß. They honoured Asmae El Moudir for her documentary film “The Mother of All Lies” (Morocco, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar). In her search for memories of her childhood, the filmmaker recreates her neighbourhood in Casablanca as an elaborate miniature and in the process comes across a trauma of Moroccan history. “With great fervour and love of detail, a surprising work emerges that dissolves the boundaries between fantasy and reality,” extolled the jury. This 3,000-euro award is sponsored in part by the Leipziger Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Filmkunst e. V.

DOKLeipzig Partnership Awards

There are so many awards to be handed out in Leipzig today that they had to be split into two ceremonies. Here is a copy paste of the press release about the first round of applauses, that happened this afternoon, the second comes later tonight after the embargo has been lifted:

The DEFA Sponsoring Prize, which includes 4,000 euros and is granted by the DEFA Foundation, went to Julia Charakter for “The Children of Korntal” (Germany).

The 3,000-euro MDR Film Prize for an outstanding eastern European documentary film was awarded to Marianna Kaat for “The Last Relic” (Estonia, Norway).

The Film Prize Leipziger Ring, which honours a documentary film about human rights, democracy or civic engagement, is sponsored by the Stiftung Friedliche Revolution and includes 2,500 euros in prize money. This year’s award went ex aequo to Jonathan Schörnig for “One Hundred Four” (Germany) and Nantenaina Lova for “Where Zebus Speak French” (France, Madagascar, Germany, Burkina Faso).

The Goethe-Institut Documentary Film Prize, which includes 2,000 euros, licensing and subtitling in eight languages, was also awarded to “One Hundred Four” by Jonathan Schörnig.

“One Hundred Four” further received the 1,500-euro ver.di Prize for Solidarity, Humanity and Fairness, bringing the total to four awards, making this the film earning the most honours at DOK Leipzig 2023.

The 2,250-euro Prize of the Interreligious Jury was awarded to Sarah Mallégol for “Kumva – Which Comes from Silence” (France). This award is sponsored by VCH-Hotels Germany along with the VCH-Hotel Michaelis in Leipzig as well as the Interreligious Roundtable and the Oratorium Leipzig.

The Prize of the International Film Critics (FIPRESCI Prize) was awarded to the South Korean production “Universe Department Store” by Taewoong Won.

The mephisto 97.6 Award went to the short animated film “Compound Eyes of Tropical” by Zhang Xu Zhan (Taiwan).

The Gedanken-Aufschluss award went to Nele Dehnenkamp for her first feature-length documentary film, “For the Time Being” (Germany). This award was voted on by a jury comprised of prisoners at the Juvenile Detention Centre Regis-Breitingen.

Ramallah – Documentaries from Palestine

This text was written by Tue Steen Müller in 2010 after a stay in Ramallah meeting Palestinian filmmakers including those in Gaza, with whom we tutors from Western Europe met to select makers to come to Corfu in Greece to develop their projects further.

Palestine, 4 days, end of March 2010. It’s blue sky but still a bit chilly in Ramallah, where I have been for a couple of days. Lively activity outside in the streets of a nice and calm city, 40.000 are here during night, 80.000 during day. The capital of the Palestinian Authority expresses a friendly atmosphere, and energy – waiting for a Palestinian state to be established. Yellow buses, yellow taxis, building work going on everywhere, white buildings, a hilly city with beautiful viewing spots. A city whose economy is very much depending on investments done by rich Palestinians, who have made their money in the Gulf states and return home one month per year.

I am here with some fellow tutors for a workshop including 10 documentary projects. The intentions behind the initiative are triple: 1) The filmmakers are trained for a pitching of their projects to 12-15 tv editors – that takes place late May. 2) The filmmakers are competing for a participation in the Storydoc documentary programme that has its first session in Corfu, Greece in the beginning of July. 4 of the 10 projects will be picked for that purpose. 3) The filmmakers have their projects discussed and their pitching skills improved – the writing, the verbal and the visual. They are being provided with a huge amount of information and

inspiration, hopefully, by Anne Julienne, Télévision Francaise, Kostas Spiropoulos, Skai television Greece and head of the Storydoc initiative, Jordi Ambros, TV3 Catalunya, Cecilia Lidin, EDN and me.

The learning process goes in both directions. The communication with the Palestinian filmmakers is like one long eye opening process. Their personal stories about not being able to go where they want to go, their isolation, their split-up family relations, the life in a village that is being demolished to give space for one more Israeli settlement, I could go on and on, with words that are not sufficient to describe the constant humiliation of human beings in a occupied territory. There is only one word for this: apartheid.

3 of the projects in the workshop are being dealt with through a video conference system. The Palestinian filmmakers in question are based in Gaza and can not travel to Ramallah. Weird it is to sit and watch them move around, smoke cigarettes, drink tea, small talk and listen to their colleagues discuss and present their proposals in Ramallah in the al qattan centre. It is like a film in itself, an observational documentary, they know that the camera points at them, that we in Ramallah can see them, but they forget, like we forget that they watch us!

It takes a special attitude to live in the occupied territory. Politics is on the agenda every day if you want to move from one place to the other. You have to know if and when the Israeli checkpoints are open, you have to find out whether you are allowed to/can get a permission to go from one place to the other. We asked the local organisers, film director George Khleifi and audiovisual attachée from the French Consulate in Jerusalem, Lucie Meynial, if they thought that we can get the chosen two film project holders from Gaza to Greece, they can only say – it depends on the political situation at that very moment. Planning is not easy!

How do you cope with all that… with a bitter smile, with sarchasm, with melancholy… if you have chosen to stay in Palestine. Our days in Ramallah were full of jokes that referred to the political situation.

The current political situation as it is present in people’s daily life is present in two of the film projects that will be promoted through the Storydoc. Nagham Muhanna , a young energetic woman, is looking for answers to why ”Romance in Gaza” (working title) has gone with the wind. She wants to describe the theme through three generations – from the hypothesis that the daily hard social situation does not leave space for love! Her colleague in Gaza from the media production company Target Group, Mohammed Abu Sido will join the Storydoc with ”Waiting for You” that will try to gather a divided family in a film, as they can not meet in real life: Mohammed is in Gaza, his internet girlfiend is in Ramallah, they can not meet, one of his brothers is in Ramallah as well, and the other in Dubia from where he could go home but does not want to as he is in opposition to the ruling Hamas party. His mother is in Gaza and can not assist to the coming wedding of her daughter, who is also on the West Bank!

Two Ramallah based projects of very different nature will go to the workshop in Vcorfu, Greece. ”Off Frame”, to be directed by Mohanad Yakubi, is the story about the PFU (Palestinian Film Unit) that in the sixties and seventies was not only a strong instrument in the building of a Palestinian identity but according to the filmmaker also aestetically innovative. The filmmaker want to include archive from the revolutionary times, clips from the films, interviews with icons who helped the PLO, like Jean-Luc Godard. A very promising film project. As is the one by Ghada Tirawi, who wants to make ”Palestinian Folk Tales” into an investigation of the Palestinian society. She showed the workshop participants a previous film where she demonstrates a talent for mixing animation and a person telling a story, with real life footage of a methaphoric character.

On the way to Ramallah from the airport in Tel Aviv, during night time, we passed the Kalandia checkpoint about which a very good film, ”Kalandia – a Checkpoint Story” (PHOTO)  has been made (reviewed here, search ”Kalandia”). The taxi driver, a born entertainer, told us that we would go quick through the holy checkpoint in his holy car in the holy land where they have built holy walls to separate the holy people, Arabs and Jews. In this Easter time, can one hope for a holy agreement to re-start holy negociations for peace and a two state agreement?

2012: Emma Davie, Scottish filmmaker and teacher at Edinburgh College of Art, and tutor at numerous workshops for filmmakers from Europe and elsewhere, was in Ramallah at the Storydoc/Ramallah.doc workshop. She has given us permission to re-post this beautiful text. When I asked her for permission, she said “Go Ahead, Words fail for what is happening but good to remember the historical context of this brutality.

THE FREEDOM TO SEE

by Emma Davie

It’s a bar in Ramallah called Beit Aneesh. Apparently named after an old lady that lived there. A laid back place with posters from the history of the struggle of the Palestinian people. We had just completed a documentary workshop in Ramallah and Tue (Steen Müller), who has helped so many emerging filmmakers from all over the world, suggested anyone who likes, joins us for a beer or coffee at 8.

Few have come. Most have long, unpredictable journeys through the occupied territories where they will undoubtedly be stopped several times.

Khaled (Jarrar) has turned up though – just arrived from France where his work as a radical conceptual artist has become celebrated. We’re so pleased to see him – a filmmaker of huge promise as well as an artist. Tue has just seen the rough cut of his first film which is about the wall. He shows us a scene with him with a tiny chisel, chipping little bits of the wall off. Tue suggests he end his new film like this. It’s a futile act of defiance, made funny by its impotence. Khaled is also funny and strong in a way that only gentle people can be. I had seen scenes from his film the year before when we were working with him at the Storydoc workshop in Greece. I remember a mother and daughter who could not see each other due to the wall which now carves right through between the West Bank and Jerusalem, splitting up areas. They were forced to slip photos and letters under it to each other. I remember them touching hands through a gap under the wall.

I also remember seeing a boy pushing bread through one of the holes on the wall. What struck me was not the bizarre act itself, but the look on

the boy’s face when caught by the camera’s gaze. Maybe I imagined it, but the look seemed to see himself from outside for a split second, acknowledging the weirdness which had transformed everyone’s life in this country of zones and codes and divisions and passes and discriminations and humiliations – and the wall.

We had seen it earlier that evening. George Khleifi, a local producer and the organiser of Ramallah.doc, had taken us to see how it lacerated the place in two, cutting through roads to Jerusalem which had been the main roads to see relatives, loved ones and to travel to work.

In the dark we deciphered words which had been written across the top by a South African visiting artist.

“We are the children of our histories. Yet we may also choose to be struck by the stories of others. Perhaps this ability is what is called morality. We cannot always act upon what we see but we always have the freedom to see and to be moved”?

Ramallah is a big jail. It is worse than we could have imagined.

George tells us how the wall came up. He explains it is like experiments done on laboratory animals. You get them used to their new captivity gradually. So the wall started with gaps through which people could pass freely. Bit by bit more was erected until the whole thing was up, making the flow of daily life almost impossible. Of course the situation was already bad for any Palestinian in varying degrees. George told us how he was a 5 star occupied person- meaning his family were in Jerusalem in ’48 so he had an Israeli passport and can travel with more freedom and use the main roads to Tel Aviv – most Palestinians are not able to use these roads. What happens if they try? I ask the taxi driver the next day. They get shot at. Most of the people on the workshop were 3 star occupied persons – living in Ramallah or the West Bank. Of course the worst situation is for the Gaza inhabitants- George called them minus two stars.

We saw the check point through which the Palestinians in Ramallah who can travel to Jerusalem for work, have to pass through. It is the only way for them to get their much needed jobs. They have to get there at about 2 or 3 in the morning and queue in order to get through the tiny single metal turnstile in time for work the next day. They repeat this every day with little time for sleep or seeing family.

We used these turnstiles to get to Jerusalem the next day. Maral Quttieneh, a local producer, gives us a tour. Her family were one of the oldest families in Jerusalem she tells us, they used to own 350 houses. All were taken from them in ‘48. She, though, like George is a 5 star occupied person able to travel from Jerusalem. However, when she was away in Paris studying, after a few years she was warned if she didn’t return, her current home would also be taken from her. She shows us home after home where Palestinians lived, grand homes in leafy areas, now belonging to Israelis. She tells us of families who all over again are being evicted from the homes they moved to after being expelled from their original houses. They now have to make way for new Orthodox Israeli immigrants from Russia and Eastern Europe.

It’s Spring in Ramallah. In the centre of the town some of the women from the countryside are selling fresh herbs and mint and boys seem to spin some thin bread out of air. George explains how it was once green, how olive trees were here and an orchard there. Now it is a huge concrete building site made bearable by the good humour and generosity of those living there. George’s own family were Greek Orthodox. He shows us the yellow lights of the ever growing settlements on the hilltops around Ramallah. More walls. More divisions and a huge infrastructure of roads and walls and fences and soldiers to support and protect them. I hear of farmers who can’t get near their land to cultivate it any more as these settlements or the roads cut them off. I heard of a man who loved to walk in the hills around Ramallah and was shot dead by soldiers. A father of 3.

The day I head for the airport, the papers report how a group of Jerusalem football fans run amok in a shopping mall climbing all over the chairs and tables, aggressing Palestinian cleaners there and shouting slogans “Death to all Arabs”. No-one was arrested. No police stopped them. I imagine these same cleaners must probably have got up at 3 am to get to work. There is no commentary in the paper.

I start to feel like the boy who has been caught by Khaled’s camera. The transgressive has become so normalized that we are all stunned and don’t respond. Of course what is so shocking in Palestine is not what the Israeli Government does but what the rest of our Governments tacitly endorse. This is the week that America has voted against the UN move even to have an enquiry into the affects of the settlements on the Palestinians.

I tell the taxi driver of Khaled’s art project, to stamp passports with Palestinian stamps and how I wanted to do it last time I saw him but this time on arriving at Tel Aviv airport, was stopped 3 times and questioned so aggressively by Israeli passport officials, that I decided against it. I feel cowardly now and think of the daily hassles my Palestinian friends have. Maral told me how she makes the soldiers who go through all her stuff, put it back exactly as it was. Small triumphs in the face of petty brutality. So what can we do to help you ? I ask the taxi driver. Tell people, he said.

Tel Aviv airport book shop is full of lovely picture books of Israel and the countryside. I feel I am walking through a vast shared hallucination. I think of the filmmakers I have been working with, of their hushed, insistent need to tell, of the yellow lights of the settlements on the tops of the hills- of the hands touching under the wall, of all the stories which we so need to hear.

Emma Davie

The photo refers to Khaled Jarrar’s film “Infiltrators”.