The DVDs and Blu-ray discs in this list are available for viewing in the Library Film and Image Services, room D205.
Home movies Gaza"Home Movies Gaza introduces us to the Gaza Strip as a microcosm for the failure of civilization. In an attempt to describe the everyday of a place that struggles for the most basic of human rights, this video claims a perspective from within the domestic spaces of a territory that is complicated, derelict, and altogether impossible to separate from its political identity."--Video Data Bank website
The wanted 18During the 1987 Intifada, Palestinian Arabs living in the West Bank were required by law to purchase goods exclusively from Israeli vendors. The wanted 18 tells the story of a group of unlikely dairy farmers who surreptitiously procured cows for the production of milk, and managed to elude Israeli authorities by spiriting the cows from one secret location to another. Presented in live action and stop-motion animation.
Route 181 : fragments of a journey in Palestine - IsraelIn the summer of 2002, Palestinian filmmaker Michel Khleifi and Israeli filmmaker Eyal Sivan embarked on a cinematographic journey through their country, Palestine-Israel. For this trip they traced a route on a road map. They called it "Route 181," after resolution 181 adopted by the UN in 1947. This resolution divided Palestine into two states, 56% of land for the Jewish minority, 43% for the Arab majority, and the rest, an international zone. This theoretical line presented as a solution caused the first Arab-Israeli war, which is yet to end. This journey along Route 181 followed this border, that has never existed.
Videomappings : Aïda, PalestineThe director has asked the inhabitants of Aida Camp, Bethlehem, to draw maps of what they see around them and to relate their experiences in the refugee camp. Through six chapters that can also be seen as independent short films, the camp dwellers tell of their attempts to deal with the state of siege they live under.
The gatekeepersA documentary featuring interviews with all surviving former heads of Shin Bet, the Israeli security agency whose activities and membership are closely held state secrets.
Slingshot hip hopHip hop has always had a school that attempts to voice frustrations about the African-American condition in the United States. That spirit of resistance animates the rappers profiled in this film: Palestinian hip hop groups DAM (from Lydd or Lod), PR (Gaza), along with young women Abeer (Lydd), and duo Arapeyat (Akka or Acre), who are also harassed for being independent females performing on stage. DAM formed as clueless teenagers, spent time spouting rap clichés, but in the wake of the second Intifada their lyrics became politicized--inspiring a hip hop movement across the Palestinian territories. These artists rap about friends killed in attacks, strafed buildings, rubble, fields stripped of every tree, and rage at separation walls and checkpoints. As Palestinian citizens living in a walled ghetto with minimal infrastructure and few opportunities for economic prosperity, these rappers have a lot to overcome on their way to success.
The law in these partsExplores the four-decade-old Israeli military legal system in the Occupied Territories. Since Israel conquered the territories of the West Bank and Gaza Strip in the 1967 War, the military has imposed thousand of orders and laws, established military courts, sentenced hundreds of thousand of Palestinians, enabled half a million Israeli "settlers" to move to the Occupied Territories and developed a system of long-term jurisdiction by an occupying army that is unique in the world. The film records the testimonies of the military legal professionals who were the architects of the system and helped run it in its formative years.
الزمن الباقي Alezmen alebaqey = The time that remainsA humorous, heartbreaking film that explores life among the Israeli Arab community, shot largely in homes and places in which Elia Suleiman's family once lived. Inspired by his father's diaries, letters his mother sent to family members who had fled the Israeli occupation, and the director's own recollections, the film recounts the saga of the filmmaker's family in subtly hilarious vignettes.
Five broken cameras"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. 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 Burnat and Davidi. 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.'"--Container.
