5 Broken Cameras Non-Violent Resistance in the Middle East
Winner at the Sundance Film Festival, 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 given to Israeli co-director Guy Davidi to edit.
Structured around the violent destruction of each one of Burnat's 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."
Nominated for Best Documentary Feature at the Academy Awards.
"Uniquely powerful, putting faces and human consequences to a political dispute that will seemingly never end." - The Hollywood Reporter
Running Time
96 mins
Year
2011
Kanopy ID
1113659
Filmmakers
Languages
Subjects
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Comments (2)
It is easy to shut down when watching a film that deals with such pain and controversy, and reduce the experience to a series of binaries: right and wrong, good and bad, Palestinian and Israeli. We hope people will put aside pre-judgments and approach the film with fresh eyes.
We made ...Read more
It is easy to shut down when watching a film that deals with such pain and controversy, and reduce the experience to a series of binaries: right and wrong, good and bad, Palestinian and Israeli. We hope people will put aside pre-judgments and approach the film with fresh eyes.
Read lessWe 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.
i am so glad i watched this. thank you for sharing, for filming, for showing me a little bit of what its like. namaste.