My So-Called Enemy Celebrating Diversity, Interfaith and Intercultural Understanding
A coming-of-age film about the vital role of listening and empathy in bridging bridges across personal, cultural, religious, political and gender divides.
In the spirit of Michael Apted's "7 Up" series, the award-winning "My So-Called Enemy" follows six courageous Palestinian and Israeli teenage girls who participated in a cross-cultural women's leadership program in the U.S. and documents how the transformative experience of knowing their "enemies" as human beings in US meets with the realities of their lives back home in the Middle East over the next seven years. A film about not making assumptions about, or creating "an other," "My So-Called Enemy presents the complexities of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict through a human lens, and the possibility and hope that come from listening to each other's stories. Through the coming-of-age narratives of Adi, Gal, Hanin, Inas, Rawan and Rezan, viewers see how creating relationships across all kinds of differences are first steps towards resolving conflict.
This heart and mind-opening film, from Emmy Award-winning Director Lisa Gossels ("The Children of Chabannes"), celebrates diversity and inclusion, addresses questions of identity and negative stereotyping - and features young women as change agents. It is not only a fit not only for coursework, but for Diversity Week and Women's History Month celebrations and interfaith, multifaith and human rights/global issues programming.
"This film offered our campus a complex and compelling look at the real lives of young women within Israel and Palestine and sparked deep conversations about nationhood, identity, forgiveness and relationships. I don't believe we'll find anything better than what "My So-Called Enemy" presented." - Ross Wantland, Office of Inclusion and Intercultural Relations, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Hamptons International Film Festival: Winner, Jury Prize for Best Conflict & Resolution
Boston Jewish Film Festival: Winner, Audience Award, Best Feature Documentary Film
Denver Film Festival: Winner, Special Jury Prize in Filmmaking
ITVS-curated "Global Voices" TV series (The World Channel)
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Comments (3)
I believe all classes on Modern Israel should watch this documentary. It is moving, excellent, and enables people to see the human side of the conflict. The director Lisa Gossels has a gift for the human voice. I was amazed at the impact this film had on my students and myself. My hope is ...Read more
I believe all classes on Modern Israel should watch this documentary. It is moving, excellent, and enables people to see the human side of the conflict. The director Lisa Gossels has a gift for the human voice. I was amazed at the impact this film had on my students and myself. My hope is that more people will watch this and see that in the end, we are all human. She shows that peace is a possibility one person at a time.
Read lessReally well done. Excellent for the classroom, and for some of the classes I teach such as Intercultural Communication, Ethics and Communication, and Research Methods
We live in a culture of sound-bites, Tweets, and short attention spans, which can lead people to make fast assumptions about very complex issues that often warrant deeper exploration. We also know that one image, one video or one encounter with someone we don’t know can be completely shift ...Read more
We live in a culture of sound-bites, Tweets, and short attention spans, which can lead people to make fast assumptions about very complex issues that often warrant deeper exploration. We also know that one image, one video or one encounter with someone we don’t know can be completely shift our perspectives! I’ve always loved hearing people’s stories. And people tend to tell me their stories. Part of what I do as a social issue documentarian is to share the stories of people whose voices are under-represented in the news media.
When we think about conflicts in our families, schools, religious communities, or the world at large, the first and easy assumption is that there are only two sides: a right and a wrong, my truth versus your truth – or “if you’re for them, then you’re against us.” A core conceit of “My So-Called Enemy” is that resolving conflict doesn’t necessarily mean that we have to agree with each other. While we don't have to agree with each other, it is vital that we listen to each other! When people are in conflict, what they really want is to be heard. Engaging in difficult conversations is important. That is how change will occur.
At its heart, “My So-Called Enemy” is about the vital role of listening and empathy in building bridges of understanding across differences. It celebrates diversity and inclusion, features young women as change agents and addresses issues of identity and “othering.”
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