Imagine living in a conflict that has divided two nations, literally, by a concrete barrier. This turbulent and heated conflict has left many dead and even more injured. Welcome to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The documentary “5 Broken Cameras” is a portrayal of this modern day conflict through the personal lens of Self-taught Palestinian cameraman, Emad Burnat. This compelling documentary provides a realistic presentation of the hatred that surrounds these two divided nations. The reason why you would want to see this film is because it demonstrates the harsh realities of what it is like to live in the midst of a conflict and how the lives of those affected are altered as a result of this conflict. Burnat is certainly effective in his …show more content…
In the opening scene we see the newly born baby wrapped up in blankets and smiling. Only if you have a cold soul will you not find this picture both adorable and heartwarming. I for one do not have a cold soul which is why I was instantly captivated by this precious baby. The subtitles noted that Burnat received the camera in hopes of filming his youngest child grow from infancy to adulthood. With that in mind, for the remainder of the documentary I longed to see this child grow, often drawing comparisons in my head to what he looked like and how he use to act when he was …show more content…
As the film progresses these encounters between Israelis and Palestinians become only more intensified. In my mind Burnat is a very brave man. He risks his life to film, often times going into the line of fire in order document the conflict. On multiple occasions, Mr.Burnat’s cameras have been the victims of both gas grenades and actual bullets. In one such incident where his third camera is destroyed as a result of a pistol’s bullet, Burnat praises the camera for “protecting me while I film.” During this scene immediately after the bullet hits the camera lens, the background turns pitch black with a lighten color where the bullet hit. I believe this scene is extremely powerful in conceptualizing the true dangers that the conflict can present. Burnat’s biggest strength in creating this documentary is his ability to synthesize the increasing sense of intensity that the conflict gains, and presenting it alongside Gibreel’s growth. In one scene, the documentary quickly transitions from a confrontation between an Israeli and Palestinian man to Gibreel celebrating his first birthday. This transition effectively displays that while all of this hostility has been brewing, concurrently individuals and families are still trying to go about and live their everyday lives as normally as they possibly can. We as an audience are thus more drawn to Gibreel; an effective tool that Burnat seeked to accomplish while he edited his
Burns is a post-apocalyptic story when survivors need being again and link together to create a new society. The greatest common cultural icon used is the popular episode “Cape Feare” from the Simpsons. This gloomy comedy pushes us nearly a century, following a new society tripping into the future. “In Mr. Burns the episode from The Simpsons becomes the dominant character. Most plays are about people who experience challenges, and who develop towards the end of the play changing by the events that have taken place. Saying that, its not hard to believe a story can experience great challenges too. “Stories unite us, reminds us who we are and who we want to be. Stories keep our past alive” Mr. Burns delivers us with a brilliant opportunity to think about things that keep us human, in the extreme wisdom of the word, as we move forward into a progressively erratic future (Mr. Burns pamphlet Lab
Bob Hawke once said; “Unless and until something concrete is done about addressing the Israeli-Palestinian issue you won't get a real start on the war against terrorism.” Perhaps Hawke put into a few simple words one of the most complicated issues within our world today, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. As Israel continues to strip the Palestinians of their land and fears it’s very existence because of the Palestinians terrorist acts, there seems to be no solution in sight. The world appears to be split and all over the place when it comes to this matter. According to The Middle East Institute for Understanding approximately 129 countries recognize Palestine as a state while many others do not. Over all the political matters within this issue not only affect Palestine and Israel but the world as a whole, as the Middle East and the West seem to disagree. This has had and will continue to have an enormous impact on many political affairs all over the world particularly in the current fight against terrorism. Personally I feel that the Israeli Palestinian conflict while being a very complicated matter has a simple solution. Within this issue I am a firm believer that the occupation of the West Bank by Israeli forces is extremely unjust and must come to an end. Once this is achieved a two state solution will be the most effective way to bring peace to the area. The occupation of the West Bank violates political and legal rights, human rights, and illegally forces Palestinians who have lived in the area for hundreds of years from their land. This conflict is at the height of its importance and a solution is of dire need as nuclear issues arise in the Middle East due to the tension between Israel and it’s surrounding neighbors, and the...
After watching the film, “Babies” by Thomas Balmer, I got the chance to see and experience the development of four babies from different countries and cultural backgrounds. This documentary commends the babies’ fun loving nature as they move along the way of revelation.The babies are Mari, from Tokyo,Japan; Panjiao, from Namibia,Africa; Hattie from San Francisco,USA and Bayar, from Mongolia.
The director of this film shows how the babies develop from infancy to toddlerhood at different developmental stages. As you watch the film, you see the babies develop physically, socially and cognitively. Culture and socioeconomic status provided these families with the
This marked the beginning of the Palestine armed conflict, one of its kinds to be witnessed in centuries since the fall of the Ottoman Empire and World War 1. Characterized by a chronology of endless confrontations, this conflict has since affected not only the Middle East relations, but also the gl...
“Babies”. Is a documentary made by the Thomas Balmés. It offers a window on the lives of four infants in four completely different cultures. This is not a usual kind of documentary; there are no narration, no subtitles and actual dialogue was very minimal. The film explores childhood rituals, enculturation, socialization and parenthood. I will try to explore each of these themes and try to make the case that behaviors, values and fears are learned not something congenital. It has, in my opinion, comparative perspectives and different methods in rearing children in different societies. It achieves this by cutting the scenes in certain ways to show the differences between these different children. For example, in one part of the film, both Bayarjargal (the Mongolian child) and Mari (the Japanese child) were playing with their pet cats and then the two scenes were edited to a shot of Ponijo (the Namibian child) looking interested in flies. The four children developed in somewhat similar ways. However, there are differences in their behaviors due to the enculturation by seeing their parents or siblings who were doing what they thought to be the norms and the obvious landscape in which they are brought up. Two of the kids were born in rural areas (Namibia and Mongolia) and two were born in urban areas (the United States and Japan). The mothers of these infants were interviewed and chosen to be in the film
Since the inception of an Israeli nation-state in 1948, violence and conflict has played a major role in Israel’s brief history. In the Sixty-One year’s Israel has been a recognized nation-state, they have fought in 6 interstate wars, 2 civil wars, and over 144 dyadic militarized interstate disputes (MIDs) with some display of military force against other states (Maoz 5). Israel has been involved in constant conflict throughout the past half century. Israel’s tension against other states within the Middle East has spurred vast economic, social, and political unity that has fostered a sense of nationalism and unity in Israel not seen in most other states. Over the next several pages I will try and dissect the reasons for why the nation state of Israel has been emerged in constant conflict and how this conflict has helped foster national unity and identity among the people of Israel.
As a viewer, the documentary’s intention to inform is more completely fulfilled by research conducted beyond the scope of the camera lens. Had I never written this paper, for instance, the reason for all the violence embedded within the subject matter would remain as enigmatic as the documentary itself.
Bourke, Dale Hanson. The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: Tough Questions, Direct Answers. Downers Grove, IL: Inter Varsity, 2013. N. pag. Print.
Babies is a Documentary produced by Thomas Balmes who originally got the idea from Alain Chabat. It is set in the present time in four different countries and four very different settings. These babies are documented from birth to just after one year and shows four different perspectives of how different cultures raise their children. From a tribe in Nambia, a remote location in Mongolia, a large city in Japan, to San Francisco California; babies is based on the common theme of human discovery, interaction, and love.
The beat-up Arab minivan slowed tentatively under the scrutinizing gaze of the Israeli soldier on duty. The routine was simple. About halfway between Damascus Gate in East Jerusalem and Ramallah, the West Bank commercial center, the driver, blaring Arabic music on his radio, maneuvered around the dusty slabs of concrete that composed the Beit Haninah Checkpoint. He waited for a once-over by the Hebrew-speaking 18-year-old and permission to continue. Checkpoints-usually just small tin huts with a prominent white and blue Israeli flag-have become an integral and accepted part of Palestinian existence under Israeli occupation. But for me, a silent passenger in the minivan, each time we entered the no man's land between Israeli territory and the West Bank, my hea...
In 2005, the Palestinian director and writer, Hany Abu-Assad, released his award winning motion picture, “Paradise Now.” The film follows two Palestinian friends, over a period of two days, who are chosen by an extremist terrorist group to carry out a suicide mission in Tel-Aviv during the 2004 Intifada. The mission: to detonate a bomb strapped to their stomachs in the city. Because the film industry seldom portrays terrorists as people capable of having any sort of humanity, you would think the director of “Paradise Now” would also depict the two main characters as heartless fiends. Instead he makes an attempt to humanize the protagonists, Khaled and Said, by providing us with a glimpse into their psyches from the time they discover they’ve been recruited for a suicide bombing operation to the very last moments before Said executes the mission. The film explores how resistance, to the Israeli occupation, has taken on an identity characterized by violence, bloodshed, and revenge in Palestinian territories. Khaled and Said buy into the widely taught belief that acts of brutality against the Israeli people is the only tactic left that Palestinians have to combat the occupation. In an effort to expose the falsity of this belief, Hany Abu-Assad introduces a westernized character named Suha who plays the voice of reason and opposition. As a pacifist, she suggests a more peaceful alternative to using violence as a means to an end. Through the film “Paradise Now,” Abu-Assad not only puts a face on suicide bombers but also shows how the struggle for justice and equality must be nonviolent in order to make any significant headway in ending the cycle of oppression between the Israelis and the Palestinians.
Babies is a documentary that centers around four diverse infants throughout their first year on Earth. These four babies are born in four different areas of the world. The film demonstrates how people from different parts of the world can grow up completely different than other parts, while still sharing many similarities. Ponijao is an African baby who is born in Opuwo, Namibia. Mari is a young Japanese girl who was born in Tokyo, Japan. Bayar is a baby who was born in Bayanchandmani, Mongolia. The fourth baby’s name is Hattie, born in San Francisco, California. While viewing the documentary, many theories and concepts in psychology are portrayed.
The film Babies is a film that follows four babies from San Francisco, Tokyo, Mongolia, and Namibia through their first year of life. The film has no talking or narrative. In many scenes, you don’t even see adults. This helps you get to see a baby’s perspective on the world. This movie showed how different cultures are when it comes to raising children.
The article Regime-Made Disaster: On the Possibility of Nongovernmental Viewing collected from the book Sensible Politics: The Visual Culture of Nongovernmental Activism, New York, NY: Zone Books, 2012. The author Ariella Azoulay who is an art curator, filmmaker, and theorist of photography and visual culture, currently she is working as an assistant professor at Brown University. However, her study discloses a detail view how the Israeli regime turns the photography of their invasion on Palestinians to benevolent photographs of Palestinian refugees.