Back Story:
In 2006 the acclaimed documentary Dear Mr. President, premiered in the USA. The unique feature-length documentary looks at the Israeli/Palestinian conflict through the eyes of five teenage girls from the region while taking a road-trip across the US to attempt to meet with then-president, George W. Bush. In January the group lost one of it's most moving characters named Bessan.
Bessan was killed by Israeli tank fire, in her home in the north of Gaza, in Jabaliya Camp on January 16, 2009.
The death of Bessan, along with her two sisters and her cousin echoed around the world.
Present Moment:
Now the filmmaker, Debra Sugerman, is returning to Israel and Palestine filming the epilogue entitled BROKEN. Sugerman has tried, since January to enter Gaza via various NGOs as well as attempting to acquire a journalist pass. She has also applied through all the proper channels required and been turned down, but no reason is ever given.
Sugerman feels that what is happening in Gaza is something everyone should understand. The occupation under which people are living has hit critical mass.
As Sugerman continues to excavate these stories she is also surprised to find herself in a personal crisis and a deep re-evaluation of her own belief system. Sugerman says, "It's not like my eyes were closed to Gaza before, it is more like they are stuck open now, I cannot turn my head away and do nothing. In fact, I am inspired to do more, to shine a light into this dark ugly thing. I am reminded of a sentence I recently read, that speaks of what I feel, it said something like: I was taught that being Jewish, in part, means weighing your actions first and above all else, on the basis of the way it effects others".
Sugerman finds herself asking painful questions like: by continuing to fence Gaza in are we creating a mirror in the hills into towns like Sderot? Are we not killing hope by continuing to exact intolerable levels of restrictions coupled with the recent incursion in Dec/Jan, upon a group of people who have been cut off from their livelihoods and their ability to create a better world for their families? Is fencing 1.5 million people into 149 square miles, truly about security alone? How do we qualify Israel's control of 90% of services over the Gaza Strip, this many years later?
Sugerman hopes that by making this new document it will enlighten and inspire people who do and do not know about the situation, and help create a modicum of hope as well, to acknowledge the mistakes made. She believes that if some level of coexistence can truly be created between Israel and Palestine that the world will reflect it, in a global manner.
Often accused of being naïve, she knows that if it were easy, it would have been done… " This work is for the archives and for a future hope for the young people". Sugerman believes that it takes many villages to shift learned ignorance and old thinking and she dreams that one day we can erase hate and fear in the region.
Sugerman returns to Israel and Palestine to do more interviews, to find a way into Gaza to film more and to unveil all the stories awaiting her there.
August 2009 |
