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Oscar-nominee ’Five Broken Cameras’ sparks identity debate - FRANCE 24
▻http://www.france24.com/en/20130222-oscar-nominee-five-broken-cameras-sparks-identity-debate?ns_campa

Fundwashing

“Two Israeli films are among the five nominated for best documentary for the Academy Awards,” Israel’s embassy in the United States said on its Twitter feed immediately after the nominations were announced.

It was a narrative quickly echoed by some of the Israeli press.

“After a remarkable string of Oscar nominations for scripted dramas, Israel’s film industry has managed a new feat in 2013: earning two nods in a different category, in a single year,” said the online Times of Israel.

The Jerusalem Post also flagged it as an achievement for “Israeli cinema.”

For Burnat, it was a “cunning attempt” to damage the film.

“The Israeli press tried to describe the film as Israeli which was strange to me because it is about me, my family and my village,” he told AFP.

“It cannot be an Israeli movie because it is about an attempt to erase Palestine.”

For Burnat’s co-director Davidi, the debate about whether the film is Israeli or Palestinian is “not important.”

“For me, the whole discussion is not a very important one because for me generally, films do not represent countries, even if they are produced by countries,” he told AFP.

“I don’t think films should have nationalities.”

The film, which also received French funding, tracks the life of Burnat and his family since the birth of their son Jibril in 2005, the same year Israel began building its sprawling separation barrier on lands owned by the village.

The title comes from the five cameras that were broken as Burnat captured the villagers’ plight on film over the years.

Davidi, a former Israeli activist who used to attend the weekly solidarity protests, got involved at Burnat’s request to help with production problems.

“I asked Guy to come and take part in the movie because he was a solidarity activist who comes to the demonstrations with us. I didn’t ask him to come to represent Israel or take part in an Israeli-Palestinian production,” Burnat said.

“Guy doesn’t represent Israel; he helped with the production and the funding.”

Davidi says there are many Israelis who produce work critical of the occupation, which often gives official Israel a way of showcasing the country’s democratic principles.

“There is an expectation that Israeli filmmakers will represent their country... but there is a way to use them to show Israel is democratic and an open society that allows open discussion and freedom of speech,” he explains.

“I am not willing to be used in that way to clear Israel’s name, especially as I am a part of a very small minority,” he said.

How My Friend and Current Oscar Nominee Emad Burnat Was Held and Threatened with Deportation Last Night at LAX | MichaelMoore.com
By Michael Moore
▻http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/mike-friends-blog/how-my-friend-and-current-oscar-nominee-emad-burnat-was-held-and-threa

Thus, last night, as an elected Governor of the Documentary Branch, I and my fellow Governors – Michael Apted and Rob Epstein – were co-hosting the nominee dinner for the documentary filmmakers. But one of the nominated directors was not there – Emad Burnat, the co-director of the Oscar-nominated ’5 Broken Cameras.’ This exceptional, award-winning movie about how Emad’s village in the West Bank used non-violence to oppose the Israeli’s government’s decision to build a wall straight through their farms and village – only to see (and capture on camera) Israeli soldiers shooting unarmed Palestinian civilians – had become the first Palestinian documentary ever to be nominated by the Academy.

While we awaited Emad’s arrival from the airport – he and his family had already spent nearly six hours at an Israeli checkpoint as he was attempting to drive to Amman to catch their plane – I received an urgent text from Emad, written to me from a holding pen at the Los Angeles International Airport (LAX).

Here is what it said, in somewhat broken English:

“Urgent - I am in the air port la they need more information why I come here
Invitation or some thing
Can you help they will send us back
If you late
Emad”

I quickly texted him back and told him that help was on the way. He wrote back to say Immigration and Customs was holding him, his wife, Soraya, and their 8-year old son (and “star” of the movie) Gibreel in a detention room at LAX. He said they would not believe him when he told them he was an Oscar-nominated director on his way to this Sunday’s Oscars and to the events in LA leading up to the ceremony. He is also a Palestinian. And an olive farmer. Apparently that was too much for Homeland Security to wrap its head around.

“They are saying they are going to put us on the next plane back to Amman,” he told me.

I immediately contacted the Academy CEO Dawn Hudson and COO Ric Robertson, who in turn told Academy President Hawk Koch. They got ahold of the Academy’s attorney who is also partners with a top immigration attorney and they went to work on it. I called the State Department in DC.

I told Emad to give the Homeland Security people my name and cell number and to have them call me ASAP so I could explain who he was and why they should let him go.

After being held for somewhere between one and two hours, with repeated suggestions that the U.S. may not let him into the country – saying that they may send him back home – the authorities relented and released Emad and his family.

I texted him to say we would not start the dinner until he arrived. When he got there, he was fairly shaken and upset.

He told us that this sort of treatment is something he is used to “on a daily basis under Occupation.” He gave an eloquent and moving impromptu speech, in his usual soft-spoken voice, to his fellow nominees. He said this was his 6th trip with his film to the U.S. this year and that this was the first time he was detained. He said they wanted to see some “official document” that he was an actual nominee. I said, “Doesn’t Immigration have Google?”

The Americans in the dining room apologized to Emad for the way our government and its security police treated him. We then sat down and ate some good ol’ American roast beef.

Palestinian co-director of ’5 Broken Cameras’ reportedly detained at Los Angeles airport - Israeli Culture | Haaretz Daily Newspaper
▻http://www.haaretz.com/culture/arts-leisure/palestinian-co-director-of-5-broken-cameras-reportedly-detained-at-los-ange

According to Moore’s Twitter message, after Burnat arrived on a flight to Los Angeles with his wife and 8-year-old son, immigration authorities ushered them into a waiting area and claimed that Burnat lacked the necessary documentation to prove that he was in Los Angeles to attend the Oscar ceremony. “Although he produced the Oscar invite nominees receive, that wasn’t good enough & he was threatened with being sent back to Palestine,” Moore tweeted.

In other Twitter messages, Moore, whose films include “Bowling for Columbine” and “Fahrenheit 9/11,” commented: “Apparently the Immigration & Customs officers couldn’t understand how a Palestinian could be an Oscar nominee. Emad texted me for help.”