My Neighbourhood, by directors Julia Bacha and Rebekah Wingert and Just Vision, the creators of Budrus, will make its West Coast premiere at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival next week. The film follows eleven-year-old Mohammed el-Kurd and the settlers who have taken over part of his house. The settlers moved in three years ago when Mohammed was at school, forcing their way in and pushing Mohammed’s grandmother out over her own threshold. Mohammed says he “hates them,” and wants to grow up to be a human rights attorney so he can kick them out.
Mohammed is not alone. Leftist Israelis from a new group, Sheikh Jarrah Solidarity, join him. My Neighbourhood chronicles Mohammed’s coming of age, set alongside a period of rapid settler conquest in East Jerusalem and skyrocketing Palestinian evictions.
The film captures the bizarre and complex relationships Mohammed comes to develop with both of his new Israeli neighbors. Some have stolen from him, and some are there to help him. But neither was entangled in his life before the takeover of his house.
The film will screen in both San Francisco and Berkeley. Shows are Wednesday July 25, 1:35 pm at the Castro Theatre, San Francisco and Wednesday August 1, 4:25pm at the Roda Theatre, Berkeley. Tickets can be purchased here.
A Q&A with Nadav Greenberg, an associate producer, and Anya Rous, Just Vision’s manager of strategic partnerships, will follow the San Francisco screening.
The film will also be screened later this month in New York City, and in early August in Traverse City, Michigan.
Wow, very powerful.
This is the kind of story that will make the world change what is happenining in Israel – solidarity between human rights activitists in Israel and Palestinians.
i’d love to attend.
It looks great. I think we need a film about the Israel/settler machine
I saw this flick on al-Jazeera a couple months ago.
I agree with Shingo. This is the kind of video that will bring people to our cause. Maybe, a little bit rose-tinted, but a real feel good affair.
These videos are from a series called Home Front by the same filmmakers. They have been incorporated almost in its entirety as the beginning of My Neighbourhood.
link to youtube.com!
link to youtube.com
link to youtube.com
link to youtube.com
There was a critique on Electronic Intifada this week.
New documentary inadvertently demonstrates failures of Zionist left
link to electronicintifada.net
It links to an earlier critique, on Mondo in 2010, of the Israeli Sheikh Jarrah movement, by Joseph Dana, who described the “fight to save the Zionist soul”