The Spiritual Center screens one last film for 2019, gets ready for 2020

The "Cinema in the Community" project, which began in January 2018, has proved to be a tremendous success for the Wahat al-Salam Neve Shalom Spiritual Center.

During the first season of the project, ten fine films were screened, among the best to be released in Israel in recent years. Some of the county’s leading Jewish and Palestinian directors were hosted: Ibtisam Mara’ana, Daniel Wachsmann, David Deri, Maha Haj, Suha Araf and others. The films dealt with social issues and most of them touched on relations between Arabs and Jews, Israelis and Palestinians. After each film screening there was a discussion with the director. The discussions were provocative, in-depth and sometimes stormy.

Five Broken Cameras, the last film in the series, was screened on December 11. The film, released in 2012, depicts the nonviolent struggle of the villagers of Bil’in against the occupation from 2005 to 2010 through the eyes of Emad Burnat, one of the villagers who, during these difficult five years, documented with his cameras, which one after another were broken, the daily life of his family and of the villagers. Imad was also seriously injured during the filming. His arrival in WASNS was conditioned upon obtaining for him a special security permit, so the occasion was particularly moving.

Next month, in January, the 2020 season of the "Cinema in the Community" project will kick off, in collaboration with the Mateh Yehuda Regional Council and the Israeli Academy of Film and Television. The program is ready and contracts have been signed with all the directors and production companies. This year too, some of the best films produced in the country by Israeli and Palestinian directors will be screened. Among them are films by Anat Tel, Juna Suleiman, Michal Aviad, Eliran Elya, Yael Kipper Zaretzky, Sameh Zoabi, Tamar Kay, Hany Abu-Assad, Rachel Leah Jones and Shadi Srur.

Thanks are due to all the directors and the audiences who faithfully show up every month. You give me the power to continue to run this wonderful project.

With best regards and love,

Hezzi Schouster