Documentary looks at escalating conflict between Israelis and Palestinians in Hebron
THIS IS MY LAND . . . HEBRON (Giulia Amati & Stephen Natanson, 2010)
Film Society of Lincoln Center, Walter Reade Theater
165 West 65th St. at Amsterdam Ave.
Monday, June 27, 4:00; Tuesday, June 28, 6:30; Wednesday, June 29, 9:00
Series runs through June 30
212-875-5601
www.filmlinc.com
www.thisismylandhebron.com
While teaching a video course in the historic city of Hebron, Giulia Amati was struck by the intense battle going on between Israeli settlers and Palestinians in the burial place of Abraham. Following the Six-Day War in 1967, a small group of Jews moved into the city, deciding to take it back from the Palestinians, whose families had been there for generations. Today, some five hundred settlers, mostly European Jews, have gained control of the embattled territory in the southern West Bank, trying to force out the 150,000 Palestinians who live there. “There is no place under the occupation that I hate more than Hebron,” Haaretz reporter Gideon Levy says in Amati and Stephen Natanson’s stirring documentary, This Is My Land . . . Hebron, adding, “It is really the place of evil.” Presenting both sides of the story, the filmmakers speak with such Jewish settlers as Miriam Grabovsky, Miriam Levinger, and spokesmen Noam Arnon and David Wilder, who believe in their God-given right to the land, and such Palestinian residents as Hamed Quashmeh and Osaid Rasheed, who don’t want to leave their homes and businesses. Jewish children in Hebron are raised to hate their Palestinian neighbors, throwing rocks and cursing them in the street. Palestinian houses are surrounded by wire fences that make it look like the families are living in cages. Former Israeli soldier Yehuda Shaul now leads “Breaking the Silence” tours of the area, revealing exactly what is going on. While some Israelis consider him a traitor, others see what he is doing as heroic, trying to get the truth out and establish peace. While much of what goes on in the Middle East is extremely complex and often sensationalized in the media, with the actions of the Israeli military and government often improperly misconstrued and wrongly criticized, the situation in Hebron seems to be clear, as Israeli Jews such as Shaul, Levy, and former Knesset member Ure Avnery explain in the film. Although This Is My Land . . . Hebron reveals the dark side of fundamentalism and racism, it should not be viewed as a microcosm in the continuing fight between the Israelis and the Palestinians but instead as a terrible side effect of an age-old conflict. Part of the “Times of Conflict and Responses to Terrorism” section of the Human Rights Watch Festival at Lincoln Center, which also includes “Migrants’ and Women’s Rights,” “Human Dignity, Discrimination, and Resources,” and “Truth, Justice, and Accountability,” This Is My Land . . . Hebron will have its North American premiere June 27-29 at the Walter Reade Theater, with all three screenings followed by a discussion with the filmmakers.
In 1961, Barry Mann and Gerry Goffin wrote, “I’d like to thank the guy / who wrote the song / that made my baby / fall in love with me.” The title of that be-bop song, “Who Put the Bomp,” inspired one of music’s first fanzines and later the punk record label Bomp! Records. In their 1999 song “Deceptacon,” the riot grrrl group Le Tigre flipped that question around, asking, “Who took the bomp from the bompalompalomp? / Who took the ram from the ramalamadingdong?” In the song they also dare, “Let me hear you depoliticise my rhyme.” Formed in 1998 by former Bikini Kill leader Kathleen Hanna, zine writer Johanna Fateman, and visual artist Sadie Benning, who was replaced in 2000 by DJ and projectionist JD Samson, Le Tigre challenged the male-dominated world of rock and punk, championing individuality and sexual freedom while redefining gender roles. In 2004, Hanna, Fateman, and Samson set out on a world tour in support of their third and final album, This Island, and asked their lighting designer, Carmine Covelli, to capture it all on film. The result is the engaging Who Took the Bomp? Le Tigre on Tour, in which Covelli and director Kerthy Fix go onstage, backstage, and behind the scenes as the influential trio heads across four continents and ten countries, playing exciting live shows, meeting the media, taking pictures with Slipknot, revealing what they pack in their luggage, exercising in the gym, and talking about facial hair. They also discuss more serious issues such as gender identity, lesbianism, and their DIY mentality, which flew in the face of the music industry. The seventy-two-minute film, which features live multimedia performances of such songs as “Hot Topic,” “Keep on Livin’,” “Viz,” and “Deceptacon,” is screening on June 7 at 7:30 as part of the Maysles Institute’s monthly “Under the Influence of” series and will be followed by a Q&A with Fix, Hanna, and Fateman.