Five Broken Cameras

I just got back from the Arab American Museum. Where else would I possibly be on a Friday night?

Marie and I were invited to see a film by a couple friends of ours. As they know a thing or two about a thing or two, we took them up on it. I didn't know what the film was about prior to the screening, other than it was nominated for an Oscar...and it probably had Arabs in it. 

Five Broken Cameras is a documentary about living in a Palestinian village that's being occupied by the Israeli army and Israeli settlers. The man behind the camera didn't go to an expensive Art School. He's not a film nerd. He's just documenting what he sees as a sort of therapy and catharsis. And he's getting shot at. 

Needless to say, the film is a bit rough around the edges. But "rawness" is a value, not a criticism. Just ask Iggy. 

Emad, the protagonist, loses 4 cameras to the fighting. He struggles with tear gas, live bullets, and the specter of Death on a weekly basis. That's life on the West Bank. It sucks hard. But Emad and his village soldier on. What other option is there? 

We're introduced to an interesting cast of characters. It's cool to see that throughout the five year period that this was filmed in, the main characters chronicled rarely resort to any kind of violence. It's all relatively peaceful. Okay, they throw rocks here and there. But tell me you wouldn't want to be out there with an Israeli-made Uzi mowing down the bastards that just shot your brother? 

Anyway, the music's good. The editing is what holds the whole thing together. It's very well paced. The footage is crude, but there was skill in taking such raw elements and weaving them into such a polished end product. Hats off. 

There's a scene with an old man and his daily driver...a donkey. It just made me think about how I get up, open my garage, and decide which of my two cars or motorcycle do I want to take to work that day. It's fucked up. 

The super shitty aspect about this whole thing is the needlessness of both parties' plights. Truth be told, the Israeli's have no claim to the land. But who the fuck said the Palestinians could have it either? In thousands of years of living on this planet, we still cling to archaic principles about ownership of the Earth. You'd think if people on both sides of the fence were looked at as PEOPLE, none of this would matter. There'd be nothing to fight over if we weren't slaves to a colonialist idea about ownership and conquest. I'm sure many years after I'm dead humans will be pushed to the point where they have no option but to abandon this idea. Or they'll blow everyone up arguing about it. I don't care. I'll be dead anyway. 

Watch the movie here: