After the success of his Oscar-nominated film 5 Broken Cameras, which follows the Palestinian nonviolent resistance movement through the lives of Palestinian co-director Emad Burnat and his son Gibreel, Israeli co-director Guy Davidi quickly became a controversial public figure in his country. We caught up with Davidi and spoke about his new documentary short, High Hopes, which is having its North American Premiere at the Boston Palestine Film Festival this week.
BPFF: How does High Hopes differ from your past projects?
GD: I try not to compare films. Each one has a different story and process. Five Broken Cameras was a huge amount of work and editing. Not every film you do has the same impact or amount of investment. Each film has a different reception. I try to make films about things that interest me.
High Hopes started as an idea by Angela Goldstein, who was involved with the Jahlin Bedouin tribe in particular and the Bedouin in Palestine in general and the evacuation of their houses. This film was originally her idea. She gave me a call and asked me, “I have some footage from the BBC and AP—we could make a nice small film.”
The Beduin community [in Israel] has always been neglected. The challenge was how we could make a film from the sort of corrupted old footage. My next film, Mixed Feelings, has tons of footage, and it was the same with 5 Broken Cameras. For this film, the amount of archival footage available to us was quite limited. Angela found this 30-minute film about Edward Said. We also found a few directors who contributed from their films. We had a few hours of footage, nothing more than that. Definitely not more than five or six hours. When I looked at the footage, there were a lot of [home] destructions, but the interviews were not particularly helpful.
It’s kind of a historical film. How can we link what happened in the 1990s to what is happening now? So I came up with this idea to link the 1990s to the ‘peace process’— which I believe is a complete sham. Maybe there was a grain of truth to it in the Rabin period, but after that, others came and continued to use the peace process to continue policies of displacement. We don’t know what could have happened if Rabin had remained alive and involved.
BPFF: How does your film deal with the idea of hope?
GD: When we go back to the 1990s, everyone had high hopes–hope that was sold to us by both sides. Part of the reason why we are having horrible times 20 years from Oslo is because the occupation has become deeper and stronger. Palestinians and Israelis are paying the price of not having peace in the region. Part of the reason is that it was a fake hope not constructed on reality. It’s relevant for now, because most people believe that there was a chance for peace back then, but I want to show that there wasn’t really ever that chance.
The title of the film came from a Pink Floyd song; I got some interesting footage and edited it with the song in my head. When I was working on the film, this song came back to me. The sound is so heavy, the text is nostalgic, and the music brings forth despair. David Gilmore [a member of Pink Floyd] was the one who composed the song High Hopes. We were talking to his agent and he is a great supporter as well. Maybe not as prominent as Roger Waters, but he gave us the rights to the song. One theme I see is that of beauty lost. It is a lot of what I find in Palestine, we as Israel. We lose the connection to the place, environment, and the way of life. It is destructive, and it hurts the people who are living there.
BPFF: Most of your projects have to do with bringing together large amounts of footage. Is this a signature of your work?
GD: My next project, Mixed Feelings, is about Israeli society and how it is reacting to the wars, how it is militarized, how we are an oppressive occupying society and how that is destructive for us as a society. It is about a theater teacher who opened up a small theater in his own living room and created some of the most provocative pieces right there in his house speaking about militarism, religion, etc. This teacher works with the new generation, students who want to become actors. During this time, ‘Operation Cast Lead’ started. He was not like any teacher in Israel in that he would express his opinions on the war. There is a debate surrounding whether or not teachers and artists should express their political opinions. I shot it starting in 2008 onward for many years. It’s a different kind of work [than my previous films] where I am more involved.
BPFF: How has teaching shaped your work?
GD: I’m speaking to you from the European College in Denmark where I’m giving a full course and consulting directors. One of the reasons Emad Burnat would work with me is because I was known for working with other directors. I have learned from teaching and I like to share my knowledge and learn from students. I don’t like to compromise in my films, so teaching was also an alternative way to make a living and not be dependent economically. I like to be around filmmakers. What I like about Amir (the protagonist of Mixed Feelings) is that he takes responsibility in the process. I made the film to be around him and learn from him how art/education can make change and how to be constructive when working with students. It’s more about how to nurture art and creativity.
BPFF: How has the Oscar nomination impacted your life?
GD: Oscar… It’s hard to measure, but of course there are advantages. It’s an acknowledgement that people care about and can make things easier. The nomination had consequences for the film in various places in the world. The Arab world was not very accepting of the film before the Oscar because of the Israeli collaboration. After the Oscar, suddenly they cared less. In some places like Tehran and Beirut, a film with Israeli funding and co-direction has never been screened before in those places. Also, the Oscar is of course important for the Palestinian nonviolent movement.
In Israel, the film was accepted only in a small community that is liberal, cultural. On one hand, we achieved a screening in a prime-time slot on the biggest channel. It’s a huge achievement; we cannot even measure the consequences of it. Suddenly, mainstream society attacked the film; there was a whole debate about the identity of the film. We were under attack, sometimes from our friends, people from the industry, sometimes activists who didn’t like the fact that I’m there. We were under a lot of questions. To be honest, I cannot say I enjoyed the Oscar; it was hard for me personally, but good for the film. I’m glad we got it.
Mixed Feelings was not financed in Israel, we are raising funds independently. Any other Oscar nominee would get support for their film. There is a price for being nominated. I’m not trying to be dramatic about it, but it’s not just working for me.
BPFF: What drew you to filmmaking and away from your military service in the Israeli army?
GD: There’s not one specific moment. I grew up without my father—the minute you grow up without a father, you are older than other people and look at reality with a lot more criticism. I felt different from a lot of the people around me. In the beginning of the 1980s and 1990s, there was no access to the Palestinian narrative, no internet. You can only know what is happening when you start to smell that something fishy is happening in your own society.
By the time I had to go to the army, I knew that I wanted to be filmmaking. I felt like an outsider. I actually did enroll in my military service and thought—I was quite naïve—maybe I can be a journalist within the military. I knew I would never hold a gun. I’m not a pacifist, but I never believed that I was fighting for my survival like people tried to tell me.
When I got to the military, it was a complete shock, and I realized that I live in a disturbed society. They tried to re-educate me as a solider to fit their needs, and that’s when I left the army. I was not a conscientious objector. I come from a small town and never knew about these things. It was a tough time, leaving military service. It was the hardest time of my life. My next film after Mixed Feelings will probably be about that.
Not doing military service made me even more of an exile, and I had to constantly defend my ideals. I wanted to know more about Israeli society, and I was attracted to the West Bank. There, I discovered completely different narrative. I felt that I had been lied to so it wasn’t such a huge drama but for other people who realize everything they were fed are lies, the Zionist narrative is a lie, you are suddenly angry, you are angry that you were used and told lies. Maybe people who serve feel like they were tricked into this as young boys.
BPFF: What was the most surprising thing for you about being in the West Bank?
GD: The hospitality of the villagers, they are so warm and welcoming. The ability for us to communicate, the generosity of people – they didn’t know if I had shot Palestinians in my life—forget about politics, there is such an incredible generosity in Palestinians. It is a force that fueled a lot of my works.
— Munir Atalla for BPFF
High Hopes screens Wednesday, October 22, 2014 at the Harvard Law School at 6 pm as part of a thematic slot called Political Stasis. The show is free and open to the public, and is co-presented by Harvard Law School Justice for Palestine. View the full festival schedule here.