Indie Film Nation Video Podcast #057: Interview with Emad Burnat and Guy Davidi (directors) of 5 Broken Cameras (FR/PA) feature documentary film
Our podcast team covered Sundance 2012 and caught up the the Co-Directors of the the Oscar Nominated Feature Documentary 5 Broken Cameras. On January 10, 2013, the film was among the 5 films that was nominated for an Academy Award.
We all can identify with Emad Burnat, a father who started shooting home videos of his forth son, Gibreel, is born. At the same time he documents events of his village of Bil’in located in Palestine as a separation barrier is being built and the villagers attempt to hold peaceful protests. For more than five years, Emad films the struggle, which is lead by two of his best friends, alongside filming how Gibreel grows. Very soon it affects his family and his own life. Daily arrests and night raids scare his family; his friends, brothers and him as well are either shot or arrested. One Camera after another is shot at or smashed, each camera tells a part of his story
Five broken cameras—and each one has a powerful tale to tell. Embedded in the bullet-ridden remains of digital technology is the story of Emad Burnat, a farmer from the Palestinian village of Bil’in, which famously chose nonviolent resistance when the Israeli army encroached upon its land to make room for Jewish colonists. Emad buys his first camera in 2005 to document the birth of his fourth son, Gibreel. Over the course of the film, he becomes the peaceful archivist of an escalating struggle as olive trees are bulldozed, lives are lost, and a wall is built to segregate burgeoning Israeli settlements.
Gibreel’s loss of innocence and the destruction of each camera are potent metaphors in a deeply personal documentary that vividly portrays a conflict many of us think we know. Emad Burnat, a Palestinian, joins forces with Guy Davidi, an Israeli, and—from the wreckage of five broken cameras—two filmmakers create one extraordinary work of art.
Award Winner – Sundance Film Festival
World Cinema Documentary Directing Award