Oscar-nominated director on his LAX detention: “I didn’t know what was going to happen”

Thu, 21 Feb 2013 13:07:00 +0000

Emad Burnat, the Palestinian director of the documentary "5 Broken Cameras," flew into Los Angeles late Tuesday night for the Academy Awards, where he's a best documentary feature nominee. And he almost didn't get to stay.

Burnat, whose film is a personal account of Burnat's life as a farmer on Israel's West Bank, was interrogated by a customs officer at LAX, who asked him to show proof he was, indeed, coming into the country for the awards ceremony. "I had the emails from the Academy on my iPhone," Burnat told Salon, "and the immigration officer refused them. She asked me for documents, but all of them were there in my iPhone; in emails and pictures of the invitation. She told me I had to come up with documents and papers, and I told her there was no way."

The director, who said he had been to America five times previously but never asked for supporting documents beyond his passport, called the border officer's intransigence "strange."

Israel confronts its “image problem”

Wed, 16 Jan 2013 01:00:00 +0000

It’s no secret that Israel has an image problem, to put it mildly. From unabated settlement construction in the West Bank infuriating the international community and eliciting repeated condemnations in the U.N., to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s bellicose approach to Iran that has strained relations with the Obama administration, to Israel’s consistent disregard for Palestinian human rights, Israel is one of the most divisive subjects in international politics and media. At next month’s Oscar ceremony, that “image problem” will be on prominent display as two local films centered around the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and highly critical of Israel are up for nominations in the best documentary category.

"The Gatekeepers" – an Israeli/French/Belgian production directed by Israeli Dror Moreh – takes the audience into the world of Israel’s anti-terror operations since it assumed control of the West Bank and Gaza in 1967, as told by the very men who oversaw them. Moreh, who says he is inspired by Errol Morris’ "The Fog of War," conducts in-depth interviews with six former heads of Israel’s Shin Bet (the secret internal security service, comparable to the FBI), whose candid recounting of targeted assassinations, village raids and prisoner interrogations reveal the ethical and political failures of Israeli occupation.

Salon.com > five broken cameras

Oscar-nominated director on his LAX detention: “I didn’t know what was going to happen”

Israel confronts its “image problem”