Five Broken Cameras

Started by Mandy Jester on February 05, 2012

Five Broken Camera’s was a brilliantly done documentary highlighting one small village in Palestine’s fight to keep their land from the greedy Israelites. The journalist who filmed the documentary is an everyday citizen of this town who goes through 5 video cameras as he captures the life and death of his fellow peace-makers. The Palestinian’s choose to fight the battle for land with peaceful protests and the Israelites choose differently. The film opens one’s eyes to a world of unrest. It is especially striking to follow Emad, the filmmaker’s son Gibreel from his birth to his 5th Birthday. Emad does not shy away from taking his son to see the fighting and protesting, because this is his reality. In fact Emad says a line that has stuck with me since I saw the film, where he says, “The only protection I can give him [my son] is allowing him to see it with his own eyes.” From an American perspective looking in, it seems horrendous to take your son to a place where people are dying and bombs are being unloaded, but this film opened my eyes to an opposite perspective—to see this first hand is survival. I loved how the film was framed by the broken cameras; I thought that was creative and compelling. I was drawn in and in the true form of a documentary; I left having learned something and having been entertained. I believe this film exemplifies why the film category of documentary exists, to open our eyes to new cultures and ideas.

Comments (3)

Alexus Rhone /

There is an African proverb that says, “Until lions have their historians, tales of the hunt shall always glorify the hunter.” In the documentary “5 Broken Cameras,” Palestinian filmmaker Emad Burnat uses five video cameras to capture the conflict between his Palestinian neighbors and the Israeli soldiers who enforce rules and encroach on the land that, according to Emad, has sustained his family for generations. It is rarely seen, indisputable footage of the frontline action of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict of the Bil’in community along the Gaza Strip caught on film by five cameras - all of which were damaged during the six years of conflict. The audience is not spared the harsh realities of this conflict - tear gas bombs being hurled at the Palestinians protesting with rocks; malicious burning of the olive trees that feed Palestinian families; arrests and shootings caught on camera, including the death of Emad’s brother.

According to Emad, “Old wounds don’t have time to heal because they’re replaced by new ones.” Because of the fast pace of change, his cameras became a record of his memories. They also became an eye-witness to the human rights injustices to which the Palestinian people were subjected. Although Emad said he also wanted the cameras to document his youngest son’s growth years, I found his admission of wanting to “see the world through the eyes of a child” to be enlightening. Sometimes, as adults, we become jaded and “crusty” to realities in which we are bound. But when Emad’s little boy, while helping him work on their car, asked his dad why they couldn’t just take a knife and kill the Israeli soldiers, the audience could not deny the impact that this conflict is having even on “the least of these.”

February 06, 2012 6:07:06 PM PDT