I just watched this documentary and thought it was very impressive. So was 'Tears of Gaza', but '5 broken cameras' is an account told through the eyes of a film maker (the cameras get shot, destroyed and so on, so each time the film maker has to find a new camera), who lives in a small village in the West Bank. The village is very active and organises lots of protests against the wall that was about to be built and against the settlers that steal and inhabit their land, where the Palestinians grow their produce.
We see images of bulldozers destroying their olive trees and these maniac settlers that burn them. Although his very optimistic and courageous friend gets murdered and although the film maker himself gets seriously wounded the people do not give up. They even use the Israeli court. As a result after five years the wall that separates their village from the rest of the world gets demolished.
I think this documentary is a testament to the courage of the people of that village, a testament to their creativity and the film maker makes some brilliant comments about healing at the end of the documentary.
At the end of the documentary he was hit by a stun grenade, but his camera survived and continued filming, or so the caption read.
_http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3K-mGWy9iUg
When his fourth son, Gibreel, is born, Emad, a Palestinian villager, gets his first camera. In his village, Bil'in, a separation barrier is being built and the villagers start to resist this decision. 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.
The doc has won all kinds of awards.
Dutch television broadcast the documentary, but they cut out more than thirty minutes of footage. According to someone who left behind a comment on the site you don't get to see how the Israelis behave as petty tyrants.
_http://www.hollanddoc.nl/kijk-luister/documentaire/0-9/5-broken-cameras.html
And if you decide to watch it, watch this, too:
5 broken cameras screened to Israeli youth (not at school of course). The comments of these young people are very encouraging. It's also interesting to watch how the military talk to them in order to recruit and brainwash them.
_http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1wEszQYEzg#t=14
