USA,
2006, 89 min
Shown in 2006
CREDITS
- dir
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Ronit Avni, Julia Bacha
- prod
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Ronit Avni, Joline Makhlouf, Nahanni Rous
- scr
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Julia Bacha
- cam
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Mickey Elkeles, Ronit Avni , Julia Bacha
- editor
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Julia Bacha
- mus
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Kareem Roustom
- source
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Just Vision, PMB 226 123 Seventh Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11215. FAX: 847-461-1474. EMAIL: ronit@justvision.org.
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COMMENTS
Ronit Avni and subject Ali Aboawwad in attendance.
OTHER
Abstaining from the usual media headlines of hatred and conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, Encounter Point instead focuses on their commonality: loss. As Palestinians battle to end the occupation of an Israeli military state and Israelis demand an end to the suicide bombings, people from both sides seek peaceful resolutions. The Bereaved Families Forum is a group of 250 Palestinians and 250 Israelis who have lost loved ones and are looking for a way to dialogue with each other to prevent the loss of more lives. Robi Damelin, an Israeli mother and activist whose son was killed by a sniper, comments, “You can sign as many peace agreements as you like, but if people don’t learn to forgive each other... there will never be peace. It has to be between the people.” Ali Abu Awwad, a Palestinian member of the Forum whose brother was killed by an Israeli soldier, is also a tireless activist who talks with both Israelis and Palestinians about his choice to resist nonviolently. Although grief is an element of Encounter Point, hope is the more prominent emotion expressed as people from both sides put issues of anger and revenge aside in hopes of reconciliation. Politicized by their personal experiences and guided by leaders from other nonviolent movements—Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr. and Nelson Mandela—these citizens refuse to adhere to the political rhetoric that surrounds them and instead choose to solve their problems on their own. As Ali puts it, “This is our message to the world.”
—Dennis Conroy
FACTOID #202
At the 1978 SFIFF, Paul Mazursky received a tribute at the Palace of Fine Arts. Apparently, the facility’s janitorial staff had not been notified, and the padlocked doors of the Palace had to be cut so the filmmaker and his audience could be let in.
