Go See ‘The Gatekeepers’ and ‘5 Broken Cameras’!

I thought I’d show you the blog post that I’ve published at The Times of Israel on the two excellent films, “The Gatekeepers” and “5 Broken Cameras”.  Those of you who haven’t yet seen them, may view the trailers by clicking on the blue links in the article. Incidentally, “5 Broken Cameras” can be streamed for free on the web via the Y-Net site. II begin as follows:

So following the Oscar ceremony, Israeli Culture and Sports Minister Limor Livnat said she wasn’t sorry that “The Gatekeepers” and “Five Broken Cameras” didn’t win the Best Documentary Award.  She added that, in her view, “too many movies” made in the past few years “libel Israel throughout the world”.  Of course, as Minister of Culture, she said she was against censorship, but called on the Israeli movie makers to practice “self-censorship.”

Well, for the sake of full disclosure, Livnat and I were fellow students at Tel Aviv University in the early 70s, studying in the Sifrut Clalit (General Literature)
Department. … We even competed against each other to represent the department in the student council elections (at least I eventually finished my BA, which is more than one can say for our former Education Minister).  She ran on the Herut list (forerunner of today’s Likud), while I was on the Alignment (Labor-Mapam) list.

Pride in “The Gatekeepers” and “5 Broken Cameras”

Although we come from different camps, I would expect a serious student of literature, and a Minister of Culture, to be proud of the fact that Israeli cinema, both documentary and feature films, are having such an international impact.

The Six Former Heads of the Shin Bet Security Services

In my view, every Israeli, and every individual around the world who cares about the fate of Israel should go to see both “The Gatekeepers”, directed by Dror Moreh, and “5 Broken Cameras”, co-directed by Guy Davidi and Emad Burnat  Both, extremely powerful and effective films, are an important cinematic reflection of different aspects of the Israeli reality, and of the dilemmas facing Israel today. …