LINK TO 2003 SEATTLE JEWISH FILM FESTIVAL!

or the AJC Home page:WWW.AJCSEATTLE.ORG

APRIL
20-28, 2002

Israel and the Media

Israel, home to a greater degree of press freedom than any other nation in the Middle East, consistently seems to lose the propaganda wars.  Two first-hand accounts of violence within Israel, Primetime War and Street Under Fire, provide a jumping-off point for a discussion of Israel and the Media.  Panelists include directors Michael Karpin (A Bomb in the Basement) and Richard Trank (In Search of Peace), and Moti Krauthammer, Israeli Journalist and local educator.    

Primetime War

This film focuses on two cameramen who bring the horror of the Israeli/Arab conflict nightly into homes around the world. Although one is Israeli, working for the Associated Press and the other is Palestinian, working for BBC, they are good friends and colleagues. What is remarkable about this film is that it shows how the media affects the very events it covers. The battles heat up and the rhetoric becomes more vociferous when the video cameras roll. 

Director: Noam Shalev
Israel 1998
30 minutes
Northwest Premiere

Street Under Fire

The Jerusalem neighborhood of Gilo has been the target of sniper attacks from the adjacent Palestinian village of Beit Jala since the beginning of the new Intifada. This timely documentary features interviews with neighbors talking about their personal reactions to their plight. It also presents the Israeli government's reaction—positioning tanks in streets of their once peaceful neighborhood. As we watch images of mortar attacks on Beit Jala and the continuous shelling of Gilo we are made witnesses to the human consequences of the current hostilities.