The Common Good hosted a special screening and discussion of the documentary ‘Budrus’ with director Julia Bacha and producer Ronit Avni, which showed the nonviolent Palestinian movement to save the village of Budrus from destruction by Israel’s Separation Barrier.
This documentary by Julia Bacha that examines one West Bank town’s reaction to Israel’s construction of the security barrier. The town, with a population of 1,500, was set to be divided and encircled by the barrier, losing 300 acres of land and 3,000 olive trees. These trees were not only critical for economic survival but also sacred to the town’s intergenerational history. The film tells the story of Ayed Morrar, a Palestinian whose work for Fatah had led to five detentions in Israeli jails, but whose momentous strategic decision that the barrier would be best opposed by nonviolent resistance had far-reaching ramifications.
Julia Bacha is a media strategist and award-winning filmmaker whose work has been exhibited at Sundance, Tribeca, Berlin, Jerusalem, and Dubai International Film Festivals, and broadcasted on the BBC, HBO, Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya television channels. Julia started her filmmaking career in Cairo, where she co-wrote and edited Jehane Noujaim’s critically acclaimed documentary, Control Room (2004), for which she was nominated to the Writer’s Guild of America Award. Control Room marked the first time most Americans were exposed to an inside view of Al Jazeera and generated wide public debate about US media coverage during the war in Iraq.
Ronit Avni is an award-winning filmmaker and human rights advocate. She is the Founder and Executive Director of Just Vision, a nonprofit organization dedicated to increasing media coverage and support for Palestinian and Israeli efforts to end the conflict without arms. Her work has been featured in major news outlets, including Newsweek, The Washington Post, The BBC, NPR, and The Economist. Avni produced the documentary film, Budrus, which was hailed in The New York Times as “this year’s must-see documentary” and has won twelve international awards. Avni directed and produced the documentary film, Encounter Point, which received several awards including the San Francisco International Film Festival Audience Award for Best Documentary. Encounter Point has screened in more than 200 cities worldwide and continues to be widely used in classrooms and community centers in America and the Middle East.
