{"id":5047,"date":"2006-01-17T23:24:00","date_gmt":"2006-01-17T21:24:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2024-12-14T19:15:04","modified_gmt":"2024-12-14T17:15:04","slug":"epalestine-palestinian-film-wins-honor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour\/2006\/01\/epalestine-palestinian-film-wins-honor\/","title":{"rendered":"Palestinian film wins honor at Golden Globes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mobile-post\">The following section of this message contains a file attachment<br \/>\nprepared for transmission using the Internet MIME message format.<br \/>\nIf you are using Pegasus Mail, or any other MIME-compliant system,<br \/>\nyou should be able to save it or view it from within your mailer.<br \/>\nIf you cannot, please ask your system administrator for assistance.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mobile-post\">&#8212;- File information &#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8211;<br \/>\n     File:  Hany Abu-Assad.jpg<br \/>\n     Date:  17 Jan 2006, 21:49<br \/>\n     Size:  66163 bytes.<br \/>\n     Type:  JPEG-image<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"4\"><span style=\"font-size:14pt\"><strong>Suicide bomber film wins honor at Golden Globes&#160;&#160; <\/strong><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"><span style=\"font-size:10pt\">By Arthur Spiegelman<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"><span style=\"font-size:10pt\">Tue Jan 17, 12:25 AM ET&#160; <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"><span style=\"font-size:10pt\">Palestinian filmmaker Hany Abu-Assad was perhaps the most surprised man at the Golden Globes on Monday as his drama of suicide bombers crossing into Israel, &quot;Paradise Now,&quot; was named the year&#8217;s best foreign language film.&#160;&#160; <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"><span style=\"font-size:10pt\">Abu-Assad, who works out of Holland but is now looking for a house in Hollywood Hills, had expected to lose as he did earlier this month to martial arts comedy &quot;Kung Fu Hustle&quot; at the Broadcast Film Critics awards.&#160;&#160; <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"><span style=\"font-size:10pt\">He said he just assumed that too many people had either not seen his film or simply assumed it was too controversial. After all, Palestinian films are a rarity in the United States, especially ones that try to explain the politics of despair.&#160;&#160; <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"><span style=\"font-size:10pt\">In his acceptance speech, Abu-Assad made a plea for a Palestinian state, saying he saw the Golden Globe as &quot;a recognition that the Palestinians deserve their liberty and equality unconditionally.&#160;&#160; <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"><span style=\"font-size:10pt\">Winning the Globe also gives &quot;Paradise Now&quot; a major boost in its fight for an Oscar on March 5. Its next hurdle is to become one of the five foreign films nominated for an Academy Award on Jan 31. No Palestinian film has ever been nominated.&#160;&#160; <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"><span style=\"font-size:10pt\">&quot;I am surprised that we won but I don&#8217;t believe my film is controversial. It just shows something from a different side that we are all worried about,&quot; he told reporters backstage at the Globes.&#160;&#160; <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"><span style=\"font-size:10pt\"><strong>SIDES NOT TAKEN<\/strong>&#160;&#160; <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"><span style=\"font-size:10pt\">Abu-Assad insisted that he had not taken sides in the film but had tried to explain why two seemingly simple garage mechanics would be willing to kill themselves and others. His film presents arguments on all sides of the issue.&#160;&#160; <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"><span style=\"font-size:10pt\">&quot;It is a work of cinema. Cinema shows you different points of view,&quot; he added.&#160;&#160; <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"><span style=\"font-size:10pt\">To make the movie, Abu-Assad had to dodge a missile attack from Israel plus skirt landmines and threats from extremists.&#160;&#160; <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"><span style=\"font-size:10pt\">But the filming in the West Bank city of Nablus, where his location manager was briefly kidnapped as a warning by factions afraid the film would be critical, was just one hurdle. Now he has to see if anyone is listening as he tries to explain a new fact of modern life.&#160;&#160; <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"><span style=\"font-size:10pt\">&quot;Paradise Now&quot; wants the viewer to understand the mind-set that produces such acts as suicide bombings &#8212; because, as Abu-Assad says, to understand is a first step forward.&#160;&#160; <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"><span style=\"font-size:10pt\">One scene in his movie is set in a West Bank video store that might pass for one in the United States or Europe except that it sells tapes made by suicide bombers who explain their actions to inspire those that follow. The tapes seem to take on the role that baseball trading cards might have in the United States.&#160;&#160; <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"><span style=\"font-size:10pt\">Abu-Assad says he believes that impotence fuels the bombings. And his characters&#8217; words underlie that thought as they go through their daily lives in occupied territory that the film presents as an airless, hermetically sealed prison.&#160;&#160; <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"><span style=\"font-size:10pt\">&quot;Under the occupation, we&#8217;re already dead &#8230; In this life we are dead anyway &#8230; If we can&#8217;t live as equals, at least we can die as equals&quot; are typical refrains in the film.&#160;&#160; <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"><span style=\"font-size:10pt\">The filmmaker says, &quot;The feeling of the impotence is so strong that they kill themselves and others to say, &#8216;I am not impotent.&#8217; It is a very complex situation, but the overriding umbrella is the injustice situation.&quot;&#160;&#160; <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"><span style=\"font-size:10pt\">He says his film doesn&#8217;t impose a point of view but instead tries to show &quot;something invisible and that has never been done before.&quot;&#160;&#160; <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"><span style=\"font-size:10pt\">Copyright &#169; 2006 Reuters Limited.&#160;&#160; <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><a href=\"http:\/\/news.yahoo.com\/s\/nm\/20060117\/film_nm\/leisure_goldenglobes_paradise_dc_1\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"><span style=\"font-size:10pt\">http:\/\/news.yahoo.com\/s\/nm\/20060117\/film_nm\/leisure_goldenglobes_paradise_dc_1<\/span><\/font><\/a><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"><span style=\"font-size:10pt\">For more on the film itself see: <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><a href=\"http:\/\/electronicintifada.net\/v2\/article4344.shtml\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"><span style=\"font-size:10pt\">http:\/\/electronicintifada.net\/v2\/article4344.shtml<\/span><\/font><\/a><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0445620\/\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"><span style=\"font-size:10pt\">http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0445620\/<\/span><\/font><\/a><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"><span style=\"font-size:10pt\">&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8211;<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"><span style=\"font-size:10pt\">Everything about this list:<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"><span style=\"font-size:10pt\">http:\/\/lists.riseup.net\/www\/info\/epalestine<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"><span style=\"font-size:10pt\">To unsubscribe, send mail to:<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"><span style=\"font-size:10pt\">epalestine-unsubscribe@lists.riseup.net<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"><span style=\"font-size:10pt\">To subscribe, send mail to:<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"><span style=\"font-size:10pt\">epalestine-subscribe@lists.riseup.net<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The following section of this message contains a file attachment prepared for transmission using the Internet MIME message format. If you are using Pegasus Mail, or any other MIME-compliant system, you should be able to save it or view it from within your mailer. If you cannot, please ask your system administrator for assistance. &#8212;- [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","iawp_total_views":4,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[936],"class_list":["post-5047","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"authors":[{"term_id":936,"user_id":4,"is_guest":0,"slug":"sambahour","display_name":"Sam Bahour","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/bca109c333bf6d8ae807746dd512adde46265d37c923f6cd0fc4aab437f8e9aa?s=96&d=mm&r=g","author_category":"1","first_name":"Sam","last_name":"Bahour","user_url":"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour","job_title":"","description":"Sam Bahour (\u0633\u0627\u0645 \u0628\u062d\u0648\u0631) resides in Al-Bireh\/Ramallah, Palestine. He does business consulting as <a href=\"https:\/\/aim.ps\/\" rel=\"noopener\">Applied Information Management<\/a> (AIM), specializing in business development with a niche focus on the information technology sector and start-ups.\r\n\r\nBahour was instrumental in the establishment of two publicly traded firms: the Palestine Telecommunications Company (PALTEL) and the Arab Palestinian Shopping Centers (APSC). He is Co-founder &amp; Emeritus Member of <a href=\"http:\/\/a4vpe.org\/\" rel=\"noopener\">Americans for a Vibrant Palestinian Economy<\/a> (A4VPE) and until recently served as an independent Director at the Arab Islamic Bank P.L.C. and a board member at <a href=\"https:\/\/justvision.org\/\" rel=\"noopener\">Just Vision<\/a>.\r\n\r\nHe writes frequently on Palestinian affairs and has been widely published in leading outlets. He is co-editor of <em><a href=\"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour\/1994\/10\/homeland-oral-histories-of-palestine-and-palestinians-book-recommended\" rel=\"noopener\">HOMELAND: Oral History of Palestine and Palestinians<\/a><\/em> (Olive Branch Press, 1993), tweets at <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SamBahour\" rel=\"noopener\">@SamBahour<\/a>, and blogs at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.epalestine.ps\/\" rel=\"noopener\">epalestine.ps.<\/a>"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5047","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5047"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5047\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5047"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=5047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}