5 Broken Cameras
Directed by	Emad Burnat Guy Davidi
Produced by	Christine Camdessus Serge Gordey Emad Burnat Guy Davidi
Music by	Le Trio Joubran
Cinematography	Emad Burnat
Editing by	Véronique Lagoarde–Ségot Guy Davidi
Distributed by	Kino Lorber
Release date(s)	November 23, 2011 (2011-11-23) (IDFA)
Running time	90 minutes
Country	Palestine Israel France
Language	Arabic Hebrew
Box office	$93 578 (USA) (15 February 2013))[1]

5 Broken Cameras (Arabic: خمس كاميرات محطمة‎ Khamas Kamīrāt Muḥaṭṭamah; Hebrew: חמש מצלמות שבורות‎ Hamesh Matslemot Shvurot) is a 2011 documentary film co-directed by Palestinian Emad Burnat and Israeli Guy Davidi. 5 Broken Cameras is a first-hand account of protests in Bil'in, a West Bank village affected by the Israeli West Bank barrier. The documentary was shot almost entirely by Palestinian farmer Emad Burnat, who bought his first camera in 2005 to record the birth of his youngest son. In 2009 Israeli co-director Guy Davidi joined on to create the film. Structured around the destruction of Burnat's cameras, the filmmakers' collaboration follows one family's evolution over five years of turmoil.^[2] The film won a 2012 Sundance Film Festival award and was nominated for a 2012 Academy Award.

Synopsis [edit]

There are five cameras — each with its own story. When his fourth son, Gibreel, is born in 2005, self-taught cameraman Emad Burnat, a Palestinian villager, gets his first camera. At the same time in his village of Bil’in, the Israelis begin bulldozing village olive groves to build a barrier to separate Bil'in from the Jewish Settlement Modi'in Illit. The barrier's route cuts off 60% of Bil'in farmland and the villagers resist this seizure of more of their land by the settlers.

For the next year, Burnat films this struggle, which is led by two of his best friends, while at the same time recording the growth of his son. Very soon, these events begin to affect his family and his own life. Emad films the Army and Police beating and arresting villagers and activists who come to support them. Settlers damage Palestinian olive trees and attack Burnat when he tries to film them. The Army raids the village in the middle of the night to arrest children. He, his friends, and brothers are arrested or shot; some are killed. Each camera used to document these events is shot or smashed.

Eventually, in 2009, Burnat approaches Guy Davidi^[3] – an Israeli filmmaker and together, from these five broken cameras and the stories that they represent, these two filmmakers create the film.

Production [edit]

Background [edit]

Israel began construction of an Israeli West Bank barrier in the West Bank village of Bil’in, Palestine in 2005.^[4] Discovering that the barrier would cut through their agricultural land, confiscating half of it, the villagers initiated popular protests and were joined by Israeli and international activists.^{[citation needed]} At that moment Emad received a camera to document the movement.

In 2007 the Israeli Supreme Court ordered the barrier rerouted,^[4] and four years later, after village access to some of the land was restored, the demonstrations were called off.^[5]

The first year, Emad filmed mainly for activists' needs. His footage was introduced as evidence in Israeli court and put on Youtube to create awareness for the growing movement.

With growing media interest in Bil’in, Emad’s footage gained international recognition and was used by local and international news agencies. Emad started working as a freelance photographer to Reuters and provided footage to filmmakers to document the villagers' fight in notable films such as Shai Carmeli Pollac’s “Bil’in, my love” and Guy Davidi’s and Alesandre Goetschmann “Interrupted streams”.^[2]

Pre-Production [edit]

Emad was approached in 2009 by Greenhouse, a Mediterranean film development project, to develop a documentary. The project focused on the non-violent movement and especially on Bassem Abu-Rahme, who was killed earlier that year at a demonstration in Bil’in. After some difficulties, Emad approached Israeli Filmmaker, Guy Davidi who had just finished editing “Interrupted Streams”, Davidi’s first feature documentary which was released in 2010 at the Jerusalem International Film Festival.

Davidi shaped a new concept in which Emad would be a protagonist in the film telling the story from the subjective view of a cameraman. Davidi also proposed that the film be structured around Emad’s cameras. Using home-video footage Emad filmed of his family, the personal and family narrative was added to the film.

From 2009 under the new concept, Emad continued to film more scenes with greater focus on his family's reactions to the events. A few important scenes shot by other cameramen (including Guy Davidi) were used to supplement the narrative, and to introduce Emad as a character.^[2]

Editing [edit]

Since 2009, Davidi has been working to write the voice-overs and structure the film. In 2011 French Editor Véronique Lagoarde–Ségot joined the project to edit the final cut of the 90-minute film and the 52-minute version for television. The film is told as a chronological diary cut into 5 main episodes, each episode representing the chronology of the five cameras used throughout the years to document.

Emad appears showing his 5 broken cameras on a table in the prologue, this scene is shown again at the end of the film shot by a sixth camera that wasn’t broken. Titles of the periods in which each camera was filming are shown between each episode and in the epilogue. The story moves constantly from the dramatic external events in the village to the highly intimate scenes in Emad’s family.

Throughout the film the external events are cut in juxtaposition with the family's story. The most prominent narrative is of Emad’s fourth son Gibreel, whose growth throughout almost 6 years is documented in the film. The birth of Gibreel is edited in juxtaposition with the birth of the non-violent movement in the village but opposed to the cutting of the villages ancient olive trees for the new barrier; later in the film, Gibreel’s first words will be wall and army when he crosses the barrier with his brothers and finally writes his name on the second concrete wall at the end of the film.

From the third camera episode, the family and personal narratives and the village movement narratives become more integrated. Emad becomes more exposed as a protagonist. First he is placed on house arrest and films himself, then he is filmed at the moment a bullet directly hits his third camera.^[2]

Funding [edit]

According to Israeli co-director Guy Davidi, the film was initially funded by the Greenhouse Development Project (a Mediterranean development project initiated by an Israeli foundation and sponsored by Europeans), then by French and Dutch television, and finally by the Israeli television and the New Israel Fund who "were really enthusiastic about it" and contributed "not just with money". There was also American, Canadian, and Asian funding^[6]

Reception [edit]

5 Broken Cameras has received positive reviews from numerous critics. It has a fresh rating of 95%, based on 39 reviews at Rottentomatoes.com.^[7] A.O. Scott for The New York Times described the film as a "visual essay in autobiography and, as such, a modest, rigorous and moving work of art" and stated that it deserved "to be appreciated for the lyrical delicacy of [Burnat's] voice and the precision of his eye."^[8] Artinfo magazine's J. Hoberman noted that the documentary was "gripping from the get go" and that seeing it is to "wonder what it would have been like to have a black Alabaman’s 8mm documentation of the civil rights struggle."^[9] Joshua Rothkopf of Time Out New York rated the film four stars, describing it as a "proudly defiant work, devoted to a community and created by its members" that shows the "largely unreported details" of normal life in West Bank.^[10]

"An essential work both on filmmaking and political activism, 5 Broken Cameras provides a birdsong of perseverance in the face of irrational violence, immense historical anger, and grim, seemingly insurmountable realities." – Chris Cabin, Slant Magazine ^[11]

"Displays both distinction and the emergence of a significant talent. Presents vivid witness to the power of the image to help with...healing." – George Robinson, The Jewish Week

Awards [edit]

5 Broken Cameras won the World Cinema Directing Award at the Sundance Film Festival in 2012.^[12] The film also received the Special Broadcaster IDFA Audience Award and the Special Jury Award at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam in 2011.^[13]

Nominated for Best Documentary Feature in the 85th Academy Awards.^[14]

References [edit]

External links [edit]

• Official website
• 5 Broken Cameras at the Internet Movie Database
• 5 Broken Cameras at Rotten Tomatoes
• 5 Broken Cameras at Metacritic
• 5 Broken Cameras at Box Office Mojo
• the full movie on YouTube