Award winning film opens Palestinian Film Festival

The fourth annual Palestinian Film Festival will feature five thought provoking films

“The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge.” This is the quote that directors Sufyan and Abdallah Omeish use to introduce their award-winning film Occupation 101.

Visually captivating and intense from the very beginning, Occupation 101 starts with rare footage of brutal occupations and the resistance they generated in places such as South Africa, India and Libya. These scenes of conflict between brutal occupying armies and freedom-seeking civilians provide the viewer with the historical context needed to understand today's most brutal occupation: Palestine.

Occupation 101 contains some of the most shocking and disturbing images of life under Israeli military rule, but it also provides insight into the lives of ordinary Palestinians through interviews with farmers, children, students, mothers and academics. It is through these interviews that viewers gain a real understanding of both the physical and psychological effects of this occupation.

This documentary also features numerous commentaries by leading Middle East scholars and eye-opening interviews with journalists, humanitarian workers and Israeli and Western peace activists, who have been suppressed by the mainstream media.

One of the most memorable parts of Occupation 101 is an interview with Rachel Corrie's parents, followed by interviews with other International Solidarity Movement activists regarding her death.

Corrie, a 23-year-old American, was intentionally crushed by an Israeli Defense Forces bulldozer that she was preventing from illegally demolishing the house of a doctor in the Gaza Strip. After interviews with her friends and families, there is footage of a passionate speech that Corrie gave to her classmates in Grade five about her dream of ending world hunger and poverty. This incredible speech by the then 10-year-old activist was the tipping point in the film that actually brought me to tears.

Although the focus of Occupation 101 is to provide a clear analysis of the present situation, it also delivers one of the best historical analysis of the root causes of this conflict so that viewers can understand how and why this all came about, as well as where the responsibility lies for this catastrophic situation. The film accurately details the role that the United States plays in the conflict, as well as the other massive obstacles which still stand in the way of peace in the holy land, while it dispels the many myths and misconceptions surrounding conflict by presenting hidden truths and unknown facts.

Described simply as “One of the best documentaries” by the Los Angeles Journal, it is no surprise that Occupation 101 has already won eight film festival awards.

Occupation 101 will be featured in the fourth annual Palestinian Film Festival on Friday, October 19 at 7 p.m. at Museum London (421 Ridout Street North). Visit www.palfilmfest.org for more details and other showings.