Judy Gelman Myers
Reasons to be Fearful: A Response to Fredric Smoler
I very much appreciate Mr. Smoler’s arguments in “They Are Not Us: More Thoughts on German Resistance to Nazism,” his well-considered response to my interview with filmmaker Hava Beller. I would like to clarify a few points.
The Great Green Wall: An Interview with Filmmaker Jared Scott
The face of Africa’s Sahel, one of the most ecologically vulnerable areas in the world, is getting a makeover with a Great Green Wall of eucalyptus, cassava, and acacia trees. It is hoped that by 2030, the wall will restore 100 million hectares of currently degraded land, sequester 250 million tons of carbon, and create 10 million jobs in rural areas. Jared Scott’s film The Great Green Wall, takes us on a tour of the land and the people who are making this miracle happen.
Alpine Sisters on the Verge: Petra Volpe’s Dramatic Film About Swiss Suffragettes
Where did women not have the right to vote until 1971? Where did they still need their husbands’ permission to work in 1988? Where do political parties still advocate no punishment for rape in marriage? The Middle East? Africa? Central Asia? No: It’s Switzerland…
Battles of Ajami
Fifty years ago, the Israeli film industry was largely churning out pro-Zionist propaganda films (Ephraim Kishon being the rare exception). To represent its face to the world in 2010, Israel brought to the Academy Awards an Arab-language flick co-directed by a Palestinian and a Jewish Israeli, focusing largely on inter-Arab issues; Ajami was one of the five nominees in the Best Foreign Film category.
The Palestinian co-director has been called a collaborator. Israel’s nominating committee has been demonized as a pack of lefties. But something is changing on the streets of Jaffa, whose citizens have been given, in Ajami, both a mirror in which to behold their own community and an international voice.