5 Broken Cameras

In 2005, Emad Burnat did what many parents the world over have done; he bought a video camera to capture the formative years of his fourth child. But in the midst of documenting the life of his namesake, he became preoccupied with the Israeli encroachment into the West Bank and the protest movement that was formed in his home village of Bil'in. The film is framed through Burnat's collection of cameras, each succumbing to its own demise by the hostilities being documented over the five-year span. Through Burnat's cameras, we witness firsthand the atrocities his people face amidst the social injustices the Palestinian community encounters while gradually being forced from their homes. Throughout, Burnat regularly turns the camera back on his little boy, Gibreel, whose first five years of life are surrounded by violence; Gibreel's first words are "army" and "the wall." Burnat's intensely personal account of the Israeli-Palestinian struggle indiscriminately exposes an incremental process of Israeli oppression, which could easily be perceived as biased by some. Yet while watching Israeli soldiers with their semi-automatics and military gear bullying Palestinian men and children that only have rocks and pebbles to act as a weapon, the disproportionate battle presents as glaringly appalling. That 5 Broken Cameras is a collaboration between Emad Burnat—a Palestinian—and Guy Davidi—an Israeli filmmaker—is a testament to the unnecessary futility of the conflict, showing what can come from cooperation on both sides of the wall. Included on the DVD are interviews with Burnat and Davidi, as well as Davidi's 2010 documentary short, Keywords.