Just Vision

Last updated

Just Vision is a non religiously unaffiliated nonprofit organization that utilizes storytelling, media and public engagement campaigns to highlight Palestinian and Israeli grassroots leaders working to end the occupation and conflict through unarmed means. They are based in Washington, New York and Jerusalem.

Contents

Background

Just Vision was formed in 2003 by Ronit Avni as a result of 2 years of research and over 475 interviews on the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. The goal of the interviews was "to find out what kind of support they needed to advance peace. The overwhelming answer was to become more visible. The pockets of nonviolent activists throughout the region need a space to link and promote their messages." [1] The interviews eventually became the basis for Just Vision's films and Visionaries [2] interview series.

Filmography

The first film to be released by Just Vision was Encounter Point in 2006. According to Anita Gates of The New York Times, "This film may prompt others to take up the cause."[ citation needed ]

Just Vision's second film, Budrus, is the best known, and has reached diverse audiences worldwide. The film is about non-violent demonstrations conducted by the residents of Budrus (a Palestinian town in the Ramallah and al-Bireh Governorate) during the early 2000s to protest against the building of the Israeli West Bank barrier inside of the village. [3] Budrus initially debuted on the festival circuit in 2009 at the Dubai International Film Festival. [4] It also played at the Tribeca Film Festival. [5]

Since the release of Budrus, Just Vision has released two new film projects on the growing trend of home evictions in East Jerusalem. The first is a series of shorts called Home Front: Portraits From Sheikh Jarrah, followed by a 25-minute documentary, My Neighbourhood, co-directed and co-produced by Rebekah Wingert-Jabi and Julia Bacha. Both projects follow the individual stories of Palestinian and Israeli nonviolent resistance to the eviction of Palestinian families. My Neighbourhood premiered in 2012 at the Tribeca Film Festival, and has been screened across the United States, as well as at the European Parliament. [6]

In 2017, Just Vision produced Naila and the Uprising, directed by Julia Bacha. It was a documentary that highlighted the hardships Palestinians faced against Israel. [7] [8] In 2018, Facebook blocked the trailer for Naila and the Uprising for all Facebook users in Israel. In a message to the operators of the Local Call Facebook page that attempted to post the trailer, which Just Vision helps fund, Facebook said, “Your ad was not approved because it doesn’t conform to our advertising policy. We don’t allow advertising that includes shocking, derogatory or sensational content, including ads that depict violence or threats of violence.” Yet hours before the film's screening in Jaffa, Israel, the ad received approval to run on the site. [9]

In 2021, Just Vision produced the documentary film Boycott. [10]

Awards

Just Vision is the recipient of numerous film awards: [11]

2006

Encounter Point

2007

2009

Budrus

2010

2011

Related Research Articles

<i>Promises</i> (2001 film) 2001 documentary film

Promises is a 2001 documentary film that examines the Israeli–Palestinian conflict from the perspectives of seven children living in the Palestinian communities in the West Bank and Israeli neighborhoods of Jerusalem. Promises has been shown at many film festivals and received excellent reviews and many accolades.

<i>Occupation 101</i> 2006 American film

Occupation 101: Voice of the Silenced Majority is a 2006 documentary film on the Israeli–Palestinian conflict directed by Sufyan Omeish and Abdallah Omeish, and narrated by Alison Weir, founder of If Americans Knew. The film focuses on the effects of the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and discusses events from the rise of Zionism to the Second Intifada and Israel's unilateral disengagement plan, presenting its perspective through dozens of interviews, questioning the nature of Israeli–American relations—in particular, the Israeli military occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, and the ethics of US monetary involvement. Occupation 101 includes interviews with mostly American and Israeli scholars, religious leaders, humanitarian workers, and NGO representatives—more than half of whom are Jewish—who are critical of the injustices and human rights abuses stemming from Israeli policy in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Julia Bacha</span> Brazilian documentary filmmaker

Julia Bacha is a Brazilian documentary filmmaker. She has filmed under-documented stories from the Middle East including issues related to Palestine. Her 2021 film, Boycott, explores anti-boycott legislation and related freedom of speech issues.

Encounter Point is a film directed by Ronit Avni and Julia Bacha. It depicts different families that have been affected by the violence in Israel between Israelis and Palestinians. In this film, Just Vision, a non-profit organization, follows these families for 16 months. It begins this journey by documenting the ongoing troubles between the Israelis and Palestinians. The team conducted 475 preliminary interviews and did two years of research before embarking on this 16-month journey. The crew traveled throughout Israel, from Tel Mond, Tulkarem, Hebron, and Haifa. These parents and loved ones have been attempting to end the violence by joining, or beginning their own peace organizations and awareness campaigns.

<i>The Tribe</i> (2005 film) 2005 American film

The Tribe is a short documentary film directed by Tiffany Shlain and narrated by Peter Coyote. Weaving together archival footage, graphics and animation, it tells the history of both the Barbie doll and the Jewish people from Biblical times to the present.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ronit Elkabetz</span> Israeli actress and filmmaker

Ronit Elkabetz was an Israeli actress, screenwriter and film director. She worked in both Israeli and French cinema. She won three Ophir Awards and received a total of seven nominations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Udi Aloni</span> Israeli filmmaker, writer and artist

Udi Aloni is an Israeli American filmmaker, writer, visual artist and political activist whose works focus on the interrelationships between art, theory, and action.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marshall Curry</span> American film director (born 1970)

Marshall Curry is an Oscar-winning American documentary director, producer, cinematographer and editor. His films include Street Fight, Racing Dreams, If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front, Point and Shoot, and A Night at the Garden. His first fiction film was the Academy Award-winning short film The Neighbors' Window (2019).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ronit Avni</span> Israeli filmmaker and activist

Ronit Avni is a Canadian entrepreneur, tech founder, human rights advocate, and Peabody Award-winning film director and producer.

<i>Budrus</i> (film) 2009 film

Budrus is a 2009 Israeli/Palestinian/American documentary film directed by Julia Bacha, produced by Ronit Avni, Rula Salameh, and Julia Bacha, and with a screenplay by Bacha. The film is about non-violent demonstrations conducted by the residents of Budrus during the early 2000s to protest against the building of the Israeli West Bank barrier inside of the village.

<i>The Flat</i> (2011 film) 2011 film by Arnon Goldfinger

The Flat is a 2011 feature documentary film, an Israeli–German co-production written and directed by Arnon Goldfinger. It was theatrically released in Israel in September 2011. It played continuously for thirteen months and has received rave reviews. Time Out Tel Aviv chose to place the film at the top of its recommended films for 49 weeks under the headline: "not to be missed" and chose it as one of the 25 most important art works from around the world for 2011. The Flat was theatrically released in Germany in June 2012. The German version of the film features the voice of renowned German actor Axel Milberg taking on the role of narrator Arnon Goldfinger. The Flat was theatrically released in USA in October 2012 and was theatrically released in Hungary in April 2015.

<i>Six Acts</i> (film) Israeli film

Six Acts is a 2012 Israeli film, directed by Jonathan Gurfinkel. The film is set in Herzliya and shows six different encounters between a group of teenagers over the course of a few weeks. The film was written by Rona Segal, and it is inspired by true events. The film was produced by Tazfilm productions and funded by the Israeli Film Fund and Keshet Broadcasting.

Guy Davidi is an Israeli documentary filmmaker. His movie 5 Broken Cameras was nominated for the 2013 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. Davidi also won the Best Directing Award along with Palestinian co-director Emad Burnat in the 2012 Sundance Film Festival and the 2013 international Emmy Award as well as numerous awards worldwide.

Adam Hootnick is a director and producer of film, television, and other short-form content. His work includes What Carter Lost, UNSETTLED, Destination: Team USA, Son of the Congo, Judging Jewell, and Pro Day. He is currently developing his first narrative feature film.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rebekah Wingert-Jabi</span> American documentary film director

Rebekah Wingert-Jabi is an American documentary film director best known for the documentary My Neighbourhood.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi</span> American film director

Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi is an American documentary filmmaker. She was the director, along with her husband, Jimmy Chin, for the film Free Solo, which won the 2019 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. The film profiled Alex Honnold and his free solo climb of El Capitan in June 2017.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yonatan Nir</span> Israeli documentary film director and producer

Yonatan Nir is an Israeli documentary film director and producer and a former photojournalist.

Rachel Leah Jones is an American-Israeli documentary film director and producer. Her documentary film Advocate about the controversial human rights lawyer Leah Tsemel, which she co-directed and co-produced with cinematographer Philippe Bellaïche, premiered at 2019 Sundance Film Festival, and won top prizes at Kraków Film Festival, Thessaloniki Documentary Festival and Docaviv Festival.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Geoff Arbourne</span> British film producer

Geoff Arbourne is a British film producer and founder of Inside Out Films, an independent company that specialises in film production and television production.

<i>Boycott</i> (2021 film) 2021 documentary film

Boycott is a documentary film about three Americans' lawsuits against their state governments in response to anti-BDS laws which caused said governments to cancel their business contracts after they refused to pledge that they would not engage in a boycott of Israel. The film is directed by Julia Bacha; it premiered in 2021.

References

  1. ↑ Interview: Just Vision's Ronit Avni on nonviolent leaders in the Middle East
  2. ↑ Just Vision | Visionaries
  3. ↑ Nancy Updike, Hitting the Wall, LA Weekly, March 11, 2004.
  4. ↑ "The world premiere of Budrus went down well at DIFF". Timeoutdubai.com. December 20, 2009. Retrieved January 17, 2012.
  5. ↑ Jordana Horn, Tribeca Offers Jewish Style and Substance, The Jewish Daily Forward, April 27, 2010.
  6. ↑ http://agenda.euractiv.com/node/80496 Special Screening and Discussion: Just Vision's New Film My Neighbourhood
  7. ↑ "Naila and the Uprising (2017): A Film Review". CAMERA. Retrieved 2020-07-28.
  8. ↑ "Naila and the Uprising: The women who drove the First Intifada". www.aljazeera.com. Retrieved 2020-07-28.
  9. ↑ "Facebook banned an ad about a Palestinian film for all users in Israel". The National. Retrieved 2020-07-28.
  10. ↑ Cohen, Mari (November 18, 2021). "The Right to Boycott is Under Attack". Jewish Currents . Retrieved 2021-11-19.
  11. ↑ Julia Bacha | Staff Bio
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.