De gauche à droite, la réalisatrice israélienne Yael Perlov et le réalisateur palestinien Ahmad Bargouthi. © Alexandra Moullec

Short Film Festival : meet direc­tors Yael Perlov and Ahmad Bargouthi

Short Film Festival : meet direc­tors Yael Perlov and Ahmad Bargouthi

FOCUS – Exceptional guests of the Outdoor Short Film Festival, direc­tors Yael Perlov and Ahmad Bargouthi were also honou­red during a mas­ter class orga­ni­zed on Wednesday 6th July at La Maison de l’International. Aim : talk about their col­la­bo­ra­tion and film crea­tion in conflict area. 

Guillaume Poulet, directeur de la Cinémathèque de Grenoble. © Joël Kermabon

Guillaume Poulet, direc­tor of Grenoble Cinémathèque. © Joël Kermabon

The Outdoor Short Film Festival star­ted Tuesday 5th July 2016. Organized by Grenoble Cinémathèque, this inter­na­tio­nal event pro­vides each year an eclec­tic cine­ma­to­gra­phic pro­gramme. This year, two direc­tors are honou­red : Palestinian Ahmad Bargouthi – direc­tor and pro­du­cer - and Israeli Yael Perlov – Director of the Cinema Department of the Faculty of Arts at Tel Aviv University.

This lat­ter ini­tia­ted “Coffee, water and sports” – three pro­jects gathe­ring almost twenty Israeli-Palestinian short movies-. A mas­ter class was orga­ni­zed Wednesday 6th July at La Maison de l’International to share their experience.

Guillaume Poulet, direc­tor of the Grenoble Cinémathèque explains what attrac­ted him to the two accom­plices : “I wat­ched their Sport pro­gramme […] last year. I found the approach very inter­es­ting. […] I really wan­ted to present a part of the short movies even if it was only in the fra­me­work of our side pro­gramme, out-of-competition”.

He adds : “Their work contri­butes to mutual unders­tan­ding of both nations but I wan­ted to avoid poin­ting out just poli­ti­cal or geo­po­li­ti­cal consi­de­ra­tions, I also wan­ted to empha­size the cinema topic”.

How to film in dif­fi­cult condi­tions ? Why ini­tiate an Israeli-Palestinian pro­ject ? How was the pro­ject recei­ved in Israel and Palestinian ter­ri­to­ries ? These were among the many ques­tion both direc­tors tried to ans­wer during their mas­ter class. Meeting.

« WE FORGOT WHO IS ISRAELI AND WHO IS PALESTINIAN »

Place Gre’net : What dif­fi­cul­ties did you encoun­ter while filming ?

Yael Perlov : It’s the dis­tance bet­ween us. I mean, at the begin­ning we didn’t know each other, we didn’t like each other, there was just the curio­sity. And we were afraid of each other. This is the main psy­cho­lo­gi­cal topic we were confron­ted to.

La réalisatrice israélienne Yael Perlov. © Alexandra Moullec

Israeli direc­tor Yael Perlov. © Alexandra Moullec

I thought he was a ter­ro­rist and he thought I was a sol­dier, not me but maybe my son… So it’s not easy to break this wall of stigma and defor­med image of one has told the other one.

Other pro­blem : I had to bring the Israeli staff from Israel to Palestine at 2 o’clock in the mor­ning with the came­ras. The came­ras didn’t work. We dealt mostly with tech­ni­cal issues and to make it hap­pen. And then we for­got who is Israeli, who is Palestinian, we just wan­ted to make it happen.

Do you hope to bring down phy­si­cal and psy­cho­lo­gi­cal bor­ders by wor­king together ?

Ahmad Bargouthi : We did it in our way but it wasn’t that big effect, we tried to do it and we suc­cee­ded many times, but it was small activities.

Yael Perlov : But we believe that art can cure. We do believe in it. It can­not bring poli­ti­cal solu­tions but I think that both of us we believe that art can cure situa­tions in a very effi­cient way.

De gauche à droite, la réalisatrice israélienne Yael Perlov et le réalisateur palestinien Ahmad Bargouthi. © Alexandra Moullec

Israeli direc­tor Yael Perlov and Palestinian direc­tor Ahmad Bargouthi. © Alexandra Moullec

Sometimes we for­got it, but then we remin­ded each other : okay we are friends but we are ene­mis also. […] That’s the story of our life. The conflict is there all the time, we don’t ignore it, but some­times we for­get it. The Israelians are not aware because there is a lack of infor­ma­tion that’s what we are tal­king about all the time but the Palestinians are very much aware. They [Israelis, edi­tor’s note] are not enough inter­es­ted. That’s why we did it, to put this infor­ma­tion on the table.

During your mas­ter class you quo­ted the Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwich. Is he an inspiration ?

Yael Perlov : For Coffee yes. We both deci­ded to put a cita­tion of Mahmoud Darwich about cof­fee shops and the fact that cof­fee sticks people toge­ther. One of the films we did in Coffee was based on a poem of him : of a per­son who is waking up in Beirut, and his path from the bedroom to the kit­chen to make cof­fee. And it’s while bom­bing Beirut and he writes a poem on this, so we shot it.

« I had the plea­sure to visit his tomb in Palestine, which I was very curious to see because I know that the Israelis refu­sed to burry him in Israel, even though he was born in the north of the coun­try. So I was very curious to see his grave in Ramallah.[…] I like his poems from an artis­tic point of view, not just poli­ti­cal. […] Both of us have chil­dren and we think about future. So we don’t lose hope, that’s why we read this poem : culti­vate the hope. We can­not stop, we will continue ».

Interviewed by Alexandra Moullec

Traduction from Speak English Center

Phone : +33 4 76 50 39 79

1 ave­nue du Vercors, 38600 Fontaine FRANCE

AM

Auteur

Laisser un commentaire

Votre adresse e-mail ne sera pas publiée. Les champs obligatoires sont indiqués avec *

Ce site utilise Akismet pour réduire les indésirables. En savoir plus sur comment les données de vos commentaires sont utilisées.

A lire aussi sur Place Gre'net

De gauche à droite : le réalisateur Berni Goldblat, Zanyar Azizi, sa traductrice et Nicolas Tixier, président de la Cinémathèque de Grenoble. © Alexandra Moullec
Clôture du fes­ti­val du film court en plein air : une édi­tion 2016 entre passé et avenir

FOCUS - La place Saint-André était noire de monde pour la clôture de la 39e édition du Festival du film court en plein air, samedi 9 Lire plus

De gauche à droite, la réalisatrice israélienne Yael Perlov et le réalisateur palestinien Ahmad Bargouthi. © Alexandra Moullec
Festival du film court : ren­contre avec Yael Perlov et Ahmad Bargouthi

FOCUS - Invités exceptionnels du Festival du film court, la réalisatrice Yael Perlov et le réalisateur palestinien Ahmad Bargouthi étaient également mis à l'honneur lors Lire plus

Guy Tosatto devant "Iris blanc" © Adèle Duminy
Are Georgia O’Keeffe’s pain­tings sexual ?

FOCUS - The Grenoble museum is proud to announce its exhibition, dedicated to the American artist Georgia O'Keeffe, for the first time in France. Who? Lire plus

Festival du film court © Joël Kermabon - placegrenet.fr
Clap de fin pour le fes­ti­val du film court de Grenoble

REPORTAGE VIDÉO - La 38e édition du festival du film court de plein air organisé par la Cinémathèque de Grenoble s'est achevée ce dimanche 12 Lire plus

"Beginnings", film d'animation d'Hadil Hassan, en compétition dans la sélection jeune public. © Hadil Hassan
Le Festival du film court s’ouvre à l’international

FOCUS – Le court-métrage est de nouveau à l’honneur du 7 au 12 juillet 2015. Le Festival du film court en plein air de Grenoble Lire plus

© Site de la Cinémathèque de Grenoble
Projets à foi­son pour la Cinémathèque

FOCUS - Nombreuses projections, parcours cinématographique, concours de scénarios… La Cinémathèque de Grenoble est repartie sur les chapeaux de roues depuis sa réouverture, en septembre Lire plus

Flash Info

Les plus lus

Agenda

Je partage !