A Spark of Hope

I don't know that I could survive if I did not encounter the occasional news story that re-inspires hope that the human race has merit and can join together to reinvent our world.

Worldpress.org posted a piece, A Palestinian Village that Started a Movement, that started my day off right:

A new feature documentary film Budrus, produced by the Washington, DC and Jerusalem-based organization Just Vision, documents nonviolent Israeli and Palestinian civilian efforts to resolve the conflict. It tells the story of Budrus, the village where this movement was born....

The movement aims to stage nonviolent protests to change the route of the separation wall off of Palestinian-owned lands....

The film captures images of Palestinians weeping over lost olive trees, Israeli border police struggling over whether to use violence against Israeli peace activists, and Palestinian youth being chastised because their rock throwing at Israeli soldiers threatens to turn a peaceful movement into a violent confrontation.

Some of the most moving scenes show Palestinian women jumping away from bulldozers and a female Israeli soldier establishing a rapport with Palestinian women in Budrus. While this film captures the story of this village in particular, its larger goal is to show that change can be accomplished in the Middle East through peaceful means."

Just Vision has posted a trailer:



I will try to "stay tuned" and will post when the movie becomes available in theaters or online.

UPDATE 2010-05-19 08:02 -0400 --

Budrus was shown on Apr 28 at the Tribeca Film Festival (an event I swear to myself each year I will attend "next year" ... I'm such a stick in the mud!). I hope it returns to New York soon...

There is an official Budrus site that lists screenings here.