film on the Israeli Black Panthers
the voice of common sense | 26.04.2004 18:51 | World
this is about a film which talks about the israeli black panthers, a group of young oriental jews who in the sixties decided to rebel against the israeli state because they felt they were mistreated by european jews. they called themselves the black panthers
JAY SCHWARTZ
Bulletin Staff
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An ethnic group vows to use violence against the Israeli government in order to stop the injustices committed against them.
(This is not about Palestinians.)
A group called the Black Panthers riots against police, throws Molotov cocktails and distributes food to poor people.
(This is not taking place in Oakland.)
Throw out your road map. The documentary "Have You Heard About The Panthers?" will take you on a wild ride that will destabilize your intifada-filled mind and make you very angry. The film will show in the Bay Area as part of the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival,
Thirty-plus years ago, Mizrachi and Sephardi Jews in Israel were living below the poverty line in numbers grotesquely disproportionate to the Ashkenazi population. Inspired by Huey Newton and company, a group of Sephardi youth in the late '60s organized their own Black Panther movement in the Musrara neighborhood of Jerusalem.
The Israeli Black Panthers protested their living conditions, stole milk from wealthier neighborhoods and gave it to poor Sephardi families, and generally considered the Israeli government to be comprised of an Ashkenazi elite that greedily manipulated and neglected Jews of other ethnicities.
Filmmaker Nissim Mossek had been moved to join the growing movement and decided to do what he did best: make a film, which captured the Panthers' struggle. Mossek's black-and-white movie (of the same name as his current release) was outlawed in Israel. Years later, every print of the film -- even Mossek's -- was thought to be lost or ruined, until a scratched copy turned up in the archives of an Israeli university.
For Mossek, the existence of the print awoke a long-dormant part of his life. He set out to contextualize the old film in light of all that had happened since. Using parts from the old film, Mossek tracked down the core members of the Israeli Black Panther movement to use for his new effort.
At first, "Have You Heard About the Panthers?" seems annoyingly amateurish. The color video of a bunch of aging hippies on a road trip to round up their long-lost colleagues feels awkward and self-indulgent. As the juxtaposition of footage from the old film and present-day video takes off, however, the shocking details make you sit up straight.
A member of the core group says of the Six-Day War, "Once [Israel's] existence is assured, we'll be at each other's throats."
Prime Minister Golda Meir says, "How can a Jewish hand in the state of Israel throw a Molotov cocktail at another Jew?"
The modern, older Panthers travel around Israel collecting their comrades and try to explain and justify the source of their anger. The group excavates stories of homes being sold out from under the Mizrachi Jews who live there, "urban renewal" schemes that simply lined the pockets of Ashkenazi developers, and various other bleak examples of exploitation.
The film is spiced up by Mossek's eye for humor and human character. The personalities of the veteran Panthers vary immensely, as well as their fates. Some have become wealthy, others still live in squalor. They range from jokers to grim-faced, haggard old men. They all take joy in being together again after so many years as they embark on a somewhat absurd quest to track down members with whom they have lost touch.
Their journey culminates when they find a comrade who had been one of their most ferocious street fighters -- they carry a photo of him laughing while being beaten by Israeli police. The aging band of Panthers now finds him at an Ashkenazi synagogue, newly observant. He is passive and quiet, a victim of harsh treatment by forced psychiatric incarceration. Of his days as a Panther, he exclaims, "We were lions."
Overall, "Panthers" casts a devastating light on contemporary Israel. It is unapologetically one-sided -- and that side isn't exactly pro-Likud. No matter. The bitter words of starving Sephardi Jews toward the Meir government are uncanny -- uncanny because through the decades they echo the bitter words of Palestinian families toward the Sharon government.
Mossek's movie is so much more than an allegory for the intifada.
The complex consequences of history, the ironic turns of friendship, the color of cultures within our own that are forgotten. These are the reasons to see this movie, to never forget that there is always more to the world than what we choose to presume at any given moment.
"Have You Heard About The Panthers?" screens as part of the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival at 3 p.m. Tuesday, July 22 at the Castro; at 3:15 p.m. Monday, July 28 at Wheeler Auditorium; and 6 p.m. Tuesday, July 29 at CineArts. Information: www.sfjff.org or (925) 275-9490.
Bulletin Staff
Other Film Festival Stories
• Complete schedule for
23rd annual Jewish Film Fest
• Uproar likely over intifada
films in festival
• Israeli filmmaker raises
questions any parent would
• Unforgettable 'last letter'
to son should not be missed
• Artist's intoxicating film assembles
a mosaic of Israeli-Arab struggle
• Paired films contrast lives
of settlers, Arab neighbors
• A strange saga is rescued
by the intellectual prowess
in 'Burial'
• 'Manhood' an odd, disappointing
choice for fest opener
An ethnic group vows to use violence against the Israeli government in order to stop the injustices committed against them.
(This is not about Palestinians.)
A group called the Black Panthers riots against police, throws Molotov cocktails and distributes food to poor people.
(This is not taking place in Oakland.)
Throw out your road map. The documentary "Have You Heard About The Panthers?" will take you on a wild ride that will destabilize your intifada-filled mind and make you very angry. The film will show in the Bay Area as part of the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival,
Thirty-plus years ago, Mizrachi and Sephardi Jews in Israel were living below the poverty line in numbers grotesquely disproportionate to the Ashkenazi population. Inspired by Huey Newton and company, a group of Sephardi youth in the late '60s organized their own Black Panther movement in the Musrara neighborhood of Jerusalem.
The Israeli Black Panthers protested their living conditions, stole milk from wealthier neighborhoods and gave it to poor Sephardi families, and generally considered the Israeli government to be comprised of an Ashkenazi elite that greedily manipulated and neglected Jews of other ethnicities.
Filmmaker Nissim Mossek had been moved to join the growing movement and decided to do what he did best: make a film, which captured the Panthers' struggle. Mossek's black-and-white movie (of the same name as his current release) was outlawed in Israel. Years later, every print of the film -- even Mossek's -- was thought to be lost or ruined, until a scratched copy turned up in the archives of an Israeli university.
For Mossek, the existence of the print awoke a long-dormant part of his life. He set out to contextualize the old film in light of all that had happened since. Using parts from the old film, Mossek tracked down the core members of the Israeli Black Panther movement to use for his new effort.
At first, "Have You Heard About the Panthers?" seems annoyingly amateurish. The color video of a bunch of aging hippies on a road trip to round up their long-lost colleagues feels awkward and self-indulgent. As the juxtaposition of footage from the old film and present-day video takes off, however, the shocking details make you sit up straight.
A member of the core group says of the Six-Day War, "Once [Israel's] existence is assured, we'll be at each other's throats."
Prime Minister Golda Meir says, "How can a Jewish hand in the state of Israel throw a Molotov cocktail at another Jew?"
The modern, older Panthers travel around Israel collecting their comrades and try to explain and justify the source of their anger. The group excavates stories of homes being sold out from under the Mizrachi Jews who live there, "urban renewal" schemes that simply lined the pockets of Ashkenazi developers, and various other bleak examples of exploitation.
The film is spiced up by Mossek's eye for humor and human character. The personalities of the veteran Panthers vary immensely, as well as their fates. Some have become wealthy, others still live in squalor. They range from jokers to grim-faced, haggard old men. They all take joy in being together again after so many years as they embark on a somewhat absurd quest to track down members with whom they have lost touch.
Their journey culminates when they find a comrade who had been one of their most ferocious street fighters -- they carry a photo of him laughing while being beaten by Israeli police. The aging band of Panthers now finds him at an Ashkenazi synagogue, newly observant. He is passive and quiet, a victim of harsh treatment by forced psychiatric incarceration. Of his days as a Panther, he exclaims, "We were lions."
Overall, "Panthers" casts a devastating light on contemporary Israel. It is unapologetically one-sided -- and that side isn't exactly pro-Likud. No matter. The bitter words of starving Sephardi Jews toward the Meir government are uncanny -- uncanny because through the decades they echo the bitter words of Palestinian families toward the Sharon government.
Mossek's movie is so much more than an allegory for the intifada.
The complex consequences of history, the ironic turns of friendship, the color of cultures within our own that are forgotten. These are the reasons to see this movie, to never forget that there is always more to the world than what we choose to presume at any given moment.
"Have You Heard About The Panthers?" screens as part of the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival at 3 p.m. Tuesday, July 22 at the Castro; at 3:15 p.m. Monday, July 28 at Wheeler Auditorium; and 6 p.m. Tuesday, July 29 at CineArts. Information: www.sfjff.org or (925) 275-9490.
the voice of common sense