Children Unite in Promises on ITVS Indies Showcase

The documentary Promises began streaming free this past Sunday on ITVS Indies Showcase and will be available to watch free until the morning of Wednesday, August 3.

What is it really like to live in Jerusalem? Promises offers touching and fresh insight into the Middle East conflict when filmmakers Justine Shapiro, B. Z. Goldberg, and Carlos Bolado travel to this complex and charged city to see what seven children — Palestinian and Israeli — think about war, peace, and just growing up.

Living within 20 minutes of each other, these children are nevertheless locked in separate worlds. Through candid interviews, the film explores a legacy of distrust and bitterness, but signs of hope emerge when some of the children dare to cross the checkpoints to meet one another.

Tags: children, conflict, Israel, israeli, middle east, Palestine, palestinian, peace, resolution, war

Jerusalem Gay Bar as Metaphor for Peace and Unity

Filmmaker Yun Jong Suh

Filmmaker Yun Jong Suh discusses how she came to make a film about the only gay bar in Jerusalem. Her film, City of Borders, airs on public television this month. Check listings in your area here.

As a Buddhist Korean American, I am frequently asked why I am interested in the Middle East and how I discovered Shushan, Jerusalem’s only gay bar. I’m not the most obvious candidate to tell this story. But I believe my outsider status proved to be instrumental in making City of Borders.

I’m drawn to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict because I intimately relate to both sides of the war. Like the Israelis, I grew up in constant fear of my neighboring country, North Korea, attacking my small village in South Korea. I did not see North Koreans as humans but as demons determined to kill us if they had the chance. My childhood playtime often involved devising escape routes and places to hide in my home if North Koreans ever invaded.

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Tags: gay, Israel, LGBT, Palestine