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Macky Alston reviews the film Promises
Promises
Promises, a film about seven Palestinian and Israeli children, was shot over a period of four years between the first and second Intifadas. From 1997 to 2000 is remembered as a time of relative peace in Jerusalem and the West Bank.
Yet the presence of checkpoints, soldiers and terrorists are pervasive throughout this documentary and the tension is palpable. The children filmed live within thirty minutes of each other but are completely cut off from one another. The camera travels from an ultra-orthodox Jewish school to the Deheishe refugee camp, from Beit-El, an Israeli settlement in the West Bank, to the Muslim Quarter in Jerusalem as it follows the children playing sports, on the school playground, visiting a Palestinian father imprisoned by the Israelis or simply enjoying a birthday party.
The undercurrent of childlike innocence and hope severed by checkpoints and an uneasy truce underscores the urgent need for increased interfaith understanding, and the need for chaplains to reach across the religious divide to communities of other faiths.
The children in Promises are very articulate, humorous, hopeful and angry. Their chilling comments often echo adult sentiments about the Middle East chaos, but their views on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict are also often unique and incisive.
In one scene, some of the children choose to meet, and after a harrowing journey by an Israeli family to a Palestinian refugee camp, the children use broken English to communicate, so that no one in the Palestinian refugee camp hears Hebrew spoken, which would endanger them all. Their day is filled with joy, sports, good food and, at the end, a heart-rending discussion about their lives and chances to meet again.
Promises received a 2002 Academy Award nomination for Best Documentary, and won two Emmy Awards for Best Documentary and Outstanding Background Analysis.
Macky Alston is the director of Auburn Media,
a division of the Center for Multifaith Education
at Auburn Theological Seminary committed to supporting,
cultivating and promoting powerful, engaging, balanced
and responsible media on religion, spirituality
and ethics. He is a graduate of Union Theological
Seminary and an award-winning documentary filmmaker.
Completed: 2001
Running Time: 116 Minutes
Producers/Directors/Writers: Justine Shapiro, B.Z. Goldberg
Co-Director/Editor: Carlos Belado
Camera: Yoram Millo, Ilan Buchbinder
Sound: Regelio Villanueva
Executive Producer: Janet Cole
If you are interested in purchasing this film, you can do so on the Hartley Film Foundation Web site at www.hartleyfoundation.org. Just click on “Masterworks” on the homepage for more information. The cost for a VHS is $24.95 and for a DVD the cost is $26.06.
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