Gaza Strip

Rating:
Summary: Great film
Review: This documentary was a huge relief after watching so much useless Hollywood product. "Gaza Strip" is a real film about real people and real issues -- the best film I have seen about the Palestinians. Anyone looking for the inside track on what's happening in the Gaza Strip need look no farther!
Be warned: Some of material is too graphic for children.

Rating:
Summary: Not Fox News ...
Review: ... And I for one am very thankful that this documentary takes the time to show some detail on the Palestinian side, rather than play this silly, false game of "fair and balanced". The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not a fair or balanced conflict between equals -- it's a situation of brutal military occupation of Palestinian land by Israel that has gone on for the last 35 years in the case of the Gaza Strip and West Bank. So "bravo!" to a film that is finally courageous enough not to pretend that the Palestinians and Israelis are on an equal footing, or that good journalism means showing both sides as if they are the same. They aren't the same: One side is living under occupation, the other side is the occupier. The shame of it is that many Americans don't seem to know which is which.

Rating:
Summary: my highest recommendation for this documentary!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Review: i cannot think of a dvd i can higher recommend at this time than this. the conflict in occupied palestine is a horrible situation. the crimes that israel is getting away with is absolutely incredible, and the lack of information that is accurately being put out to the world is a huge contributing factor to the continuation of this disaster. i HIGHLY RECOMMEND THAT EVERYONE WATCH THIS DOCUMENTARY AND SEE FOR YOURSELF. why should machine gun fire be taking place outside of a school for no apparent reason. why should homes be bulldozed without advance warning to residents who are just barely able to get out alive. why should a wall be built to keep out palestinians. for too long the blame has been placed on terrorits for the justification of violence against children and others in this land. there is clearly an unfair advantage, and that is the military strength of israel against palestinians. this documentary is not the only info out there of truth but it sure shows the truth beyond a bias that is usually given. this is not a choppy put together film, there are many scenes caught where you can clearly see it wasnt staged, but everyday life for the unfortunate residents of this land. please view this immediately and then help to change the situation at hand.

Rating:
Summary: And the truth shall make you free...
Review: Truth comes from the lens of an independent filmaker's camera. This DVD was very very difficult for me to watch in its entirety. This a reality from hell that probably 99.9999% of Americans are not aware of - and a child's view of hell at that.

I am extremely disappointed that my government and my tax dollars support the making of this tragedy-in-progress in the Middle East... a superb documentary, intelligent and moving.
Montoya

Rating:
Summary: Honest
Review: Gaza Strip is an honest account of what it is like to be a child in Gaza Strip. I loved this movie because it has no rehetoric,no spin, no preaching and no politics. Only a camera and a boy. At times it is so disturbing you just want to turn away and close your eyes. It took great courage to make such a movie.

Rating:
Summary: "Never Again" Happens Again and Again
Review: "Gaza Strip," is the most potent documentaries of modern tiems. There are no angles. No one asks who started the war, or whose fault are the deaths. James Longley follows the daily routine of a kid in Gaza and the camera witnesses nothing staged, but the daily challenges and thereats to his life which the kid must navigate in order to survive.

What impressed me the most about the main child in the documentary (but also about children I have met in developing world in general) is the amazing breadth of knowledge of world affiars he has. He is barely literate and sells papers to help support his fmaily, but still he is well aware of the world leaders and international organizations that have contibuted to his living circumstances either by instituionalizing discriminatory policies or by doing nothing while Israel breaks international law.

Only those who are very secure can exist in ignorance of foreign leaders and international polcies. Those whose lives are insecure are very aware of the world palyers, because it is the decisions made overseas that jeopardize their way of life. The US gives more aid to Israel than to any other developing country. Most of it is received in the form of weapons.

This week is the anniversary of the liberation of Aushwitz when the world is saying never agin will we have the horrors that we saw in World War II, but it is empty rhetoric. Entire communities continue to be attacked by states; excpet at least in the Nazis paid for their own horrows, more and more often in modern times the US funds other states' attrocities. The Palestinians are living in increasingly ghettoized communities, on land being illegally taken away from them at the hands of the Isralei state (which should not be confused with all Israeli people, because there are many Israeli human rights groups that deplore such policies and fight them).

However, this film does not analyze policy, or poit fingers at where the weaopons come form. it does not talk about the water and land still being grabbed. It merely follows one kid around and introduces the viewer to the kid's immediate circle of acquaintances. The violence and politics are only background characters. Occasionally a friend is killed, but the incident is as if an unseen boogey man killed him, because the film does not attempt to explain the why and how such conditions were created to permit children to die so easily.

No child should ever have to live in such circumstances. Every American should be required to view this film, because without US aid, these circumstances probably would not have been created.

Rating:
Summary: Hypocracy at its peak
Review: This film was shot from angles that are deceptive and biased. For those out there who are interested in learning about human rights abuses, I recommend watching the videos smuggled out of North Korea. In these videos you will see real suffering committed against children and the innocent. The entire Palestinian Intifadah has not even cost 1,000 lives while the North KOrean government has led to the death of three million of its own people.

Let's put things into perspective, Please!

Rating:
Summary: more than a simple picture
Review: Unlike the more recent HBO production about the same subject, "Death in Gaza," "Gaza Strip" doesn't lead viewers to believe that the main problem faced by Palestinian children is indoctrination against Israel. Instead, this film makes an unvarnished portrait of life under Israeli military occupation.

The main character here is also a 13-year-old boy who throws stones at the Israeli soldiers -- but he's driven by his own convictions rather than older militants. And the film notes that his father actively tries to prevent him from participating in the struggle -- even tying him up at home to keep him from throwing rocks.

And more than a simple picture of Palestinian life in Gaza, this film digs deep into the psychology of the subjects -- parts of the film are literally an internal dialogue taken from the interviews. We are left with a strong and moving picture of the human cost of Israel's military occupation. This is a deeply beautiful and daring film that refuses to play into the hands of Israeli anti-Palestinian propaganda. As U.S. citizens who finance the Israeli occupation with our tax dollars, we all need to understand what is taking place. Watch it and loan it to all your friends!

Rating:
Summary: Powerful and gripping
Review: This film is one of the most moving and informative documentaries I've ever seen. Children, accustomed to being shot at for sport by Israeli soldiers, very nonchalantly ducking and going about with whatever it was they were doing...going to school, playing, etc. I remember similar scenes..but not quite as bad as Gaza...from South Central Los Angeles. The film's main protagonist, a young boy selling newspapers to help support his struggling family, cannot be more than 12 years old. The maturity of his words and the deep pain in his eyes betray a young boy who will never have a real childhood...like a raisin that never had a chance to be a grape. We see only staccato-like glimpses of his childhood games. There is a particularly moving scene in which this boy, Muhammad Hijazi, carries on a hypothetical inquisitive and somewhat fatalistic dialogue with God as to whether he will go to Paradise or Hell...Muhammad instead chooses a mountain between Heaven and Hell as life has taught him that he cannot trust in the promises of either God or Satan...ergo he would rather spend eternity alone. This film shows us a truly human face of Palestinian life...while the American media is more concerned about the love-lives of movie stars. I highly recommend this film to everyone. It is in everyone's interest to understand not only the Palestinians' despair and hope, but those of any marginalized group.



Rating:
Summary: "In the end, I am nothing."
Review: The Gaza Strip is 28 miles long and 4 miles wide. In this geographical area, live 1.2 million Palestinians. Filmmaker James Longley doesn't dwell on the "who started what" aspect of the Israeli-Palestinian question--instead the focus is to show glimpses of life in the Gaza Strip. And the scenes in the film are grim. The documentary conveys chaos, unrelenting poverty, and hopelessness in each frame The film begins in the spring of 2001, and a great deal of the footage focuses on Mohammed, a 13 year-old boy who sells newspapers to help support his family. He left school at the seasoned age of 8. Mohammed discusses many of the friends he had who are now dead, and he also admits that he likes to throw stones "to defend the homeland."

Street scenes include gunfire which sends schoolchildren scattering, but some children are so inured to it, they seem merely curious. Some children express a desire to grow up and become martyrs. In one scene, the appearance of an Israeli vehicle shows men smashing the nearest boulder (and there's plenty due to the piles of rubble laying all over the place), and then loading sling-type devices with stones to fling at the Israelis. In amongst the men, there are younger boys who clearly feel the excitement at hand.

Other scenes show beaches heavy with traffic--vehicles stuck in the sand, and a long line of pedestrians who are forced to use the beach after the roads are closed. Palestinians express their frustration and the belief that "the only left is to push us into the sea." Other scenes show hospitals chaotic with causalities. One scene in particular is extremely gruesome. Officials from Doctors without Borders are interviewed in the film, and DVD extras include commentary from the director, a map of the Gaza Strip, and a slideshow. The saddest element to the film remains the children who nurse strong political opinions and exhibit the pitiful maturity that comes with daily violence and poverty. For anyone the slightest bit interested in Palestine, I recommend this haunting documentary--displacedhuman