For Filipino moviegoers who missed the theatrical release of the Academy Award-winning documentary No Other Land, you’re in luck. On May 3, the Filipino Documentary Society will be screening the feature at 2:00 p.m. at Cubao-based independent cinema Sine Pop. The screening is free and seats are provided on a first come, first served basis.
No Other Land, directed by a collective of Israeli and Palestinian filmmakers, provides an honest and devastating exploration of the Israel-Palestine conflict. Focusing on the occupation of Masafer Yatta, a group of Palestinian communities in the West Bank, the film is primarily told through the eyes of co-director Basel Adra. Having grown up in Masafer Yatta, Adra witnessed Israeli soldiers forcing Palestinians off their land to make way for a military training ground.
While it won Best Academy Feature Film at the 97th Academy Awards on March 2, No Other Land recently made headlines again when Hamdan Ballal, one of the documentary’s Palestinian co-directors, was brutally attacked by Israeli settlers and arrested by Israeli forces. While authorities have not directly linked Ballal’s arrest to No Other Land, his co-directors have stated that the increasing attention surrounding the documentary has put them all at risk. “We came back from the Oscars, and every day since, there is an attack on us,” co-director Basel Adra told the Associated Press. “This might be their revenge on us for making the movie. It feels like a punishment.”
The Filipino Documentary Society has organized several screenings and events to bring relevant, critical, and important documentary cinema to Filipino audiences. The group is best known for staging the Daang Dokyu Festival, which celebrates Filipino documentaries and filmmakers. First started in 2018 by filmmakers Jewel Maranan, Baby Rush Villarama, Kara Magsanoc-Alikpala, and Monster Jimenez, the Filipino Documentary Society aims to champion local storytelling through the art of documentary filmmaking.
