Jewish Film Festival...

Encounter Point

If you lost your loved ones to violence...
If you spent ten years in prison…
If conflict drove you from your home…
Would you seek revenge…or struggle for peace?

A film by Israeli director Ronit Avni (2006);
co-directed, written and edited by Julia Bacha, co-writer and editor of the acclaimed documentary Control Room.

English, Hebrew, Arabic with subtitles; 85 minutes.

Sunday, March 11, 2007 at 7:00PM
Flavin Family Auditorium
School of Management, Room 137
UMass Amherst

Free and open to the public; wheelchair accessible.
Discussion following the film.

Special bonus feature:

West Bank Story (2006), winner of this year's Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film, is a musical comedy about dueling falafel stands in the West Bank—a hilarious parody of West Side Story and Romeo and Juliet which makes a serious statement about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. (This 20-minute film will be shown before Encounter Point.)

Encounter Point is a compelling documentary about Palestinians and Israelis who risk everything—their social standing, their relationship to their families, and even their lives—to promote a nonviolent end to the conflict.

The filmmakers follow a former Israeli settler, a Palestinian ex-prisoner, a bereaved Israeli mother, and a Palestinian bereaved brother as they journey to the unlikeliest places to confront hatred within their communities. The film explores what drives them and other like-minded civilians to overcome anger and grief and instead devote themselves to the struggle for peace.

Encounter Point was produced by an international team of Israeli, Palestinian, North American and Brazilian women at Just Vision, a non-profit organization founded to support the work of grassroots peace activists on all sides of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

The film features original music composed by Kareem Roustom, expressing the common roots of Arabic and Jewish culture. Local clarinetest Ilene Stahl (of the Klezmer Conservatory Band and Klezperanto) is featured on the soundtrack.

An official selection of several international film festivals including Jerusalem, Dubai, Tribeca (New York City),
and San Francisco, where it won the Audience Award
for Best Documentary.

Presented by the Office of Jewish Affairs as part of our Israel Film Festival (March 10-11, 2007), in conjunction with the 2007 Pioneer Valley Jewish Film Festival; and cosponsored by the Center for Student Development; Student Affairs and Campus Life; and Brit Tzedek v'Shalom, the Jewish Alliance for Justice and Peace.


For more information...

Encounter Point web site

West Bank Story web site

Pioneer Valley Jewish Film Festival
(March 10-31, 2007)

Brit Tzedek v'Shalom:
Jewish Alliance for Justice and Peace

Walk on Water
(the companion film in our Jewish Film Festival)


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