Arab-Israeli Dialogue

synopsis

A Palestinian poet, Rashed Hussein and an Israeli journalist, Amos Kenan met in the basement of Rogosin’s Bleecker Street Cinema – old friends and representatives of two nations that in the 1970s set off on a long journey to mutual understanding and co-habitation on a shared territory, a journey which remains unfinished even today. To recall their remote homeland, inaccessible to Hussein, who emigrated, Rogosin edits in the iconic scenes of the discussed locations and people. Similarly riven is the dialogue between the two intellectuals who fundamentally refuse the role of each other’s enemy that is forced on them.

“It was a very simple film, very crude, but very honest and very different from what was being made at the time. It was criticized by extremists on both sides, yet many people liked it because it was different.” (Lionel Rogosin)

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Source: https://festival.ilcinemaritrovato.it/film/arab-israeli-dialogue/

biography

Lionel Rogosin (1924–2000) was an American independent documentary filmmaker for whom the filmmaking was a part of loosely understood political activism. He ran the Bleecker Street Cinema in New York and together with Jonas Mekas he was one of the founding members of New American Cinema group.

more about film

director:

Lionel Rogosin

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