Budrus: It Takes a Village to Unite the Most Divided People on Earth (2009)

3

Watch Budrus for free on the film's official website.

Budrus is an award-winning feature documentary film about a Palestinian community organizer, Ayed Morrar, who unites local Fatah and Hamas members along with Israeli supporters in an unarmed movement to save his village of Budrus from destruction by Israel’s Separation Barrier.

Success eludes them until his 15-year-old daughter, Iltezam, launches a women’s contingent that quickly moves to the front lines. Struggling side by side, father and daughter unleash an inspiring, yet little-known, movement in the Occupied Palestinian Territories that is still gaining ground today. In an action-filled documentary chronicling this movement from its infancy, Budrus shines a light on people who choose nonviolence to confront a threat. 

The movie is directed by award-winning filmmaker Julia Bacha (co-writer and editor of Control Room and co-director Encounter Point), and produced by Bacha, Palestinian journalist Rula Salameh, and filmmaker and human rights advocate Ronit Avni (formerly of WITNESS, Director of Encounter Point).

Read more information about the crew and cast.

While this film is about one Palestinian village, it tells a much bigger story about what is possible in the Middle East. Ayed succeeded in doing what many people believe to be impossible: he united feuding Palestinian political groups, including Fatah and Hamas; he brought women to the heart of the struggle by encouraging his daughter Iltezam's leadership; and welcoming hundreds of Israelis to cross into Palestinian territory for the first time and join this nonviolent effort. Many of the activists who joined the villagers of Budrus are now continuing to support nonviolence efforts in villages from Bil’in to Nabi Saleh to Sheikh Jarrah in East Jerusalem.

Budrus includes diverse voices-- from the Palestinian leaders of the movement and their Israeli allies to an Israeli military spokesman, Doron Spielman, and Yasmine Levy, the Israeli border police captain stationed in the village at that time. While many documentaries about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict either romanticize the notion of peace, or dwell entirely on the suffering of victims to the conflict, this film focuses on the success of a Palestinian-led nonviolent movement.

In a keynote address immediately following the world premiere of Budrus at a Gala screening at the Dubai International Film Festival in December 2009, Her Majesty Queen Noor Al Hussein of Jordan praised the film, stating that Budrus"Gives an enormous amount of hope... It's a story which will have an impact and can help bring [about] change.”

For information regarding the rights of the film, and how to bring it to your community, visit:

justvision.org
Trending Videos
Gaza Fights For Freedom | Directed by Abby Martin (2019)
84 min - This debut feature film by journalist Abby Martin began while reporting in Palestine, where she was denied entry into Gaza by the Israeli government on the accusation she was a “propagandist.” So...
Schooling the World (2010)
66 min - If you wanted to change an ancient culture in a generation, how would you do it? You would change the way it educates its children. The U.S. Government knew this in the 19th century when it...
Sure, Hamas are Nazis
21 min - "Comparing a state or people with Nazi Germany has a powerful and compelling effect on many people. It achieves the goal of dehumanizing an entire civilian population." Go to...
I Watched The Hamas Massacre Film. Here's My Thoughts. | Owen Jones
26 min - I was invited to watch a screening - organised by the IDF - of the Hamas atrocities committed on 7th October. Here's my response in detail. "When you learn of the horrors which humans are...
How Wolves Change Rivers | George Monbiot
4 min - When wolves were reintroduced to Yellowstone National Park in the United States after being absent nearly 70 years, the most remarkable "trophic cascade" occurred. What is a trophic cascade and...
Lowkey Exposes Stuart Seldowitz
6 min - Lowkey uncovers the powerful past of New York’s most famous racist ranter Join the Future of Journalism: https://www.patreon.com/DoubleDownNews 
We Exposed The Defense Industry's Biggest Lie
15 min - Politicians and corporate execs want to convince us that war creates jobs and economic stimulus for all. In reality, defense spending has become yet another way for wealth to transfer from the...
HyperNormalisation (2016)
161 min - We live in a time of great uncertainty and confusion. Events keep happening that seem inexplicable and out of control. Donald Trump, Brexit, the War in Syria, the endless migrant crisis, random...
Trending Articles
Thought-Provoking Comics
Permaculture
Gun Violence and Reform
*Recommended*

Donate to Support Films For Action 

For $5 a month, you'll gain access to over 50 of our favorite world-changing documentaries while keeping us ad-free and financially independent.

Subscribe here | Explore the films

Your support helps grow our 5000+ video library, which is 99% free thanks to our patrons!

 

We're a People-Powered Library 

Sign up to add a documentary or video to our library and we'll help promote it. Half of our best content was added by members. Submissions just need to be embeddable (like from Youtube or Vimeo), and related to changing the world. 

We'd love you to become a regular contributor! Cheers,
The Films For Action team