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Israeli Delegation Tries to Block “Miral” Screening at United Nations

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  Miral is the final film in the Julian Schnabel: Artist Director Retrospective.  This Friday, director Julian Schnabel will introduce Miral for its Minneapolis premiere and engage in an audience Q & A immediately following the screening. Saturday, Julian will sit down with Walker chief curator Darsie Alexander for a Regis Dialogue. Following its world [...]

 

Julian Schnabel directs actors on the set of Miral in Jerusalem

Miral is the final film in the Julian Schnabel: Artist Director Retrospective.  This Friday, director Julian Schnabel will introduce Miral for its Minneapolis premiere and engage in an audience Q & A immediately following the screening. Saturday, Julian will sit down with Walker chief curator Darsie Alexander for a Regis Dialogue.

Following its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival, Miral has toured festivals, and is scheduled to screen tonight at the United Nations General Assembly. But this film is dealing with material so controversial that the Israeli delegation has stepped in to try to stop the screening. Upset by its portrayal of Israel, deputy chief of Israel’s delegation to the UN Haim Waxman called it “a clearly political and one-sided film, which advances the Palestinian agenda…it is difficult to understand the intolerable ease with which the decision was made to screen a commercial film in the General Assembly hall–something which in itself is unusual and unacceptable.” Waxman continued, insisting that this film brings the “central stage, again, to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, which already receives too much attention at the UN.”

Despite their complaints, the General Assembly president, Swiss diplomat Joseph Deiss, has denied requests to cancel the screening saying that the film tells a story about peace. Rula Jebrael (the film’s screenwriter and author of the book that the film is based on) responded, saying “Miral is a story about human beings, Palestinian, Israeli, Muslim, Jewish and Christian, and it is a film about love, education, understanding and peace. ” Schnabel, said of the film, “Obviously it’s a Palestinian story, but it’s very important that an American Jewish person tell a Palestinian story.”

Harvey Weinstein, a producer and distributer of Miral has been defending this project since he signed on to distribute it, appearing on CNN with Piers Morgan and elsewhere. In response to criticism, Weinstein said “The simple answer is if you don’t tell the story from both sides, you will never understand…I know you’re not supposed to be political, but you can’t exist in this world if you aren’t.” He continued in a later interview, saying “As a Jewish American, I can categorically state that I would not be releasing a film that was flagrantly biased towards Israel or Judaism. Miral tells a story about a young Palestinian woman, but that does not make it a polemic. By stifling discussion or pre-judging a work of art, we only perpetuate the prejudice that does so much harm.”

The UN Israeli delegation is not the only group trying to stop this film, either, with involvement from such groups as the American Jewish Committee, who wrote a letter urging Deiss to cancel tonight’s screening of the film.

As a staff member in the Walker Film/Video department and a Jewish American myself, I can’t help but feel entangled in this debate. With renewed Israeli settlements in Palestinian territory, and increasing condemnation from the UN and the world, a film bringing attention to the issue is not the problem. The problem is the Israeli-Palestinian conflict itself. And the Israeli-Palestinian conflict cannot be cured by censoring discussion.

This controversy is reminiscent of another notoriously controversial film showing at the Walker next month. Negatives were almost burned and screenings were almost canceled because of the political content of this other film, but the director had this to say:

And, then, the mistake that Schafer made was not to believe me when I made the best showmanship suggestion I’ve ever made, which was that Citizen Kane should be run in tents all over America, advertised as “This is the film that we can’t run in your local movie house.” If we’d done that, we would have made $5 million with it.

—Orson Welles, This is Orson Welles, Harper Collins, 1992

 

For more information, see:

Interview with Julian Schnabel, BBC Article, Haaretz Article, LATimes Article, Guardian Article, Deadline Article, Jewish Telegraphic Agency Article, YNetNews Article, Jerusalem Post Article

 

Beyond “Before Night Falls”

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Deborah Meyer is a photographer based in Minneapolis and Mérida who holds a long-standing background as photo stylist, producer, and co-designer for both local and national advertising projects. In addition to her freelance work, she maintains a part time position at Walker Art Center. Deborah has been an instructor at IFP Media Arts for the [...]

Deborah Meyer is a photographer based in Minneapolis and Mérida who holds a long-standing background as photo stylist, producer, and co-designer for both local and national advertising projects. In addition to her freelance work, she maintains a part time position at Walker Art Center. Deborah has been an instructor at IFP Media Arts for the past twelve years. Her fine art photography has been exhibited locally and purchased for publication. 

Iglesia de Santa Ana, Centro, Mérida, Yucatán ©Deborah Meyer

Headed south of Cancun for a self imposed research trip, I detoured across the jungle for a quick weekend to explore Mérida before embarking on my work. Charming, intimate, and beautiful, Mérida invited the resulting project to happen within her city walls instead. Return trips, a house purchase, neighbors from Cuba, Manolo Rivera (1941-2006), Manolo’s adopted son Mark Swain and stays at their hotel-museum have all became part of my relationship with Mérida. Manolo, I would eventually learn, was known worldwide for his extensive Latin American and international art collections, and that in the 1980’s and 90’s supported many desperate-to-leave Cuban artists. In the presence of this inspiring figure, I knew his hotel was the place for me to teach a photographic workshop, which Manolo fully supported. I learned a little more about him during a recent drive around Mérida with Mark Swain.

While heading to Manolo’s mansion, I was told that Manolo had been introduced to and became friends with Julian Schnabel, that much of the filming of Before Night Falls happened in Mérida, including the interior of Manolo’s mansion and a neighboring residence. Manolo’s is the mansion where Julian, Dennis Hopper (he was along for the fun) and Javier Bardem temporarily resided with Manolo while the project was going on. While Mark had little interest in being an extra in the film, he instead found himself hanging out with with Dennis. Manolo on the other hand, made an appearance in the film. To myself I wondered, why Mérida for the location? My neighbor Diosmel chose Mérida to live because of its resemblance to Cuba. He said, “The colonial and French inspired architecture here reminded me of the inner pueblos or provinces in Cuba . . . Weather patterns here are very similar to the ones back home.” I suspect the light is similar as well. And all those pretty pastel and white buildings in Mérida are certainly not unlike colors applied to buildings in Cuba. Manolo’s mansion, according to Mark, is one of the buildings in Mérida whose architectural style resembles styles in Cuba, which is why that site was chosen to operate from. And the friendship with Manolo of course.

As Mark and I arrived at the mansion, his stories unfolded about Julian’s seemingly inexhaustible energy, about how, despite being there to work on a film, “he also found time to get out and find objects anywhere and everywhere from the area, which he took back to the residence and turned into art. The dining room is dedicated to Julian’s art, and the main piece in the dining room is a large wooden piece entitled El Rey (The King), dedicated to Reinaldo Arenas, the main character.”

—Deborah Meyer, 2011

 

Julian Schnabel’s Before Night Falls screens next Friday, March 11th as a part of the Julian Schnabel: Artist Director Film Retrospective and Regis Dialogue. Julian Schnabel will be here to discuss his films and his career with Walker chief curator, Darsie Alexander on Saturday, March 19th.