Directors: Carlos Bolado, B.Z. Goldberg, Justine Shapiro
Country: USA
Year: 2001
Runtime: 106 minutes
Hebrew/Arabic and English with English Subtitles
Awards: Hamptons International Film Festival - Golden Starfish Award for Best Documentary Film/Video, Locarno International Film Festival - Prize of the Ecumenical Jury, Rotterdam International Film Festival - Audience Award, San Francisco International Film Festival - Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature, São Paulo International Film Festival - Audience Award for Best Documentary - Foreign Language Critics Award, Valladolid International Film Festival - Best Documentary, Vancouver International Film Festival - Diversity in Spirit Award and Most Popular Film
PROMISES follows the journey of filmmaker B.Z. Goldberg, an American who grew up in Jerusalem and was a journalist during the intifada, (Palestinian uprising.) Over the course of 4 years, B.Z. and Justine Shapiro, the filmmakers, were welcomed into the daily lives of these seven children and their families. Each child offers a dramatic, emotional and sometimes hilarious insight into what it's like to grow up in the charged and complex city of Jerusalem. Audiences will engage with Palestinian & Israeli kids, coming to know them as multi-dimensional people, not as simple stereotypes perpetuated by the mainstream media. Though they live only 20 minutes apart, the seven children exist in completely separate worlds; the physical, historical and emotional obstacles between them run deep. The ability to have dialogues with anyone, in a way that breaks through prejudices, is surely a prerequisite for peace in the region. And yet hardly anyone has such conversations. The Filmmakers were able to confront and overcome these obstacles, but could these children ever do the same? Promises explores the nature of these boundaries and tells the story of a few children who dared to cross the lines to meet their neighbors.
The Children: Moishe, Mahmoud, Shlomo, Yarko and Daniel, Faraj, and Sanabel
Producer: B.Z. Goldberg, Justine Shapiro
Cinematography: Ilan Buchbinder, Yoram Millo
Website Link: http://www.promisesproject.org/