5 Broken Cameras

An extraordinary work of both cinematic and political activism, 5 Broken Cameras is a deeply personal, first-hand account of non-violent resistance in Bil’in, a West Bank village threatened by encroaching Israeli settlements. Shot almost entirely by Palestinian farmer Emad Burnat, who bought his first camera in 2005 to record the birth of his youngest son, the film was assembled by Burnat and Israeli co-director Guy Davidi. Structured around the violent destruction of each one of Burnat’s cameras, the filmmakers’ collaboration follows one family’s evolution over five years of village turmoil. Burnat watches from behind the lens as olive trees are bulldozed, protests intensify, and lives are lost. “I feel like the camera protects me,” he says, “but it’s an illusion.”

Sundance Film Festival, 2012
New Directors/New Films, 2012

“Critics' Pick! A visual essay in autobiography and, as such, a modest, rigorous and moving work of art. Deserves to be appreciated for the lyrical delicacy of [Burnat's] voice and the precision of his eye.” —A.O. Scott, The New York Times

“Gripping from the get go…a powerful act of witnessing. To see it is to wonder what it would have been like to have a black Alabaman's 8mm documentation of the civil rights struggle.” —J. Hoberman, Artinfo