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OFFICIAL SELECTION OFFICIAL SELECTION OFFICIAL SELECTION San Francisco Jewish Chicago Palestinian Hot Docs 2009 Film Festival 2009 Film Festival 2009 An Israeli filmmaker. An American activist. A tragedy in Gaza. Whatever side you’re on: This is the film you have to see. Drawing by Joe Carr © Ciné-Sud Promotion /Arte France Cinema/ Novak Prod / RTBF - France- Belgium , 2008 To request DVD screeners, photos, and for interviews with filmmaker Simone Bitton, please contact the film’s publicistIsil Bagdadi, CAVU PR at (917) 375-7615 or [email protected] Women Make Movies n www.wmm.com Synopsis RACHEL is a startlingly rigorous, fascinating and deeply moving investigatory documentary that examines the death of peace activist and International Solidarity Movement (ISM) member Rachel Corrie, who was crushed by an Israeli army bulldozer in the Gaza Strip in 2003. A few weeks after her little-reported death, an inquiry by Israeli military police concluded that Corrie died in an accident. Simone Bitton (WALL), an award-winning documentary filmmaker who is a citizen of both France and Israel, has crafted a dispassionate but devastating essay investigating the circumstances of Rachel Corrie’s death—including astounding eyewitness testimony from activists, soldiers, Israeli Defense Force army spokespersons and physicians, as well as insights from Corrie’s parents, mentors and diaries. In assembling a thorough and candid account of the event, using both visual and narrative evidence, Bitton’s quietly persistent questioning manages to accomplish what the inadequate legal proceedings and the overheated press coverage did not: an unflinching examination that refuses to exculpate or equivocate. By aligning her filmmaking methodology with the ISM’s guidelines to state only objective and concrete details without placing judgment, Bitton examines the circumstances surrounding the unresolved case of Corrie’s death. The film begins like a classic documentary, but soon develops, transcending its subject and establishing a candid new visual approach for bearing witness. With understated cinematic techniques, Bitton captures the spirit of Rachel’s youth, idealism, and political commitment amidst sweeping landscapes of Gaza and a portrait of daily life under ever-present military aggression. Women Make Movies n www.wmm.com Credits 2009, 100 Minutes, Color France/Belgium Subtitled (Hebrew, Arabic) Director Simone Bitton Production Thierry Lenouvel/Ciné-Sud Promotion, France Co-Producers Arte France Cinéma; Novak Prod (Belgium), RTBF Screenplay Simone Bitton Camera Jacques Bouquin Sound Cosmas Antoniadis Editors Catherine Poitevin & Jean-Michel Perez Women Make Movies n www.wmm.com Director’s Bio Simone Bitton was born in Morocco in 1955. She is both an Israeli and a French citizen and also considers herself as a Moroccan national and an Arab Jew. She graduated from the French Institut des Hautes Etudes Cinematographiques (IDHEC) in 1981 and directed more than 15 documentary films. Her work varies in style from historical inquiries to first-hand reportages and intimate portraits of cutting-edge authors, artists, and political figures. All of her films attest to her deep personal and professional commitment to better representing the complex histories and cultures of the Middle East and North Africa. Several of her works have been broadcast simultaneously on European, Arab, and Israeli television and engendered passionate debate on all sides of the Mid-East conflict. Simone Bitton’s films have won numerous awards, including the Sundance Film Festival, Special Jury Prize and the Cesear Award for WALL, among many others. Women Make Movies n www.wmm.com What People are Saying about Simone Bitton and Rachel “A powerful documentary about the death in Palestine of a young American idealist.” —The Hollywood Reporter “RACHEL finds human surprises and philosophical depth within a symbol of that intractable conflict.” —Salon “Simone Bitton is that rare documentarian, a political activist with the eye and ear of a gifted director. In RACHEL, she applies a light, almost lyrical touch to a socially-charged issue.” —Cineaste “Instead of a sensationalist front-page story about a hapless girl trapped overseas, we get to see the truth...an impressive balance between both sides of the argument.” —Entertainment at AOL.com Canada “An insightful and provocative exploration into the complexities of political solidarity.” —Tribeca Film Festival “Simone Bitton rigorously investigates the circumstances that led to Corrie’s death.” —Seattle Times Festivals n Berlin International Film Festival, Forum 2009 n Sarajevo International Film Festival, 2009 n Tribeca Film Festival, 2009 n Traverse City Film Festival, 2009 n Hot Docs 2009 n San Francisco Jewish Film Festival 2009 n Cinema du Réel, 2009 n Haïfa International Film Festival, 2009 n Buenos Aires , BAFICI 2009 n Ramallah International Film Festival, 2009 n Rio De Janeiro International Film Festival, 2009 n Oslo, Films of the South Festival, 2009 n New Zealand International Film Festival, 2009 n Chicago Palestinian Film Festival, 2009 n Mostra de Nuevo Cinema , 2009 Women Make Movies n www.wmm.com More Info Hi-res photos are available for download on this film’s web catalog page at www.wmm.com. To request DVD screeners, photos, and for interviews with filmmaker Simone Bitton, please contact the film’s publicistIsil Bagdadi, CAVU PR at (917) 375-7615 or [email protected] Women Make Movies n www.wmm.com Synopsissynopsis n March 16, 2003, in the almost uninterrupted tide of Middle Easten current affairs and just before the war in Iraq, a small tragic event was reported by some press agencies, just a few lines in the newspaper, or a 45 -second report on television: A young American with Simone bitton peace activist was killed in the Gaza Strip, crushed by an Israeli bulldozer while she was Otrying to prevent the destruction of a Palestinian house. Interview A few weeks later, some media reports mentionned that the Israeli military police How would you tell the story of your of itself, without commentary. This type of conducted an inquiry, concluding that Rachel Corrie’s death was accidental. Despite many movie? rigor is essential, because it allows me to eyewitnesses claims that she was intentionnaly murdered by the bulldozer driver, there It is a cinematographic inquiry into the go further, to transcend the subject. was no independant inquiry, and the case was classified and forgotten. death of a young girl who was crushed In a movie, the result of an investigation by a military vehicle in a diseased country. counts for less than the investigation itself. Five years later, director Simone Bitton is somehow doing what a court should have done. This young girl was American, the vehicle The point is to film and to observe places, RACHEL is a cinematic inquiry into the death of a young unknown girl, made with a rigour was an Israeli bulldozer, and the country people and objects; to gather words, ges- and scope normally reserved for first-rate historical characters. It gives word to all the is Palestine and Israel - a region whose tures or silences. To arouse emotions from people involved in Rachel’s story, from Palestinian and international witnesses to Israeli misfortune and occasional beauty I have the coldest and hardest materials, like the military spokespersons and investigators, doctors, activists and soldiers linked to the affair. not ceased to document, film after film. images from a surveillance camera or the Rachel was killed in 2003 in Rafah, at the smooth metal of an autopsy table. The film begins like a classical documentary, but very soon it develops and transcends its southern end of the Gaza strip. At the time, The Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish subject, transforming into a cinematographic meditation on youth, war, idealism and political the Israeli army was destroying hundreds often said: “The way home is more im- commitment. Palestine is a reality , but also a metaphor: a tomb for a child of today. of houses and buildings in order to create a portant than home itself.” It is a very good no man’s land and erect a wall at the bor- definition for any artistic endeavor. How In the beginning, there is this: She was called Rachel Corrie. She was 23. She was convinced der with Egypt. Rachel was part of an inter- one searches and what one comes upon that her American nationality would be enough to make her an effective human shield, national group of pacifists who interposed in the process counts for much more than that her simple presence would save lives, olive trees, wells and houses. Like many young themselves between the houses and the what one finds in the end. In this movie, I people of her generation, she kept a travel log in the form of e-mails, which she sent to bulldozers. One of those bulldozers simply tried to inquire poetically. her family and friends in the United States. didn’t stop, and the Israeli army declined all responsibility. Some of the images you show are har- During the eight weeks that she had left to live, Rachel Corrie was to discover that which, My inquiry is rigorous. Since the matter was dly bearable. Was it necessary to show in her own words, no documentary film could have taught her. never brought to trial, I play the role of an Rachel’s corpse? investigating judge: I interrogate witnesses, Yes. It was necessary to show it, even be- I scrutinize their testimonies, I examine the fore the opening credits and several times incriminating evidence, etc. I unravel a during the movie so that everything refers mountain of lies and let the truth emerge back to that image, to the broken body of Women Make Movies n www.wmm.com if they are killed, the image of their body petent journalists had misquoted or misre- is a little obscene to dwell on them.