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L Y D I N E X I L Y D I N E X I L E The story of a city that once connected Palestine to the world. By Sarah Friedland, Rami Younis, and Fivel Rothberg Contact : [email protected] Contents - Synopsis - Project Narrative - Director Statements - Project Relevance - Artistic Approach - Distribution & Marketing Strategy - Audience Engagement & Social Impact - Timeline - Crew Biographies - Funding & Support - Budget -Contact Technical Details and Crew Title: Lyd In Exile Genre: Creative Documentary Runtime: 70 minutes DCP Color HD 1920 x 1080 Country: US and Palestine/Israel Producers: Rami Younis and Fivel Rothberg Directors: Sarah Friedland and Rami Younis Horse Training in Lyd Abu Munir Synopsis In 1947 the ancient city of Lyd was in the center of Palestine, a thriving hub that connected Lebanon to Egypt by train and Palestine to the world by plane. A year later, when Lyd fell under siege by Zionist soldiers, the city resisted and was forever changed. These days, the train no longer runs between Lebanon and Egypt, and the airport is no longer open to most Palestinians. Lyd (Lod in Hebrew) re- mains a contested space. Within Israel’s Green Line, it is best known as the epicenter of Israel’s drug trade, plagued by violence and racism. For the Palestinians that still call the city home, its former glory is not forgotten. Through the voices of Palestinians expelled in 1948 and the Zionist soldiers who expelled them, Lyd In Exile reconstructs the events of the massacre and expulsion that splintered the city. It chronicles the ongoing battle for the Lyd through the stories of a Palestinian educator struggling to keep her identity alive for the next generation, a third generation Lydian living in Balata refugee camp who may never return home, and a far right wing mayor who subsidizes the construction of Jewish-only housing while endorsing the demolition of Palestinian homes. This feature documentary is the story of the ongoing destruction of a city that once connected Palestine to the world, and now represents the continuation of the Nakba that never ended. Project Narrative The rumble of planes pass overhead as people move freely about the bustling city that is called Lod by the State of Israel. A voiceover informs, “Al-Lyd was the center of Palestine, there was an airport and a train that would leave every morning from Lebanon to Egypt.” The voice is revealed and the gentle eyes of Abu Munir make contact with the viewer. “My family worked on the train for three genera- tions, after the occupation in 1948 the Israelis kept us here so they could put us to work, so they could use us, but they expelled every- one else.” In a bustling cafe called “Lyd Restaurant” in Balata Refugee camp in the West Bank, we meet Jihad Baba. As he jokes with his friends the mood grows increasingly serious when they start talking about Lyd and life in the camp. Jihad leads us through the camp’s serpen- tine alleys to his grandfather’s house where he listens to him describe the massacre he witnessed in Lyd and the expulsion that forced the family to the camp 70 years ago. 67 Kilometers from Balata and a world away, Lyd’s name has been changed to Lod by the State of Israel. The Garin Torani, an intentional community of self-described Orthodox Jewish settlers, aim to increase the Jewish population in Lyd. Through their spokesperson, Benny Printz, we learn that the organization sees their mission as a continuation of the Zionist principles that founded Israel. They are well-connected to the political machinery, and have received enormous subsidies from the mu- nicipality and support from national-level politicians. Meanwhile Lyd’s Palestinian community is woefully under-resourced and seen as security threat by the current mayor Yair Revivo. Manar Memeh an educator in Lyd who, as Palestinian citizens of Israel, expresses this inequality through her daily struggle to teach Palestinian history and identity within the Israeli school system. Dina and Lulu Dahmash currently living in London and Dubai, return to Lyd to reconnect with their roots. We follow them to the mosque where the 1948 massa- cre took place. Founded by their great-grandfather it bears their family name and now sits directly in front of Palmach Square, named after the military group that committed the massacre. It is revealed through interviews with Mayor Yair Revivo and cell phone footage, that Dahmash mosque remains a contested space. The mayor bursts into the mosque in middle of the night to demand that the call to prayer be silenced for the sake of Jewish Orthadox neighbors. Eissa Fanous, an older Palestinian resident of Lyd remembers the 1948 massacre and knows the mosque and Palmach square well. At 12-years-old, Zionist soldiers forced him to help them burn the bodies of the civilian victims in Palmach square. The stories of these characters are interspersed with archival footage with former Zionist guerrilla fighters, the Palmach, who returned to Lyd in 1989 and described on camera the details of the 1948 bloodshed. As the film cuts between this archival footage and the present day stories, the viewer is left hanging while the details of the massacre and expulsion unfold and and a line between the past and the present is drawn. Director Statements Sarah Friedland Director Statement As a Jewish American, I have been grappling with why I should tell this story, especially in light of documentary filmmaking’s colonialist legacy. However, I believe that it is important for Jewish Americans to deliberately challenge the Jewish narrative around the founding of the State of Israel. A narrative that is responsible for repressing a history of cultural erasure and thereby enabled huge amounts of philanthropic and U.S. government aid to Israel. Thus sustaining the occupation for almost 70 years. In the U. S. we grow up with an origin story that purposefully excludes the attempted genocide of Indigenous people. My first memories are of a family vacation to Israel at age four –– touching a land I was taught I had claim to, only to find out later that it was also built on a myth that excludes the attempt- ed genocide of an Indigenous people. With this film, I want to make visible the processes of cultural erasure in Palestine and add to a growing amount of critical analysis around this history, because without it there is no hope for justice or peace. Rami Younis Director Statement As a Palestinian activist from Lyd and the co-director of this film, my vision is to help create a “go to film” for all people who want to learn about the Nakba. But why make a film about Lyd specifically? The sad truth is you won’t find too many depictions of the ethnic cleansing and expulsions that took place in my hometown, especially when compared to other atrocities from the Nakba like Deir Ya- seen or Tantura. I know first hand that my hometown still suffers from an ongoing Nakba, a creeping Nakba. Our national catastrophe didn’t quite end in 1948, and Lyd serves as a case study to show exactly that: Judification of the city; ongoing discrimination against Palestinian citizens of Israel; Palestinian house demolitions; sky high crime rates; and unbearable poverty. Lyd, a true symbol of Pales- tine’s ongoing loss, pain, and resilience. Balata Refugee Camp Jiahd Baba Drone Footage of Balata Refugee Camp Project Relevance Documentaries about the Palestinian/Israeli conflict often begin with the 1967 occupation of the estW Bank and Gaza following the Six Day War. Further, they are often told solely from the point of view of Israeli soldiers or officials (Waltz With Bashir, The Gatekeepers). Few films touch on the Nakba, the foundational violence that created the State of Israel, and even fewer tell this history from the Pales- tinian point of view. Thus erasing its history from canonical documentary film that reaches an international audience. In its treatment of the present day, Lyd In Exile offers stories about the challenges faced by Palestinian citizens of Israel who, during the Nakba, were not expelled to East Jerusalem, the West Bank, Gaza, or elsewhere. These Palestinians make up twenty percent of Isra- el’s population but are often invisible in the Palestinian narrative and are systematically discriminated against in all sectors of Israeli so- ciety. One character described her challenge to “walk between drops of rain,” as she manages the constant precarity of being a citizen of an oppressive state while living in the land of her ancestors. According to UNRWA, there are over 5 million Palestinian refugees worldwide. Lyd In Exile shows a broad range of this experience by portraying refugees trapped in camps in the West Bank and Palestinian families exiled across the globe. We hope that greater un- derstanding of how the founding of Israel created the Palestinian refugee crisis will lead towards greater support for Palestinian human rights. Additionally, we hope to release this film during 2018, which marks the 70th anniversary of the Nakba and we will use the events surrounding the anniversary to focus attention on this buried history. Artistic Approach This film weaves together multiple character-driven stories that are all connected to ydL and to the massacre and expulsion of 1948. We purposefully chose not to follow one character because each story refracts history differently, allowing us to construct a multi-di- mensional narrative. The style of this film is observational and essayistic –– combining vérité, drone footage, archival, and testimonies to create a visually striking and cohesive storyscape. Shot in full resolution HD and 4K, the present day footage is visually striking in contrast to the pixely and faded feel of the 1989 VHS archival footage of Zionist soldiers.
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