Five Broken Cameras

A Palestinian farmer with a home video camera shoots a local protest against the building of an Israeli 'security fence' in his village, and finds himself the official documentarian of five years worth of footage of the struggle.

When Palestinian farmer Emad Burnat bought a video camera in 2005, it was to film his newborn son. Around the same time, the Israelis began building a ‘security fence’ in his village – supposedly to stop suicide bombers, but also to cordon off land from the village to build Israeli houses. The villagers started a peaceful protest against the bulldozers. Every week, after Friday prayers at the mosque, they marched to the fence brandishing olive branches. Burnat became their unofficial cameraman and documentary film represents five years of edited footage.