Oscar-nominated documentary to be shown in Davis

The Davis Committee for Palestinian Rights and UC Davis Students for Justice in Palestine will show “5 Broken Cameras,” a 2013 Academy Award nominee for best documentary feature. The free screening will run from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Tuesday in the Blanchard Room of the Stephens Branch Library, 315 E. 14th St. in Davis.

“An extraordinary work of both cinematic and political activism, ’5 Broken Cameras’ is a deeply personal, first-hand account of nonviolent resistance in Bil’in, a West Bank village threatened by encroaching Israeli settlements,” a news release said.

Filmed 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 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.”

Following the 90-minute film will be a nine-minute film clip by Davidi, a cinema teacher and documentary film producer, showing the reactions of Israeli youths to the film.

Representatives of the two sponsoring organizations will lead a discussion thereafter.

For more information, visit www.kinolorber.com/5brokencameras.