A partnership between the Provocation Ideas Festival and the Stratford Film Festival is bringing an Oscar-winning documentary to Stratford city hall auditorium.
No Other Land was filmed over a number of years by a resident of a small West Bank village through what is described as a “lens of forced displacement.”
Stratford Film Festival co-founder Megan Smith-Harris said the first screening this Saturday sold out rather quickly so they added another the same day.
“It’s a powerful, poignant film, that tells a very human story,” she said.
There is big demand to see the documentary, more so after winning an Oscar, she said, but also because it could not find a mainstream distributor.
Smith-Harris was apprehensive about screening No Other Land but after speaking with Mark Rosenfeld, founder of the Provocation Ideas Festival, they agreed the documentary needs to get in front of viewers.
Some of the criticism of the film is that it doesn’t offer a balanced view, though Smith Harris noted it is told through a “very personal perspective” – a diary of sorts over a long period of time.
“It is a very complex, complicated issue. We are just trying to understand it better.”
Rosenfeld said it was a perfect partnership with both organizations tasked with showcasing important issues to be explored and allow the community to make up their own minds.
“There is no doubt when you are dealing with Israel-Palestine, it is a very difficult, complex, emotional issue and this provided us with an opportunity to explore that, and to basically look at what is one facet of what is going on in the occupied West Bank,” Rosenfeld said.
“To try and go beyond that and envision what is happening, why is it happening and what might the future be. That is keeping with the Provocation Ideas Festival – to tackle difficult issues from a variety of perspectives and to explore what our future might be.”
Stratford, through its arts community, is known for exploring the issues through theatre and film, and striving to understand, he added.
After the screening, there is a Q&A with Mark’s son, Jesse Rosenfeld, a veteran Middle East correspondent who has written widely on Middle East affairs.
Former Canadian diplomat Deanna Horton will moderate the question period.
Smith-Harris said the Q&A will offer a good balance to the event.
Smith-Harris is working on getting another documentary at the festival, Holding Liat, about a couple kidnapped from their kibbutz after the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel.
She had hoped to show it soon after No Other Land and continues to work to bring it to the festival.
