Israel: A Home Movie tells the story of Israel and Palestine from the start of the 20th century up to the late seventies by means of personal home movie footage alone, filmed solely by amateur photographers; private citizens who owned cameras in 16mm, 8mm or Super 8mm format, as well as any unprofessional format from before the Age of Video.
Weddings, vacations, trips, family events, random or deliberate clips of pivotal historical events, literal “home movies”, mementos and any and all other sorts of photography that simply use film, like one square of a dizzyingly intricate patchwork quilt, all will be used, as the movie itself attempts to piece together this aforementioned quilt, accompanied by narration of the film makers or their families. A narrative of 20th century Palestine and Israel which has, all too regretfully, not yet been told.
The vast significance of this project, beyond its readily apparent historical value, lies in its innovative and challenging viewpoint. In fact, this is a one of a kind endeavor, an attempt to tell history not from official, overarching perspectives, but to tell the grand story of a people, a land, an era, a society, a conflict and a nation through the most personal and intimate voice available, the oh-so-subjective eyes of the individual, filming without a vested interest, without the sponsorship of some agency or another, without any underlying goal save recording for recording’s sake, for the sake of that one person behind the camera Jewish, British, Palestinian or Israeli.