Emad Burnat is aPalestinian farmer and filmmaker, known for the documentary5 Broken Cameras (2011).[1][2] He is the first Palestinian nominated for theAcademy Award for Best Documentary Feature.[3]
His documentary5 Broken Cameras is a first-hand account of life and demonstrations inBil'in, aWest Bank village adjacent toIsraeli settlements. The film was co-directed by Burnat andGuy Davidi, an Israeli filmmaker. The film is structured in chapters around the destruction of each one of Burnat's cameras and the film follows one family's evolution over five years of village upheaval.[citation needed]
Five Broken Cameras is a Palestinian-Israeli-French co-production. Both the personal style of the movie and, especially, Burnat's working with an Israeli filmmaker, has beencontroversial amongst the Palestinian community due to the ongoing boycott against Israel by Palestinians. The boycott, however, was never intended to include a boycott of Israeli activists and the problem stems from Israel having claimed the film as their own following its Oscar nomination in 2012.[1]
On February 19, 2013, he and his family were detained atLos Angeles International Airport, when customs officials refused to believe his reason for entry.[4][5]
Although this was an unpleasant experience, this is a daily occurrence for Palestinians, every single day, throughout the West Bank. There are more than 500 Israeli checkpoints, roadblocks, and other barriers to movement across our land, and not a single one of us has been spared the experience that my family and I experienced yesterday.[6]
