CLEARLAKE — Second Sunday Cinema”s free film for March 9 is “Promises,” a documentary that follows the journey of one of the filmmakers, Israeli-American B.Z. Goldberg.
Goldberg travels to a Palestinian refugee camp, to an Israeli settlement in the West Bank and to some neighborhoods in Jerusalem where he meets and interviews in depth seven Palestinian and Israeli children. Some of these children, age 9 -11, are relatively secular, others are passionately conservative and observant in their religious beliefs. Goldberg himself speaks both Arabic and Hebrew and is deeply compassionate to the feelings of all the children.
Though the children live only 20 minutes apart, they exist in completely separate worlds. The physical, historical, religious and emotional obstacles between them run deep.
“Promises” explores the nature of these boundaries and tells the story of a few children who dared to cross the lines to meet their neighbors.
Rather than focusing on political events, the seven children featured in “Promises” offer a refreshing, moving, very human and sometimes humorous portrait of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
The humor vanishes when Goldberg returns to talk with the secular Israeli twins and with Faraj, a Palestinian youth, two years later. This film is a deeply human examination of how children are formed by their surroundings ? and what happens when “Promises” are not kept.
Second Sunday Cinema”s free films are screened at the Clearlake United Methodist Church at 14521 Peal Ave. near Mullen in Clearlake. The doors open at 5:30 p.m. so people can grab a seat and a snack if they want one and can spend time getting to know one another.
The film is shown at 6 p.m. and there is always time following the film for hanging out and talking. More information is available at 279-2957 or at 9164ster@gmail.com.
Running time is 106 minutes. The film is in Arabic, Hebrew and English, with comfortably readable English subtitles.
