Building an Audience for “Budrus”
2009 Film Fund grantees Julia Bacha and Ronit Avni’s contender for the World Documentary Prize, Budrus, has been generating buzz for weeks leading up to its debut on Sunday the 25th at the Tribeca Film Festival. Tickets for the premiere and the first showing are sold out, though some remain available for showings later in the week.
Today, the Festival presents an in-depth interview with grantee Julia Bacha, who also received Film Fund support and a Tribeca screening for her earlier documentary, Encounter Point.
TribecaFilm.com: What inspired you to tell this story?JB: Budrus inspired everyone at Just Vision, the organization I work for. We wanted to put this village on the map since most people have never heard about it. In this village’s story of resistance, you can see the contours of a Gandhian struggle that crosses political, gender, and national boundaries, and that is scalable, meaning it could be used for tacking the Occupation as a whole. We really believe this story can change the face of the Middle East.
The Foundation hopes so, and, like Richard Cohen of the Washington Post in his surprising column of April 13th, encourages everyone who can to see it.
ETA: Check out the review in the Jewish Week, which declares that ““Budrus” is a strong piece of work from intelligent filmmakers.” Nothing like having the mainstream media on your side.
