Opening Night
North American Premiere

DEATH IN GAZA



Country of production: UK
Year: 2003
Language: Arabic & English
Mins: 79

Director: James Miller
Script: Saira Shah
Cinematography: James Miller
Music: Nick Powell, Daniel Edge
Editing: Misha Manson-Smith
Producers: James Miller, Saira Shah
Co-Producers: Belinda Morrison, Daniel Edge
Production company: Frostbite Films
Source: Nancy Abraham
HBO Enterprises
1100 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10036
USA
Phone: +1 212 512 1266
Fax: +1 212 512 5055
nancy.abraham@hbo.com
www.hbo.com

Explosive, gripping, and beyond controversial, DEATH IN GAZA changed tragically during its production, when director / cameraman James Miller was shot and killed during an Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip. Miller and producer Saira Shah had planned two films, about how Palestinian and Israeli children are affected by their peoples' ongoing war. They began with the Palestinians; Miller's death prevented them from continuing. Yet after Miller's death, Shah finished the first film, which became in part an elegy for her lost friend.

DEATH IN GAZA focuses on three Palestinian young people in Gaza: Ahmed, Mohammed, and Najla. They talk of family, nationhood, the destruction of houses - and the cult of martyrs. To die in attacks on Israelis, or in Israelis' attacks on them: this is the highest honor. Mothers weep. Terrorist leaders speak. The boys play wargames with plastic and wooden weapons. In "Jews and Arabs," the highest honor is martyrdom.

Through it all, the creeping fear of Miller's death looms. The Israelis, including Bedouin Muslims, invade Gaza to hunt a recent suicide bomber. Tension builds, and time runs down. Waving a white flag, wearing helmets marked "TV," and calling out their identity, Miller and Shah attempt to leave. Shots ring out. Miller is canonized as a martyr, though he for one had not sought this honor.

DEATH IN GAZA is difficult to classify as either pro-Palestinian or pro-Israeli. Certainly partisans of both causes will be offended and also find ammunition here. The film also raises probing questions in journalistic ethics, relating to the propriety of Miller and Shah's presence. Yet ultimately DEATH IN GAZA offers no easy partisan position, and no journalistic rationalization. Instead, there are the lives of children and a filmmaker scheduled to die within this war's terrible prison.

James Miller was born in 1968. He worked as a cameraman and documentary filmmaker, traveling around the world. He made films in and about Algeria, Bosnia, Lebanon, Sierra Leone, and Iraq, winning numerous awards. BENEATH THE VEIL, made in Afghanistan under the Taliban, and UNHOLY WAR, made during the recent invasion of that country, were awarded an Emmy in 2002. He was shot and killed by an Israeli soldier while filming DEATH IN GAZA.

filmography as director
DEATH IN GAZA (2003)
THE BETRAYED (2002)
UNHOLY WAR (2001)


Thursday 01-April 2004 7:00 (Opening Night)
Sunday 04-April 2004 3:15 Facets Cinematheque