This film re-defines for me what documentary film-making should be like. No talking heads, no tired analysis ... this film gives you what you've been waiting for: a street-level look at the reality on the ground inside the Gaza Strip.
You could read books about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict forever and not get the kind of immediacy and understanding of what is taking place that this documentary provides.
Instead of doing what most made-for-TV films do -- which is to rely on a scripted narration to make whatever point or analysis they're pushing -- this film goes back to the style of verite film-making, direct cinema, or whatever it's called now. There is no scripted narration in this film. In "Gaza Strip," the main narrative anchor is a 13-year-old newspaper boy -- we in the audience are placed into his shoes, seeing the world from his angle. The filmmaker just lets the camera roll, and the world unfolds around us. More documentaries should have the guts and the patience to do this.
You could read books about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict forever and not get the kind of immediacy and understanding of what is taking place that this documentary provides.
Instead of doing what most made-for-TV films do -- which is to rely on a scripted narration to make whatever point or analysis they're pushing -- this film goes back to the style of verite film-making, direct cinema, or whatever it's called now. There is no scripted narration in this film. In "Gaza Strip," the main narrative anchor is a 13-year-old newspaper boy -- we in the audience are placed into his shoes, seeing the world from his angle. The filmmaker just lets the camera roll, and the world unfolds around us. More documentaries should have the guts and the patience to do this.