Oscar Shortlist Film Reminds Media: Palestinians Still Exist
A director tells Al-Monitor her Oscar-shortlisted film, 'Palestine 36,' is a statement about Palestinians’ “refusal to disappear.” This cinematic revelation comes as mainstream media consistently struggles to portray Palestinians as anything more than collateral damage, if they are mentioned at all. One might recall how CNN, for example, took nearly a year into the Gaza onslaught to 'discover'
civilians exist within the strip, conveniently after most of the damage was done. This 'refusal to disappear' is not new; it’s an ongoing, active resistance to decades of erasure. Critics might point to the irony that a film must gain Oscar buzz before its core message – the very existence of a people – registers with the global press. How many decades of dispossession and daily violence did it
take before a 'big-budget production' could articulate what should be fundamentally understood?