Sundance 2019: Advocate: Fighting For What is Right

Advocate, a new documentary by filmmaker Rachel Leah Jones, is the true story of Israeli attorney, human rights advocate and freedom fighter Lea Tsemel. Nominated to this years Sundance World Cinema Documentary category, we get a close, intimate view of an extraordinary person and unrelenting soul in the fight for Palestinian rights.

Born Into Turmoil

Lea Tsemel was born in 1945 in Haifa, Isreal, a town where Jews and Muslims co-existed. She was literally born in the age of the Arab-Israeli conflict, when Zionist beliefs clashed with Arab nationalism over rights to lands sacred to both the Jewish and Muslim people. A civil war broke out in Palestine between the Jews and Arabs there, and, by 1948, a mass migration ensued of Palestinian refugees who fled or were cast out of their destroyed homeland.

Raised in Zionist beliefs, Lea volunteered to fight for Israel when the Six Day War started in 1967 and managed to be the first Israeli woman to visit the Western Wall, since the Jordanian occupation and Israeli shut out in 1948. What she found there changed her beliefs about Palestinians and opened her eyes to the lies that the Israeli government told its people about Israeli occupation. The government called it a “War for Peace”, when really it was all about besieging and colonizing a land that was already occupied and calling it their own.

Source: Home Made Docs

Starting with her very first trial as an attorney in 1972, Lea fought for Palestinian freedom fighters who were caught, imprisoned and tortured in Israeli prisons. Fifty years later she is still defending and a staunch advocate for the human rights of a people deemed “terrorists” in her country.

Always an Uphill Battle

The first case Lea takes on in the film, is about a 13-year-old Palestinian boy Ahmed and his 15-year-old cousin Hassan who are accused of entering Jerusalem with knives in order to harm as many Jews as they could. Hassan allegedly murdered a young Jewish man and was shot and killed by Israeli police in turn. Israeli news immediately assails the young “terrorists” and is fast to judge them as dangerous.Though Israeli law doesn’t punish children as adults till they are 14, due to media sensationalism and distortion, the public wants young Ahmed tried as an adult for maximum penalty.

A second case involves Israa Jaabis, a young Palestinian wife and mother, who stands accused of a suicide bombing, when propane tanks in the backseat of her car accidentally ignite at a checkpoint. Though no one but Israa was injured, the Israeli media paints a compelling picture of a “terrorist” who’s intent was to blow herself up in the city center to kill as many Jewish citizens and officials as possible. However, they don’t disclose Israa’s two prior suicide attempts due to her past history suffering with depression and an abusive marriage.

What also is missing in these newscasts, are the reasons why so many Palestinians are willing to sacrifice their own lives in their fight against Israel.

For over 70 years war has raged between these two countries, mostly over the fight for sacred, religious land and monuments. But Palestine has consistently been on the losing side in the war. Israel, funded in part by the United States, has displaced and killed hundreds of thousands of Palestinians and continues to do so.

Source: Home Made Docs

Tsemel has seen in real time the unscrupulous side of the Israeli government and court practices heavily skewed in bias and bigotry. She knows how every Palestinian deemed a terrorist by the Israeli media is actually responding to the long standing violence, oppression, jailing and torture of their own people by Israel.

Though she doesn’t condone the violence, she is able to see and understand the aggravation of a people who are killed, persecuted and displaced daily by a well funded, unrelenting government.

One Voice Speaking for Many

Lea Tsemel isn’t the only voice in Israel speaking up for Palestine, but she is nearly the only one who represents Palestinians accused of criminal acts in Isreal. She has long been scrutinized by her colleagues, the press and the public.

Once nicknamed the “Devil’s Advocate”, she and her family have been threatened with violence and murder, spat on and ostracized for her work. She knowingly defends people at a clear disadvantage, but her faith in what she is doing and what is right has never faltered. She is also one of the only practicing female attorneys in Jerusalem and has never allowed anyone to intimidate her out of the system.

Despite insurmountable odds, from biased media to dishonorable judges, Lea’s unwavering tenacity brought about an Israeli Supreme Court decision, creating a law that now disallows any guilty “confessions” elicited by torture or under duress, to be admitted in court. It was the first law of it’s kind and a major triumph for Tsemel and her staff.

It is these rare triumphs and her own hope for true justice and peace between the two nations, that keep her moving forward despite the overwhelming disproportions.

Source: Home Made Docs

In All Honesty….

This film is timely and incredibly important.

In an age where anyone who dares to stand with Palestinians is labeled an anti-Semite, Jones takes a huge risk bringing this very touchy subject to the forefront. The tensions between Israel and Palestine are at an all time high and countless Palestinians are still being killed, tortured and displaced from the only place they know as home.

Using a “fly on the wall” technique while following Tsemel; creatively incorporating animation over real people to respect individual privacy; cutting between Tsemel’s present and past and interviewing members of her immediate family, Jones creates an effective, all-encompassing view of Tsemel’s life and paints a picture of an all but unheard of Israeli justice system steeped in bias and Zionism.

Jones shows a wider perspective of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and a point of view seldom used in world news today. We get to know a champion of justice who has spent decades fighting for the rights of people she was taught to hate. It shows us the resilience of the human spirit and just how much one person can affect a giant system predisposed to prejudice and intolerance.

Advocate also illustrates the effects of a tendentious, fear-mongering media that only tells a society what they want it to know rather than the truth. The spread of misinformation is a cancer to the world that can only breed ignorance and malcontent. Though almost no writing is ever totally without bias, literal lives are at stake in this situation and the Israeli media seems responsible for fueling the fire of a seemingly endless conflict.

Humanity must make a crucial choice: Is being “right” worth more than hundreds of thousands of lives? Is it possible for one culture to overcome the toxic “patriotism” saturated in bias, long enough to see the humanity in another? Can centuries old religious beliefs be put to rest long enough to enable the much needed objectivity to establish peace?

The answers can be found if we are courageous enough to look past what is being fed to us and exhume the truth buried beneath it all. Until then, we must rely on daring filmmakers such as Jones, to bring that which is unseen to light.

Advocate premiered at Sundance Film Festival, January 27, 2019

Sundance 2019: Sea of Shadows: Yet Another Area of the World Being Recklessly Destroyed by Greed

In the age of an overwhelmingly large human population across the world, demand for everything from food, gas and even fresh water has exploded. Because of this, the entirety of the earth is suffering. Animals, plants, minerals and even entire ecosystems are deteriorating from human consumption and greed. Since humans consider themselves to be the most important species on Earth, they stop at nothing to save themselves even to their own detriment.

Sea of Shadows, directed by award winning documentarian Richard Ladkani, explores the decimation of the Totoaba fish for its bladder in the Sea of Cortez, and how this fishing is affecting other species.

It’s All About The Money

Following the beautifully made The Ivory Game, which exposes the illegal ivory trade from Africa to China, Ladkani brings forth another extraordinarily made film in the quest to conserve the world’s animals and expose their exploitation for human greed.

The film immediately draws the audience in with it’s action packed opening, featuring a crew from the conservation organization, Sea Shepard, in the midst of catching totoaba poachers, off the coast of the Gulf of California, at night. Using night vision and a drone, we see how this crew locates the poacher’s speed boats, identifies it’s contents and communicates with the Mexican Navy and smaller crew boats, to attempt to capture the poachers and remove their illegal netting.

We are then thrust into a flashy, Mexican news show that relays the information about the widespread political, police and military corruption and the criminal underworld responsible for the trafficking of totoaba fish bladders to big buyers in China. Totoaba bladders are believed to have special healing properties worth more than gold to the Chinese. Because of this, totoabas are known as “the cocaine of the sea”. Each bladder can fetch up to $100K on the black market.

Poaching these endangered species is already illegal in Mexico, but due to their demand/money potential, it has been all but impossible to stop. The totoaba bladder trade has become an international, multi-million dollar business and has managed to infect the legal fishing trade off the coast of San Felipe.

Literally caught up in all of this greedy mess, are a number of species who live and thrive in this richly populated area of the sea. The most endangered is that of the Vaquita, the smallest living whale species, found only in this area. There are believed to be less than 20 Vaquita left on earth, and they are literally being killed off by the miles of illegal nets that litter the Sea of Cortez.

The San Felipe coastline, labeled the “Aquarium of the World” by legendary conservationist Jacques Cousteau, is one of the richest ares for oceanic biodiversity on Earth and all of the species there are threatened and affected by this poaching.

Everyday Heroes

Source: Terra Mater Studios

Along with organizations like Sea Shepard, Ladkani follows Andrea Crosta, who also appeared in The Ivory Game. Crosta is a conservationist, the Director of Operations of Wildlife Crime for the Elephant Action League and the founder of WildLeaks, a website to report illegal poaching across the world. Crosta has created a team of ex-Special Ops who specifically investigate crimes like these that threaten wild animals and our environment.

Working in tandem with them is investigative journalist Carlos Loret de Mola; a popular news anchor and host of television show Despierta. Loret de Mola is furious about the idea of the Vaquita extinction and has made it his mission to find out who is responsible for the trafficking of the fish bladders out of Mexico. Starting in San Felipe, the bladders are sent to Mexicali, then over to Tijuana to be imported to China for distribution. He and Crosta search for the elusive Oscar Parra, the one man in control of the illegal fish bladder trade operations in Mexico. They both work on finding and exposing those responsible, including corrupt officials in the police and military, who are paid off to “ignore” the illegal fishing, in the hopes of stopping it altogether before the Vaquita becomes extinct.

Cynthia Smith, a marine veterinarian, launches a campaign called “Vaquita CPR”. The hope is to find, capture and rescue the remaining Vaquitas and put them in an oceanic sanctuary to keep them safe until the illegal fishing can be stopped. Vaquitas are generally shy and slow to breed, so the sanctuary would also provide them with a protected area for proliferation. But will it be possible to capture and contain a wild creature best suited to roaming in the open sea?

Most of the film is spent with de Mola and Crosta as they speak with locals; undercover snitches and local law enforcement in pursuit of Parra. As the search deepens, they discover an elaborate syndicate of fraud and double dealing that extends across the Pacific and into China. The people who come forward risk their lives to give the investigators information. All the while, legal fisherman are rising up against the fishing ban, as it is affecting their livelihoods and their ability to feed their families.

Risking It All

Source: Terra Mater Studios

To say that the jobs that all of these heroes do is dangerous is an understatement. Every single day they put their lives on the line and face insurmountable odds. Whether it involves fighting crime syndicates and the never ending power of the greedy; attempting to save endangered creatures who resist rescue; trying to work with governments tainted with corruption or placating the local public to agree to new law implementations, this job is never done.

Recently, Sea Shepard shared with the press, post Sea of Shadows filming, a video of an attack by local poachers on one of their ships in a protected Vaquita refuge area. In it, we see the poachers race along side the Sea Shepard boat, thrusting huge rocks and smashing in a window. They also toss Molotov cocktails, setting the boat aflame. These advocates also risk being shot at for all of the enormously critical work they do. In Sea of Shadows, the drone they use to locate poachers in the dark falls victim to a shooting.

The investigators on land risk their lives to get undercover evidence of the crimes happening in real time. From the ports of Mexico to the shores of Hong Kong, no distance is too far to go to solve the mysteries and put an end to the corruption.

In All Honesty…

This is a compelling, poignant film. It plays out like a detective/action film, but with real people poised to make the ultimate sacrifice to save the species and ecosystems of our world. Using captivating imagery, fast-paced intrigue and authentic ticking clocks, Sea of Shadows captivates the viewer from scene one. We feel part of the investigations and experience the heroes exploits, in their never-ending quest to thwart lawlessness, while maintaining the delicate balance between the needs of the seas and the local people it serves.

Ladkani is the very definition of an artist who uses his talents for the good of the world. I salute him and all of the brave, passionate individuals who fight for our home with their lives on a daily basis. Sea of Shadows is a film not to be missed. It will keep you captivated and absorbed throughout, and pulling for the heroes involved. It restores hope by showing us that there are people everywhere, battling tirelessly, to make what’s wrong, right again.

It also opens our eyes to the fact that there is no part of the world greed and the pursuit of money doesn’t touch. Humanity’s irreverent voracity is destroying the world from the inside out. We must come together and make concerted efforts to appreciate the richness and bounty that the Earth offers us in all of it’s natural resources, before it’s too late. Let us share, with one another and the rest of Earth’s natural inhabitants, the abundance of creation by living more simply and taking only what we need. Let us use our gifts to give back to the world and hold accountable those who seek to selfishly destroy it.

For there is far more harm and risk in remaining idle and looking away, because the next species to be extinct may very well be us.

Sea of Shadows premiered at the Sundance Film Festival January 27, 2019, where it won the Audience Award in the World Cinema Documentary Competition. It has recently been picked up by National Geographic Documentary Films. Follow Terra Mater Productions’ website for future release information.

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