Common state – Potential Conversation (1)

In recent years, given the stalemate in the peace process in Israel-Palestine, an exploration has been taking place on different levels – beyond the geographical center of the conflict, pragmatic controversies and febrile consensuses. Instead of yet another debate on the “two-state solution,” what is proposed is to establish a common state. In fact, the proposal doesn’t even need to be made, since this idea is no longer a dream or a utopia: the common state is already there. Two national communities living together on the same piece of land: one forms the majority, the other a minority; their respective citizenship is defined at best with vagueness, at worst with inequality. What the common state project proposes – a project that is being discussed and elaborated all over the world – is to shift from the idea of partition to the idea of sharing; to invoke commonality instead of division and separation. This film, directed by Eyal Sivan, meets those who are willing to discuss this idea in Israel and Palestine: journalists, scholars, intellectuals, artists, human rights activists, settlers, Palestinians from Israel and the occupied territories, refugees, people both religious and secular, etc. This documentary could constitute a base line, a new perspective; the idea is not to remain on a theoretical level, but to start a discussion in which many different voices will have their say in charting a new course.
Screening Schedule

No physical screenings scheduled.

Script: Eyal Sivan
Cinematography: Erez Miller, Eyal Sivan
Editing: Audrey Maurion
Sound: Erez Miller, Nathalie Vidal
Production: momento distribution Ltd., France
Producers: Armelle Laborie
Format: Color
Production Country: France
Production Year: 2012
Duration: 123
Contact: momento distribution Ltd., France Armelle Laborie Τ. +33 1 4366 2524 contact@momento-films.com www.momento-production.com
World Premiere

Eyal Sivan

Eyal Sivan was born in 1964 in Haifa, Israel, and grew up in Jerusalem. After working as a professional fashion photographer in Tel Aviv, he left Israel in 1985 and settled in Paris. Ever since, he has been splitting his time between Europe and Israel. Known for his controversial films, he has directed more than 10 political documentaries, which have won awards worldwide, and produced many others. His body of work has been screened and garnered distinctions at prestigious international festivals. Apart from theatrical releases and TV broadcasts, his films are regularly screened in major art shows around the world. He publishes papers and essays and gives lectures on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, documentary filmmaking and ethics, political crimes, the political use of memory, genocide and issues of representation, etc. He is the founder and the artistic director of the Paris-based documentary film production company momento! and the film distribution agency Scalpel. He is the founder and Chief Editor of South Cinema Notebooks - a journal of cinema and political criticism, edited by the Sapir Academic College in Israel where he regularly lectures. He is member of the editorial board of the Paris based publishing house La Fabrique. In the last years, Sivan was Reader (associate professor) in Media Production at the school of Arts and Digital Industries (ADI), at the University of East London (UEL) were he was co-leading the MA program in Film, video and new media. Currently, he is an Honorary Fellow at University of Exeter UK, he is teaching at the Master's program in Film at the Netherlands Film Academy in Amsterdam.

Filmography

1987 Aqabat-Jaber, Passing Through 1990 Izkor, Slaves of memory
1991 Israland (TV)
1993 Itgaber, He Will overcome
1994 Jerusalem(s), Borderline Syndrome 1995 Aqabat-Jaber, Peace with Νo Return?
1996 Itsembatsemba, Rwanda οne Genocide Later (short)
1997 Burundi, under Terror (short)
1999 The Specialist, Portrait of a modern Criminal
2001 On the Top of the Descent (short) 2003 Route 181: Fragments of a Journey in Palestine-Israel (co-direction)
2004 I Love You All (co-direction)
2005 Faces of the Fallen (TV)
2007 Citizens K, the Twin Brothers (TV)
2009 Jaffa, the Orange’s Clockwork
2012 Common State, Potential Conversation (1)