Film Synopsis:
Degrees of Incarceration documents the effects political imprisonment has
on a community of Palestinians in the West Bank. As of summer 2011, more than 5,000 Palestinians,
including more than 150 children under the age of 18, are currently in Israeli
prisons for political reasons, and over 600,000 Palestinians have passed
through Israeli prisons since 1967. Yet this issue rarely receives the
attention many Palestinians believe it deserves. The film introduces viewers to
Palestinian mothers, teenagers, children, and community leaders as they strive
to support each other through crises of arrest and detention.
Political imprisonment casts a persistent shadow over Aida Refugee Camp, Bethlehem. Through observational footage and interviews filmed over the course of six years, the documentary traces how a group of youth are imprisoned for protesting against the building of the separation wall around their refugee camp. Imprisonment continues to affect their lives after their release. Scenes of the everyday ways families cope reveal the emotional intensity of this issue. A mother whose sixteen-year-old is in detention expresses her vociferous support for him until she is overcome with grief. Elderly parents awake in the middle of the night to make an arduous journey into Israel to visit their long-imprisoned son.
Yet, this is not centrally a story of Palestinian suffering. A youth organization produces a play to teach teenagers how to handle interrogation. It also channels youths’ nationalist commitment into activities that will support their community but diminish their risk of arrest. Aging parents and youth alike take part in processions in solidarity with prisoners on a hunger strike. A children’s dance troupe – several of whose members have had family members in prison – performs at a mother’s otherwise somber commemoration of her son’s twenty years in prison. Two former prisoners, one man and one woman, discuss how they maintained their dignity while they were inside. The film reveals how community members, old and young, respond with creativity and determination to attend to the social and political toll imprisonment takes on them all.
Praise For Degrees of Incarceration:
How can a deeply troubling depiction of the impact of arrests, torture, and incarceration on Palestinian youth and their families also be hopeful? By capturing, as this film does, the remarkable resilience, warmth, and creativity of those who are trying to help a new generation face the future.
Lila Abu-Lughod
Professor, Department of Anthropology,
Institute for Research on Women and Gender
Columbia University
Degrees of Incarceration documents the arbitrariness of the Israeli Occupation Authorities in the 1967 conquered Palestinian territories regarding imprisonment of Palestinians. The viewer gets an intimate understanding of Israel’s policy of nipping potential Palestinian resistors in the bud at age sixteen and younger. But what is unique about this film is that it shows the way in which the community strengthens its youth through programs at the Lajee Center. This film demonstrates that Palestinians continue to struggle against the subjugation of their human spirit, and challenges the veracity of portrayals of Palestinians as despairing people.
Elaine C. Hagopian
Prof. Emerita of Sociology
Selected Awards & Screenings:
*Audience Award, Cairo Documentary Festival, 2011
* Amnesty International Film Festival
* Chicago Palestine Film Festival
* Boston Palestine Film Festival
* Jerusalem Fund, Voices of Palestine Film Festival
* George Washington University
* Brown University
* Al-Najah University, Nablus
* Lajee Center, Aida Refugee Camp, Bethlehem
* Gone Wired Cafe, Lansing, MI
Political imprisonment casts a persistent shadow over Aida Refugee Camp, Bethlehem. Through observational footage and interviews filmed over the course of six years, the documentary traces how a group of youth are imprisoned for protesting against the building of the separation wall around their refugee camp. Imprisonment continues to affect their lives after their release. Scenes of the everyday ways families cope reveal the emotional intensity of this issue. A mother whose sixteen-year-old is in detention expresses her vociferous support for him until she is overcome with grief. Elderly parents awake in the middle of the night to make an arduous journey into Israel to visit their long-imprisoned son.
Yet, this is not centrally a story of Palestinian suffering. A youth organization produces a play to teach teenagers how to handle interrogation. It also channels youths’ nationalist commitment into activities that will support their community but diminish their risk of arrest. Aging parents and youth alike take part in processions in solidarity with prisoners on a hunger strike. A children’s dance troupe – several of whose members have had family members in prison – performs at a mother’s otherwise somber commemoration of her son’s twenty years in prison. Two former prisoners, one man and one woman, discuss how they maintained their dignity while they were inside. The film reveals how community members, old and young, respond with creativity and determination to attend to the social and political toll imprisonment takes on them all.
Praise For Degrees of Incarceration:
How can a deeply troubling depiction of the impact of arrests, torture, and incarceration on Palestinian youth and their families also be hopeful? By capturing, as this film does, the remarkable resilience, warmth, and creativity of those who are trying to help a new generation face the future.
Lila Abu-Lughod
Professor, Department of Anthropology,
Institute for Research on Women and Gender
Columbia University
Degrees of Incarceration documents the arbitrariness of the Israeli Occupation Authorities in the 1967 conquered Palestinian territories regarding imprisonment of Palestinians. The viewer gets an intimate understanding of Israel’s policy of nipping potential Palestinian resistors in the bud at age sixteen and younger. But what is unique about this film is that it shows the way in which the community strengthens its youth through programs at the Lajee Center. This film demonstrates that Palestinians continue to struggle against the subjugation of their human spirit, and challenges the veracity of portrayals of Palestinians as despairing people.
Elaine C. Hagopian
Prof. Emerita of Sociology
Selected Awards & Screenings:
*Audience Award, Cairo Documentary Festival, 2011
* Amnesty International Film Festival
* Chicago Palestine Film Festival
* Boston Palestine Film Festival
* Jerusalem Fund, Voices of Palestine Film Festival
* George Washington University
* Brown University
* Al-Najah University, Nablus
* Lajee Center, Aida Refugee Camp, Bethlehem
* Gone Wired Cafe, Lansing, MI
