Bnai Darfur (Sons of Darfur)
Synopsis
“Bnai Darfur” is a feature length documentary about the harrowing journeys and lives of four Sudanese refugees that found political asylum in Israel.
"Bnai Darfur” is a feature length documentary about the harrowing journeys and lives of four Sudanese refugees that found political asylum in Israel. It will captures the refugees journey, life in Egypt to their entrance through the desert into Israel guided by Bedouins, and their predicaments as black Muslins within Israeli citizenry.
The work will expose the conflicting positions within the views of Israeli politicians and civil society, faced with the reality of black Muslins in the Jewish homeland, and their own history of persecution and genocide.
Budget:
$ 150,000.00
Project's Financial Needs
Budget to return to Israel to complete production. Air tickets and accommodation in Israel for a period of two months for two; 2 person crew fees, camera rental, transportation, post production -editor, narrator, graphic design, archival footage, music license, sound mixing, color correction, promotion and distribution.
Other financial Support
Private donors $25,000.00
Current stage of production
Production
Estimated Completion Date
10/28/2010
Background
Due to the Egyptian influence on the process of its independence since its beginning, Sudan has been ruled by an Arab elite that is friendly with and share many cultural characteristics, such as religion and ethnicity, with its neighbors to the north. However, the majority of Sudan’s population is African Blacks, mostly Muslim, who have been historically discriminated against by the central government, in all social and economical arenas. In 2003 in the Western region of Darfur, in their plight for justice and political involvement, Black militants attacked members of the Sudanese army. In response, the Sudanese army bombed villages and the armed militia known as the Janjaweed began a wanton destruction of crops and hundred of villages, murdering men and raping women. After seven years there is still no end in sight.
According to a report by US government and New York times to date, about 400,000 people have been killed and 2.7 million have been displaced. Refugees have been fleeing to big cities and neighboring countries such as Chad and Egypt, seeking safety. In Egypt, the situation of the Sudanese refugees is dire; they lack basic rights, are on the verge of starvation, and suffer from frequent harassment by the authorities and civilians alike.Out of desperation many have made the hazardous journey from Egypt through the Sinai desert to seek refugee in israel.
According to an UNHCR official (UN High Commission for Refugees) interviewed for this documentary, the wave of refugees into Israel increased in 2005 after a notorious incident in Cairo, when during a demonstration, Egyptian police opened fire indiscriminately on the crowd, killing 24 Sudanese refugees and wounding many others. Others were deported back to Sudan to face certain persecution. Since this incident, the number of Sudanese refugees crossing on foot through the desert into Southern Israel has increased dramatically, from several hundred in 2006, to more than 10,000 in 2009.
Timeline
1.Phase 1 Production in israel: April/June 2008 (interview subjects, festive occasions, work and leasure).
2.Fiscal Sponsorship and fundraising: October 2008
3. Phase 2 production in israel & Egypt: April/May 2009 (more interviews with subjects, Yassin wedding footage)
4. Fundraising: August 2009/March 2010
5.Phase 3: Production in Israel and the Hague: May/June 2010
6. Post-production: July/November 2010
Treatment
Bnai Darfur” does not have a formal narrator. The voices of the refugees themselves—mainly Ishaq Musa—will form the storytelling spine of the film. The anarchy in Sudan prevents shooting in Darfur. The film begins in the refugee camps in Chad, where hundreds of thousands of survivors find precarious shelter under the protection of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees. Augmented by archival footage of corpses of victims and entire villages in fire and ashes, our guides relate moving stories of the Darfuris long-standing economic disparity, ultimate rebellion, and consequent persecution, murder, rape, destruction of villages and plundering by the Sudanese army and the Janjaweed militia. Our four characters, in a state of desperation, with nowhere to go, and “ready to die,” Duob recalled in an interview, relate how they decide to accept to pay for the help of Bedouins and cross the Sinai Desert in hopes of finding safety in a country of which they were ignorant, except that it “was an evil enemy,” according to the official stance of the Sudanese Government. In spite of their Muslim religion, and their Sudanese passports, they found refugees in Israel. “The first thing I did was cry,” said Ytzac in an interview. “The Israeli soldiers gave us food and water.” A series of analytical interviews will intertwine with the characters’ anecdotes. These will provide the audience with the refugees’ historical and political context, including the statement of US officials declaring the actions of the Sudan militia as genocidal; remarks by analysts on the functioning of the UN General Assembly and Human Rights Council, as well as the International Criminal Court; the issue of race; the various forces driving the tragedy; and the fact that neighboring African countries lack either the willpower or firepower to mount a defense for the Darfuris leaving them with no international protection on the scale required. These interviews include academics, representatives of NGOs, governments officials, officials of the UN, Israeli intellectuals, and people on the street, whose reactions and opinions differ towards the potential impact of a large influx of Sudanese refugees on Israel’s small population. The film will include impressionistic montages in cinema-verite, of authentic Darfuri social occasions: experienced by our characters, Yassin’s marriage, traditional holidays, religious workship, music and ancestral Sudanese African culture, presented in contrast to the modern European Israeli way of life.
Production Personnel
Nicholas Blair (Cinematographer)
Born in New York City, to a filmmaking family, Nicholas became interested instead in photography. After travelling in South America and India, he matriculated with an MFA in photography from the San Francisco Art Institute and began teaching photography and exhibiting from Texas to New York and Paris. But he was impressed by the power of moving images while covering the Ethiopian famine for CARE and returned to New York to begin his apprenticeship and work as a cinematographer, ultimately traveling to over 50 countries for an impressive list of organizations. Nevertheless, his photographic training holds him in good stead, giving his framing, lighting and tonalities a special look. With over 20 years experience, Nicholas is expert with a wide variety of cameras, lighting equipment and filming situations, from multi camera concert shoots to small camera guerilla interviews, and animals at night in Africa. His client list includes the Peace Corps, UNICEF, the National Geographic Society, MTV, Nickelodeon, VH -1, Fox Television, WNET, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the History Channel, A&E Television, Discovery Television, HBO, and PBS.
Doniphan Blair (Associate Producer)
Raised in Manhattan by a filmmaker father, Doniphan was making films by high school. Although he spent much of his twenties traveling the United States, Asia and South America, he also studied film, video and writing, graduating from the San Francisco Art Institute. He has been working in film./video since, both commercially and on self-produced projects, as well as in graphics and writing. Doniphan's combination of travel, study and work experience, with an interest in difficult issues, makes him an invaluable asset in developing, producing and marketing cutting-edge films. Doniphan came to focus on the Holocaust, since his mother is a survivor and he realized her suffering fed his own feelings of anger and alienation. Hence, he researched it extensively at the Holocaust Center of N. California and YIVO Institute of New York, attended conferences and classes and interviewed his mother and other survivors, for Spielberg's Shoah Foundation.
Rana Halprin (assistant Producer)
Rana Halprin has been professionally involved in the field of expressive arts and integrated fields throughout her life. Born into a milieu of innovators and artists, she began her performing career touring nationally and internationally at eight..
n 1984 Rana earned her degree with Honors in Cultural Anthropology (U.C. Berkeley) and M.A. Integral Psychology (California Institute of Integral Studies) in San Francisco. She studied film in 1978 at ZIA CINE in Santa Fe and worked on the docu drama "Land of the Morning Star" under the auspices of NEA for PBS. Between 1997 - 2001 she toured and photographed the refugee camps in Italy with the ERRC and various human rights organizations, the EU and Union Romani.In 2004 - 2005 she worked at :"Creativity for Peace" in New Mexico, with Palestinian teens from Gaza, the West Bank and Israeli teens . In Spring 2006 Rana was invited to Jerusalem to present at IMAGINE :In the Service of Humanity, an international conference utilizing arts and the expressive arts as a dialogue for peace. Rana continues to be inspired by the individual and collective reconciliation between groups in conflict and victims of war.
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