By Mikhail Saavedra

Well I guess I could start by “blaming” Leonard Cohen for this whole thing. I have been slightly addicted to his beautiful/heartbreaking writing for a while now, but a particular poem/song of his is what started this whole idea for me. “The Future” written back in 1992, is a pretty bleak song about how Cohen as a poet predicting how the world would turn out. Sadly he was pretty much dead on judging by current evidence. The poem speaks of walls among other things and that got me to look up walls around the world and how it seems that we have more of them around since the Berlin Wall went down. This search got me to a legend of rock, Roger Waters (Pink Floyd) and his Magnum Opus “The Wall” which he is taking out on tour again likely this year. Well it also happens that Roger Waters is a dedicated supporter among other celebrities/corporations/grassroots organizations of Project Cinema Jenin.

Why is Cinema Jenin important to me? I am the publisher/creator of a magazine called Alternavox as well as a new film/documentary producer. From the very beginning the whole point of the Alternavox venture was to showcase the genuine creative vibe in any given city, be it art/music/film etc etc. I have been moved and motivated by this goal for a few years now. I also grew up in a Latin American family where not having the arts in all its forms could signal the danger of becoming an empty vessel of a person. Art was also a tool to help us survive the dark years of Augusto Pinochet’s regime. So after watching and reading what Cinema Jenin was all about, speaking to the organizers directly and finding out how incredibly moving the whole story was and how very inclusive they wanted this to be. How could I in good conscience not do something about this? But the question became larger after thinking deeply about it, how could ANYONE not want to do something about this? All those that believe that creativity and passion can enhance our common humanity should, I hope, be drawn to this particular project.

I imagine as well that some cynics might scoff at a project of this magnitude, some will raise issues like “how is this going to fix anything?” or “how will this solve the issues of justice/class/land/religion/ethnicity that have plagued that area of the world?”. The answer I can give is that while all those questions are valid and should be discussed honestly and directly, and that while my own position on that issue is clear, I firmly believe that in order to demand a better world you have to start working for it in any way possible and this to me is certainly one step forward. This may not satisfy extremists but when in doubt I find renewed strength in moving forward by reminding myself of two examples of courage from both Jews and Palestinians, I think of my father always reminding me as a child of the fearless courage of the Anti Fascist/Anti Nazi Jewish fighters of the Warsaw Ghetto who preferred to resist that unbearable oppression rather than just allow themselves to be exterminated and the courage, the enormous courage and humanity of Ismael Khatib whose 11 year old son Ahmed was shot down by the Israeli Army in 2005, and who despite an overwhelming, soul killing grief, decides to donate his son’s organs to Israeli children thus saving their lives. Understanding that courage only leaves me with the option of trying to help rebuild and I don’t mean just buildings…

Just to give you a sense of what is coming, I am putting together, as we speak, a team of supporters from a variety of different organizations (we will list everyone as they jump on board) as well as individuals to oversee things like future events and creating fun ideas to raise funds and to then use those funds to sponsor the “adopt a chair” program in benefit of Cinema Jenin and to also offer in the future workshops to teach the children of Jenin about art in all its forms. My personal pledge is that I will use my media knowledge and my magazine to talk about all the upcoming events and initiatives that we can dream up and create. I will tirelessly bother you, the reader, and just about everyone else to bring both awareness and support to our cause. We also have the blessing of the organizers and they are very excited with the possibilities and ideas I have already put forth to them!

Further we will reach out to literally EVERYONE, Israeli and Palestinian organizations, churches, politicians, celebrities, unions, corporations, neighbourhood/cultural/ student/political groups and everyone out there who feels moved by this and who finds an echo in what we are trying to accomplish here. This is of course not to say we will all agree on everything and in fact my suspicion is that if we do this right, there will be people helping out who may not agree on anything BUT the fact that it is worth to help this very worthy effort. To help facilitate this I like to forewarn that I will have absolutely no tolerance for hateful speech of any kind, Anti Semitic/Anti Arab garbage will be denounced firmly as it certainly has no place in this effort.

Ultimately my motivation is that spark, that unique spark that moved Ismael Khatib to donate the organs of his dead child to his “enemies”. If there is anything worth saving in our very flawed, at times selfish human nature is that generosity of spirit. I invite each and everyone of you to join me and our growing team in slightly changing with our actions the words of Leonard Cohen in “The Future” “I’ve seen the future, brother: it is murder” to one I think he would ultimately approve: “I’ve seen the future brothers and sisters: it could be hope…”