Negev Coexistence Forum for Civil Equality
פורום דו-קיום בנגב לשוויון אזרחי
منتدى التعايش السلمي في النقب من أجل المساواة المدنية

Recognized

05.07.2007

10.07.07 @ 21:30 Negative,
Ben Gurion University building #26, 2nd Floor

Recognized
A documentary film by Ori Kleiner
Israel/USA 2007, 61min / DVD
Hebrew and Arabic w/English subtitles
Written, Directed, Edited and Produced by Ori Kleiner
Additional Camera: Natasha Dudinski
Original Music and Sound Editing: Grundik Kasyansky

Bedouin usually appear in the Israeli collective onsciousness as either “ethnographic” or “demographic” issues. Their representation by means of various objects “coffee, camels, tents, carpets” keeps most Israelis from grasping Bedouin as subjects with wishes and wills, frustrations and fears; as possessing not only a past, but also a future.
The film Recognized is made up of documentary moments that trace the uprooted experiences of Nuri al-Ukbi,
Salman Abu Jlidan, Eid Al-Athamin, Ibrahim Abu Afash, and Samaher Abu Jlidan whom history has cast in the roles of protagonists antagonized by a State that established itself
upon their ancestral lands. Recognized is not a film about Bedouin, but about people forced into the role of Bedouin the only identity the State of Israel allows them, the very identity it systematically denies them. Substandard citizenship, coupled with daily existential obstacles posed by the State, are what this film is about. Recognized was filmed entirely on location in the Negev desert in the summer of 2006.

Ori Kleiner, born in Haifa (1972), is an artist and teacher who lives in New York.
Recognized is his directorial debut. holyfly@gmail.com