Death in Gaza

About The Film

In spring 2003, award-winning filmmaker James Miller and reporter Saira Shah, set out to take a first-hand look at the culture of hate that permeates the Middle East. They captured the lives of three Palestinian children growing up in the bullet-riddled streets of Gaza. Although James and Saira had planned to film the lives of Israeli children as well, in the midst of production, Miller was shot to death by an Israeli tank, falling victim to the very conflict he covered.

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About The Filmmakers:

Saira Shah was named "Television Reporter of the Year" in 2002. She has received widespread recognition for two documentaries about Afghanistan for Channel Four: BENEATH THE VEIL and UNHOLY WAR. The films have won three Royal Television Society Awards, two Emmys®, a BAFTA, a Peabody and numerous other awards. She has recently published her first book "The Storyteller's Daughter."

As a former reporter for Channel Four News she is familiar with many of the world's hotspots. She has covered the NATO action in Kosovo, massacres in Algeria, kidnappings in Yemen, the fall of Mobutu in Zaire, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, bombings in Northern Ireland and a host of other subjects. Her reporting for Channel Four News won her awards from Amnesty International, the New York Film Festival and the Royal Television Society.

INTERVIEW

HBO: What first inspired you and James to make this film?

SAIRA: In all the work we did together, James and I used the same principle - delving beneath the level of politics, to look at the impact of conflict on the human beings caught up in them. When HBO suggested we make a film that would shed light on why so many (particularly young) people in the Islamic world feel antagonism towards the west, we initially researched several countries - Iraq, Kashmir, Yemen. However, it was what we saw in Rafah that moved us to change the focus of the film, and concentrate on just one group of children living at the most extreme edge of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

HBO: Although there were obvious risks, were you at all hesitant about going to Gaza to film?

SAIRA: Yes, we were worried about going to Gaza, and particularly Rafah. During our first two shoots, we witnessed the aftermath of indiscriminate fire on civilians by Israeli soldiers. Rafah itself is ringed by sniper towers, and every day you hear firing down one street or another. "Martyrdom" funerals took place most days. These were often the funerals of civilians (including kids) shot by Israeli snipers, but also of militants killed in skirmishes - no distinction was made. In Rafah, it is impossible to be above the conflict. People get ***** in.

HBO: Any new projects coming from you?

SAIRA: For the moment, I'm trying to recover from this one. Editing the film after James' death was really really difficult - but it felt like something that was important to his memory.

HBO: What would you like for viewers to take away from this film?

SAIRA: These kids are not monsters. They are living in unacceptable conditions. Human beings are human beings the world over and the circumstances they live in have a profound impact upon their behavior. There is a cycle of violence in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, where every killing creates a martyr, which creates more killing. Injustice breeds injustice.

HBO: Was there anything unexpected that you learned in course of making this film? What challenged your initial expectations?

SAIRA: Yes, a lot, because everything you read or see about this conflict in particular is sifted through a filter of politics. It is hard to get away from the concept that there are "goodies" and "baddies". We found kids who were being exploited by both sides in a conflict they did not understand. An enormous number of children are killed by Israeli snipers in Rafah. Their deaths are used to recruit the next generation of militants. I wasn't prepared for the cynicism of that, as well as being horrified by the lack of respect for human life shown by the Israeli soldiers. Kids who grow up in this atmosphere will be in no shape to make peace, so the cycle is perpetuated.

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Humanity

The film tells the story of the lives of the people who live with such a conflict everyday, and how it affects their lives. Mainly, the film focuses on seven children of the conflict and their families. After a graphic and intense scene in which an Israeli sponsored car-bombing of a suspected conspiring Palestinian suicide bomber, a witness comments that it is the next generation of the people in that area that will determine whether there is peace or war. The film follows the children in different aspect of their lives: following them to school, what they learn in school, time spent with family, activities with para-military resistance fighters, making and using homemade expolsives against Israeli occupation forces, and the mourning of the death of friends and family members.

For short while the film concentrates on martyrdom and the opinions of the people there about dying for Palestine and Islam. It briefly tells the story of a young boy who was shot resisting the Israeli occupation forces much like the main boys Ahmed and Mohammed, as well as numerous other un-named boys. The film follows the boy from being brought into the medical center and the initial treatment, to his death and public reaction, to the parade and his burial, and celebration at his success in becoming a martyr.

James Miller's Death

While filming this movie, Producer / Director James Miller perished as a result of gunfire from an Israeli army soldier. Miller's death came about after he and fellow crew members were attempting to pass an Israeli APC, audibly and visibly suggesting their neutrality as journalists by wearing helmets and flak vests marked "TV", waving an illuminated white flag and walking slowly in the open. A first shot was fired by Israeli soldiers, and a crew member reaffirmed their neutrality by yelling "We are British journalists". Seconds later, another shot was fired and hit Miller in the neck, killing him instantly. This occurred while the crew was filming military activity from one of the children's homes in Rafah.

Documentary Completion

James Miller and crew had intended on illustrating this struggle from the Israeli children's point of view, but James was killed before even the completion of this film.

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