Courtesy of Atzmor Productions

DOUBLE FEATURE
The Viewing Booth + The Law in These Parts

Part of The Viewing Booth & New Adventures in Nonfiction (2021)
Friday, August 13, 2021, 5:30 p.m.
Museum of the Moving Image - Bartos Screening Room
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With Ra'anan Alexandrowicz in person

Dir. Ra'anan Alexandrowicz. U.S./Israel. 2020, 73 mins. What are we actually seeing when we look at images? To what degree do we believe our eyes, and what extrasensorial factors define our doubts and investments in what is visible? Minimalist in approach yet far-reaching in its application and consequence, The Viewing Booth triangulates an on-screen director, an on-screen viewer, and the viewer in the audience, all reckoning with disputed images. In a lab-like editing suite, director Alexandrowicz invites a series of viewers to watch and comment upon videos portraying life in the occupied West Bank—some generated by Palestinian citizens, others by the Israeli government—before fixing on Maia, a young Jewish American woman whose responses prove compelling, thoughtful, varied, and disconcerting enough to warrant a repeat visit. Throughout, Alexandrowicz walks a razor-thin line of instigation and openness to his own process, allowing viewers to wrestle and identify with the issues that surface, echoing a worldwide media crisis in which measures of truth have been utterly destabilized. View trailer.

Preceded by The Law in These Parts
Dir. Ra’anan Alexandrowicz. Israel. 2012, 101 mins. What is legal and what is just? Featuring candid interviews with Israeli judges, prosecutors, and legal advisors, The Law in These Parts is a gripping and revelatory investigation into the legal framework put in place by Israel to govern the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Weaving together these interviews with archival footage, often in the same frame, Alexandrowicz crafts a comprehensive and evocative portrait of a key facet of one of the world's most stubborn and enduring conflicts. In doing so, The Law in These Parts reveals not only the legal architecture of military occupation but also its human impact on both Palestinians and Israelis. The film asks a question as troubling as it is unavoidable: can a modern democracy impose a prolonged military occupation while retaining its core democratic values? Winner of the Documentary Grand Jury Prize at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival.

Tickets: $15 / $11 seniors & students / $9 youth (ages 3–17) / $7 for MoMI members. Order online. After your purchase, an electronic ticket will be sent via email. All seating is general admission. Please review safety protocols before your visit.