Artists in Person

Admission: $4

Presented in our Screenagers series, recommended for ages 11 and older.Promises examines the Middle East conflict through the eyes of those rarely asked for their opinions (only their lives): Palestinian and Israeli children. Shot from 1995 to 1998, the film follows seven children living in or around Jerusalem, each from neighborhoods the others have rarely if ever visited. Farad and Sanabel live in Palestinian refugee camps, Mahmoud is a Palestinian living within Jerusalem, while Moishe resides in a Jewish settlement tellingly defining it as "a place where people who fight with Arabs live." The American–born Orthodox Jew Shlomo prays daily, while secular twins Daniel and Yarko are nervous just visiting the Western Wall, muttering "I'd rather visit an Arab village than be by all these religious people." Funerals and army roadblocks, volleyball games, and birthday parties: Promises captures both the violence of war and the celebrations of life that exist within each day for each child, yet never forgets the conflict's uncounted tragedy, noted by Farad with the simple, sad words, "The life we live doesn't allow us to accomplish our dreams."