Frontiers of Dreams and Fears is the third in a series of films I made on Palestinian children. In each of the films I tried to see through the children’s eyes and to give them a chance to tell their own stories. The films are based on the dreams, imagination and creativity of children. The idea of Frontiers began in Shatila refugee camp in Beirut where I set out to focus on the lives and dreams of Palestinian refugee children who had survived exile, siege and massacre. I wanted to explore the relationship between memory, imagination and identity. To see how memory is passed on from generation to generation and how it is re-interpreted by each new generation. I wanted to understand what these children - whose grandparents were dispossessed from their homes in Palestine in 1948 - consider ‘home’ and how they reconstruct their lack of a home.

I met Mona (13 years) at a youth center in Shatila camp (Sumoud) for children who had lost their parents in the war. I chose her because of her creativity and imagination. I was inspired by the wisdom and poetry of her words that seemed to defy her age. Then one day, I discovered that she had been corresponding by internet with Manar (14 years) from Dheisha refugee camp near Bethlehem in Palestine. I was inspired by their growing friendship and their will to communicate despite the distances and boundaries dividing them. At that time, the Israeli army had begun withdrawing from south Lebanon after 20 years of occupation. I heard that hundreds of Palestinian refugees were flocking down to the Lebanese/Israeli border to see their relatives on the other side. I had the crazy idea of arranging a meeting between the two girls. Amidst hundreds of Palestinian families who were being reunited on the border for the first time in 52 years, the two girls met each other, hugged and kissed through the barbed wire. The first thing I noticed about Manar were her eyes. They seemed to be dancing! It was one of the most moving moments of my life.

I grew up in a neighborhood in Beirut less than 10 minutes away from Shatila refugee camp. I have known its families and watched their children grow. Whenever I visit the camp what strikes me most is the sight of young children playing in the piles of rubble and rubbish. I am amazed by their ability to laugh and play despite their miserable conditions.

Shatila and Dheisha camps were set up along with many other refugee camps as temporary shelters for the 700,000 Palestinians who were dispossessed from their homes in Palestine when the State of Israel was created in 1948.

The first time I filmed in Shatila camp was after the horrific massacre of 1982. Since then, I have witnessed its destruction and reconstruction three times. Today, Shatila camp is home to more than 15,000 Palestinians who share a common experience of displacement, unemployment and poverty. Located in the heart of Beirut’s "Belt of Misery", the camp consists of a maze of tight alleyways packed into a single square mile with families as large as 10 sharing a single room. The fathers are unemployed and the children end up dropping out of school at the age of 11 or 12 years to help support their families. Many suffer from malnutrition and stunted growth.

Dheisha camp is located near Bethlehem in Palestine. I remember passing by Dheisha camp in 1989 during the first Intifada. I was intrigued by the fence that the Israeli army had built around it to control it's inhabitants. I felt that there was a story in this camp that I would come back to one day...

My relationship with the Dheisha camp started with Ibdaa Cultural Group and Manar who is a member of the Ibdaa dance troupe. I immediately felt at home in Dheisha. I was touched by the people's hospitality and openness. Dheisha camp is home to 14,000 palestinian refugees. Many of them come from villages around the Jerusalem area. They still hold onto their traditions and the keys to their original homes in Palestine. Many of the young people are university graduates.

I started filming in Dheisha camp in August 2000, a month before the beginning of the second Intifada. When I was filming, I noticed that the living conditions seemed slightly better than in Shatila camp. The Pope had just visited the camp and the walls had been painted white with colorful murals and graffiti.

But much has changed since I finished making Frontiers. In March 2002, the Israeli army invaded the major Palestinian cities and refugee camps. Dheisha camp was occupied and 600 people were arrested including many children who appeared in the film. I was also shocked to hear that Israeli soldiers had killed Manar’s grandfather on a street near his home. I had filmed him taking Manar to visit the remains of their destroyed village in Palestine. I will always remember him as the keeper of the keys and memories of the destroyed village.

- The interviews in the film are quite compelling. How would you describe your approach to interviewing young people? How do you feel about the responses they give? For example, there seem to be many instances in the film where there is both hope and despair, simultaneously echoing in the voices of the children. What do you think?

I have known Mona and her friends in Shatila for many years. When I met Manar and her friends in Dheisha camp I also felt that I had known them for years. This close relationship developed partly because of the help of friends and NGOs like Ibdaa or Sumoud, and partly because of the personal relationship I developed with the characters.

When I am making a film, I work very closely with the characters and develop a relationship of mutual trust that helps them open up and overcome their self-consciousness in front of the camera. The most important thing for me is the friendship that develops before, during and after the film. I do not conduct conventional interviews. I like to set the mood and allow the story to develop naturally through conversations and narrative sequences. I avoid commentary and talking heads. I never tell my characters what to say. Sometimes I remind them about something they said before and hope they will say it again with feeling and conviction! My approach is closer to narrative than classical documentary.

The children would often have extreme mood changes. They'd be laughing and suddenly someone would say something or something would happen that would completely shift their mood. The style of the film took the shape of their state of mind. In their eyes I could see happiness and sadness, hope and despair. Hope because they are children. Sadness because of the overwhelming difficulties of their everyday lives. I feel that Mona dn Manar hold the keys to the contrasting and converging elements of dream and reality. Their little stories of life and love in the midst of destruction and despair transcend the overwhelming barriers separating from their homeland and from each other.

- what sort of obstacles did you have in shooting and gaining access to the camps?

I was able to make Frontiers because I had the full trust and cooperation of the people in Shatila and Dheisha camps. That was a tremendous help. The spirit and creativity of people were inspiring to me and helped me overcome many obstacles.

The most difficult obstacles I faced was when I returned to film during the Intifada. By then the area around Bethlehem and Dheisha had been reoccupied by the Israeli army. The Israeli soldiers had sealed off the whole area with checkpoints. I was lucky to get in. On every hill I could see settlements. It was like being in a cage under siege and constant surveillance.

While filming in Bethlehem , I was shot in the leg by an an Israeli soldier. Luckily, the rubber coated steel bullet didn't hit me in the eye. These so called "rubber" bullets have proven to be quite lethal if fired at a close range. Many Palestinians have been killed or maimed by them.

It all happened on one sunny day of November when I was filming near the entrance of Bethlehem where the Israeli army had set up military watchtowers on Palestinian occupied land. A few days earlier a 21 year old American photographer for Associated Press was shot on the same spot. An Israeli sniper shot her with a live bullet that shattered her pelvis. She is one of 70 Western and Palestinian journalists who have been shot by Israeli soldiers in the last two years.

On the day I decided to go filming, there were no confrontations between the youngsters and the soldiers. It was a ‘normal’ day. Every day, the kids perform a daily ritual ton their way back from school: They each throw a few stones at the Israeli army check post (which happens to be on occupied Palestinian land). On that day, I didn't see any soldiers because, as usual, they were hidden in their watchtowers behind their sniper's rifles. So I decided to take my little DV camera and interview a few school boys. I couldn't resist filming a little 10-year-old boy carrying a slingshot and a little yellow plastic water pistol. He looked so childish yet so serious in this dangerous game! Suddenly out of the blue, as I kneeled down to film him, a bullet hit me in the leg . My only explanation for what happened is that the soldiers either don’t like women with cameras or must have been bored on that day (or both) because they certainly had no reason to lob a potentially lethal bullet at me!

- in the film, the fact that fathers are missing, in prison, deceased comes up. What percentage of young people are in this situation, would you say, living in a household where there is no father?

I would say that at least half the Palestinian male population has been in Israeli prisons at least once in their lives. Many have spent several years behind bars. It is common to find households that are run by the women because the men are either missing, in prison or deceased. Mona's father is deceased and Manar's father was imprisoned for many years. There are currently more than 9,000 Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli jails.

The kids in both camps love to dance. They both belong to dance troupes and regularly perform the Dabkeh (the national Palestinian dance). Many of them play musical instruments. The cultural centers within the two camps provide an outlet for the energy and creativity of the kids. These Centers keep them off the street and strengthen their sense of belonging to the community. Computers were introduced just before the Intifada as part of a project to empower the children and encourage communication between refugees in different camps. The internet created a mini revolution in the camps because it allowed refugees to communicate with the world in their own voices.

- one thing that many people have not experienced or seen is this sort of permanent separation from one's land, one's family and perhaps even one's heritage. Can you comment on this idea, particularly in terms of how the kids feel about it/talk about it in the camps? A related "foreign" phenomenon for many people is this concept of having violence so present in one's daily life. How do you think the kids process all the things they see and hear in and around the camps, especially in Dheisha?

Mona articulates this feeling when she says " I wish I were a bird so I could fly back to my homeland, Palestine... " Somewhere else in the film she says " Why should we study. We have no future. We are refugees with no rights. Our dreams are dying..."

The children are being brutalized and traumatized by the violence around them. This manifests itself in the way they play and in the nightmares they have at night. They see their parents humiliated, Their fathers powerless to provide for them or to protect them. What amazes me is the fact that despite their miserable conditions, the teenagers in Shatila and Dheisha camps still manage to laugh, love and dream like any other teenagers around the world. Their greatest strength is the fact that they haven't lost their humanity or their spirit.

- If someone wanted to learn more or do something to help, what might you suggest?

I would suggest they try to learn as much as possible through the available web sites: Merip (www.merip.org/pins/pin91.html), the Electronic Intifada (http://electronicIntifada.net), American-Arab Anti Discrimination Committee(www.adc.org), Al-Awda (http://al-awda.org), Badil Resource Center (www.badil.org), etc.

They could send emails and letters to their Congressmen and to the press. They could travel to the region to witness first hand. They could visit NGOs on the ground like Ibdaa in Dheisha or Sumoud in Shatila camp. They could sponsor Palestinian children or families.If they like they could volunteer to work with children in one of the refugee camps or take part in the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) www.palsolidarity.org or Grass Roots International Protection (GIPP) www.pngo.net/GIPP/.

Peace activists of ISM are doing incredible work in protecting civilians and testifying against Israeli brutality (Contacts: Pcr@p-ol.com and send copy to: georgesq@yahoo.com Hanna Rishmawi (GIPP): 00972-52-437513; Bahiyya (GIPP): 00972-55-378262; George S. Rishmawi: 00972-52-502079; Ghassan Andoni: 00972-52- 595319; Sabeel Centre (Cathy): 00972-2-5327136).

I'm working on two projects. The first is an update of the the three films I made on Palestinian children in the past 10 years. The second is fiction. I'm still in the early stages of script writing.

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