Lemon Tree is the incredibly powerful story of a woman who, despite all of the forces working against her – social, political, bureaucratic, cultural – fights to hold on to what matters to her. Salma is a Palestinian widow living on the border between Israel and the occupied West Bank. She lives alone, tending the lemon grove she inherited from her father. When the new Israeli defense minister moves in next door, the secret service decides the lemon grove is a security threat and wants to cut it down.  Everyone Salma goes to for help belittles her situation, saying that other people have “real problems.” She finally hires a lawyer and they take the case all the way to the Israeli supreme court. The case becomes symbolic of the entire Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and it is driven by this one woman who refuses to give up.

The film is based on the true story of an 80-year-old Palestinian woman and her olive grove. In reality, however, the Israeli courts refused to even hear the case. The writer, Suha Arraf, said that she wanted the film to be lighter than the reality so it could contain some hope. She changed the olives to lemons to symbolize the sourness of life in Palestine. Salma always serves lemonade to her guests though, adding sugar to the lemons’ juice to make it bearable to drink. The sugar of Arraf’s screenplay was the occasional comic relief, like shots of a glowering photo of Salma’s husband every time she had a male guest, and the ridiculous language tutorial the young Israeli sentinel continuously listened to. Arraf softened the situation to make it believable, but still  managed to keep it a very moving story.

After the film, Palestinian artist and writer Ibtisam Barakat read aloud a note from the writer Suha Arraf about the writing of the film and how it relates to the reality of the situation in the Middle East. Then she invited two Israeli filmmakers, Shira Derman ($9.99) and Nirit Peled (Say My Name) and a Native American thespian, Marcie Rendon, up for a discussion. Instead of talking about the things that divide us, Barakat said, let’s talk about the things that can bring us together. These women may come from different sides of a very long and very bloody conflict, but they are all strong, passionate women who have overcome cultural limitations to find their voices, and filmmakers who use their art to make those voices heard. It was clearly a very difficult, emotional conversation for all of them, and it probably could have gone on all night if the next film hadn’t cut it short.

One idea that the women discussed was how, as Nirit Peled brought up, women in conflict areas are even more suppressed and isolated than they were already by heavily patriarchal societies. In the film, Salma had all the courage in the world, but no influence or resources whatsoever. Mira, the defense minister’s wife, was on her side and had a lot more power and influence, but was still held back from action– whether she was held back by the patriarchal bureaucratic structure or simply by her lack of courage is still up for debate.

What everyone agreed on was that there needs to be empathy and humanity on both sides in order to create a real conversation and begin understanding each other, and that films like Lemon Tree are the only way to do that. The news is too shallow and easy to misinterpret, they said, but art can reach much deeper to the heart of the issue and humanize the pain on both sides. Peled said, “If it were up to the women, there would have been peace a long time ago.”

More info about Lemon Tree and a trailer on the film’s official website.

Check out what’s going on for the final day of Citizen Jane Film Fest.

One of the best parts of film festivals is the opportunity to meet and talk to the filmmakers. This panel discussion included Georgina Lightning, writer and director of Older Than America; Karen Skloss, director of Sunshine; Beth Mickle, production designer on Cold Souls; and Lindsay Bosch, video art curator and distribution manager for Video Data Bank. The discussion was moderated by marketing consultant and writer Melissa Silverstein.

Silverstein said that only 15% of female filmmakers are represented even at film festivals, which are known for being very open to women compared to the rest of the movie business. In the industry itself, that percentage is even lower. A lot of the discussion this afternoon was centered around why this is. One problem is that films by women about women tend to end up as chick flicks. They brought  up the example of Julie and Julia, a film that came out this summer. It wasn’t a big box office hit at first, compared with the usual summer blockbusters, but is still drawing in audiences now and has slowly but steadily drawn in over $100 million. Still, nobody talks about it because it wasn’t an immediate success and attracted audiences of 25+ females – an audience that Silverstein said Hollywood doesn’t care about.

Another movie discussed was Whip It, Drew Barrymore’s recent directorial debut. It absolutely flopped, and Silverstein said it was because of the marketing. It should have been portrayed as a sort of girl-power film, about strong women doing amazing things. But marketing to women “scares the crap out of them” in Hollywood, so it was marketed more as a date movie and it failed.

Georgina Lightning and Karen Skloss both commented that they want to be known simply as filmmakers rather than as feminist or female filmmakers. They want to compete in the larger arena rather than being filed away in a niche. But for now, Hollywood just doesn’t support female-directed films. So if women are going to come forward, the push as to come in the independent arena first.

Silverstein ended the discussion by urging the women in the audience to, any time they hear about a movie by or about women, go see it immediately. “It’s like voting,” she said. “It counts.”

Today is the first day of a three day long film festival, Citizen Jane, hosted by Stephens College featuring women filmmakers. This is the 2nd year that they’ve hosted the festival and hope that it becomes a tradition that occurs for many years to come. The opening film was a documentary called “Say My Name” by Nirit Peled about women in the hip-hop industry.

When I first arrived in Windsor Auditorium on the Stephens campus, there was a blues band on stage playing while the audience was getting seated. The band was fronted by a strong female vocalist and they introduced themselves as “The Sparks”. This set the mood of the night- strong women expressing themselves.

“Say My Name” explored a variety of women from various backgrounds, situations and locations. The film took us to New York City, London, Philadelphia, Atlanta and Detroit. We met women who had college degrees, some who didn’t graduate high school, some with babies, some with drug problems, some with broken families, poverty, and a whole spectrum of situations. But these ladies all had one thing in common-they found power in rhyme.

It was fascinating to hear the stories of these ladies, and how they release their feelings into the world through their lyrics. They talked about their beats as their way of standing up for themselves, expressing themselves, and telling their stories.

The film was an excellent choice for an opening film for this festival. It connected women of all kinds of lifestyles and situations and discussed topics that all women always have and always will have to deal with, such as pregnancy, families, boyfriends, embracing their sexuality, self expression and self esteem.

When the film was over, the line “dedicated to all the women out there demanding respect for themselves” flashed on the screen. That line really summed up the premise of the film, and also what I expect to be the theme of the rest of the festival.

Two of the artists featured in the film, Invincible and Chocolate Thai, flew to Columbia for this premier and stayed for a Q & A session after the film with the filmmaker, Nirit Peled. They discussed topics such as how their lives have changed since the documentary was filmed, the message they think all women and girls should receive from the movie, what they think about the internet’s role in the music industry and female role models and sexuality.

I think Invincible summed it up well when she quoted one of her lyrics: “I’m striving to be the best. Period. Not just the best with breasts and a period.”

A still frame from the film.

For more information about the Citizen Jane Film Festival, visit:
http://www.stephens.edu/news/stephensevents/citizenjane/index.php

For more information about “Say My Name”, visit:
www.saymyname.org