Bringing "Palestine 36" to Life w/ Annemarie Jacir - Just Shoot It 522

Hey, welcome to the 522nd episode of Just Shoot It, a podcast about filmmaking, screenwriting and directing. This episode was brought to you by patrons David Bradburn and David Draper. I'm Matt Benlow.

0:01

And I'm Warren Kaplan. And today we have Annemarie Jasir on the podcast. She is the acclaimed director of the movie Palestine 36, which happened to be the official entry for the Academy Awards for Palestine. I believe it was her fourth film that has been submitted and this one was nominated for. Or it was the official submission for her country. So that was very cool. And she's. It was a lovely conversation. So awesome. Her movie is about 1936 in Palestine. The. The. A very contested area that I happen to have also grown up in. And I thought it was a really good conversation, really fun. It's. It's a film that has been banned from some places and embraced in other places. And I'll let Ann Marie kind of talk a little bit about that. We touched on, on that stuff, on a little bit of the controversy, but a lot about the filmmaking and a lot about her history. I mean, she has like a crazy background. She's been on juries at like Telluride and Cannes and she was at Sundance and at Berlin and she's. Yeah, she's pretty. Pretty acclaimed filmmaker to say the least. So. I really enjoyed the conversation.

0:10

Yeah, I. I thought it was really incredible. And you know, our show isn't especially political. I think we are both politically minded and I think you, Oren, are like, especially a politics junkie.

1:19

And my doom scrolling is largely related to that.

1:31

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And I think we touch on the nature of filmmaking as a political act in the film, but without ever discussing anyone's specific point of view, which is kind of an interesting and sort of strange place to be in, I think. But during the conversation, you know, we. Halfway through, I. I don't think I articulated this to you guys in the moment, but I, I got so emotional just thinking about how incredible it is to get to have a conversation with a film. I'm. It's happening again. It's so weird.

1:36

Yeah. Get Heck's ethical. Stop crying.

2:09

Yeah, yeah, sure. No, it's like it's such a gift to get to talk to fellow artists and like, you know, this person's across the world and has sacrificed so much to get to make her art. And it's so essential to me as a person in a way that it's so essential to her. Even though we're saying very different things, you know, we make light of, like, as a comedy director, I think, like, it's easy to think of it as feeling frivolous, but I think that filmmaking is so nourishing and important and art is, I think, truly essential for people. And just to, like, get to talk to a person who's so down for the cause and to relate to them on those terms, regardless of geography or any other factor, is just such a privilege. I just got really overwhelmed with the thought of it. It's pretty, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's wild. I can't, I can't even articulate the, the, the wave of emotion that hit me. It's pretty incredible.

2:12

Well, I'm glad to hear that. Thought you were mostly checked out during the talk, but.

3:08

Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's why you were like, oh, glassy eyed and low. And I'm like, it's fine. Communing with other artists across the globe. It's, you know. No, it's true.

3:12

Nintendo Switch in your hands most of the time.

3:21

I was crushing some smash as well. Yeah, that's true. Yeah.

3:23

No, I'm just kidding. No, I, it's funny. I mean, you said that we are not really political on the podcast. I think that's by design. I have many, many political thoughts, personally that I'm probably complaining to you about almost on a daily basis. And I have many opinions, but I do kind of believe in the, you know, and a quote attributed to Socrates, probably not said by him, but the, you know, the only thing I know for sure is that I know nothing at all. And.

3:26

Sure.

3:52

So my, my philosophy in general is to, when it comes to politics is to try to listen more than to tell people things I don't know. Very different than my philosophy in film filmmaking. But, but I also believe that we have a pretty wide audience in this pod of all kind of all, all kind of opinions and left and right and progressive and, you know, I do think on average filmmakers are trying to explore new worlds and new people and tell stories of culture and potentially are more open to diversity than maybe the average American. But, but in general, I try to not judge people based on who they vote for or where they live or what their pastimes are, because I just really don't want to alienate people. And I, I just don't like people that say, like, we're right and you're wrong, we're good and you're bad. This interview is a little different in that I, I was actually kind of worried that, like, my Family would be like, why are you interviewing.

3:53

Yeah, yeah.

4:48

This Palestinian filmmaker about her movie about Palestine. You know, like, what is Palestine? Like what. How do you define that? And what. Like, is it a country or a territory? What's Israel? What's, you know, the Middle East? What is, you know, it's oddly controversial. And the reason I was really excited to have her on ultimately and that we kind of changed our whole schedule to make it work was because I found it weird that I. It's the first, first time ever where I was like, what is my family going to think about me for interviewing a filmmaker? And it just dawned on me how ridiculous that is. I don't know. I found this to be a lovely talk. I think Anne Marie is awesome. I, I would say that many more things in common than different.

4:49

Yeah, without a doubt, without a doubt. And I would say that even this intro feels more political than our conversation with her. Do you know what I mean?

5:33

Oh, yeah, yeah.

5:44

Or more laced with that sort of anxiety or, or, or apprehension.

5:45

Yeah. Well, it's kind of embarrassing to even talk to her about it, which is why I was doing it in this intro when she's not in. Potentially hear it when she's listening to this.

5:50

Yeah. Well, it was a delight to talk to her artist to artist.

5:56

Yeah, yeah. And if you care about supporting, you know, people talking to each other, feel free to go to our Patreon. Patreon.com just shoot a pod. You can leave a buck or two. You know, helps us pay our editors and keep the podcast going. As you know, this is not our main job. This is what we do for nourishment, to put something out into the world every week and to talk to other filmmakers about the things that we like to talk about, which is, is largely filmmaking. So. Patreon.com just shoot a pod. Check it out. You will probably not regret it. Anne Marie Jasser. Thank you. Welcome to the podcast from. Are you, Are you in the West Bank? Where are you?

6:00

I am in Haifa at the moment. Thank you. Nice to be here.

6:44

Is that where you live?

6:47

Yes, I live here. I'm from Bethlehem, but I live in Hifa.

6:49

Okay, cool. Yeah, I was looking at your, your movie Palestine 36. I watched it yesterday. Really amazing movie and amazing accomplishment. I kind of, you know, we have, we, we talk to a lot of filmmakers that, like, they lose the financing halfway through, through their film and other, you know, various things that slow down a movie. But I think yours, your example, is, is maybe a first for us. We've done you know, 520 episodes in the last 11 years. But we haven't had a lot of, like, you know, wars and things. This. I mean, we've had Covid, obviously. Sure, yeah.

6:52

But I think this might be our first time that war caused a production shutdown.

7:25

Yeah, yeah, yeah. We lost everything. All of it.

7:29

Yeah. Yeah.

7:33

So I think that it would be really interesting to talk about that. And I mean, I guess just to. Just to set the table if. If everyone else hasn't, like, read your Wikipedia entry as much as I have, like, this is not your first film. You've been working in the world of film for a long time. Right. You're the first Palestinian woman to ever make a feature film. Is that. Is that changed since then?

7:34

That's correct. But I always. I always have to add to that that even so that's true. We have a lot of female directors, a lot working in documentary, like, a lot before me. There was. There's a generation before me, and I have to give props to those. To that generation and those filmmakers.

7:57

Cool. Yeah. Okay. Well, that's good to know. But, yeah, I mean, so many kind of like, interesting accomplishments from Cannes and having, like, all three of your films are submitted for the Oscars. Right. Academy awards.

8:14

Yeah. Palestine 36 is the fourth. Makes it the fourth one and the only one to be nominated as well.

8:27

That's awesome. Congratulations. Yeah, thank you. But maybe. Maybe we'll start a little bit. I feel like we can probably talk to you about a million different things, but maybe let's start a little bit about, like, why you wrote and directed this. This specific story for Palestine 36. It's. I mean, I. I guess I'm just going to give the log line since I just watched it. It's probably fresher in my mind than yours, but it. It. It's basically about what happened in 1936 when there the. The British people were in Palestine and the Jewish settlers were starting to settle things there, and the Palestinian people that were living on that land were basically, their lives are being turned upside down. And it's. I think it spans into 1937, but it's mainly who captured this one year 90 years ago. And I guess I'm curious why. Why you chose that year. And just a little bit about the origin of the film.

8:33

Yeah. Thank you. It's. Yeah, 1936, as you said, it's the beginning of this first mass uprising and sort of marks the beginning of the Palestinian, you know, organized, you know, move for independence, really. There had been a lot of stuff Beforehand. But this moment marks this uprising which began in 36 and was a farmer led uprising. And it is arguably the largest and longest anti colonial uprising of the time at that time. So it's a really important moment that has been overlooked a lot in history. And I was interested in making a film about it and exploring it more. And it's an incredible moment between the indigenous Palestinian community, British mandate that have colonies all over the world and have already been in Palestine for 20 years when 1930, almost 20 years, when 1936 begins, and you know, Jewish immigrants who are fleeing, you know, persecution and from Europe and looking for safety and the beginning of really the, you know, the Zionist movement. So it's like all of these forces know, coming into it, clashing with each other and, and it's a, it's an incredible moment that I, that I wanted to explore.

9:25

Awesome. And so, you know, the movie is told from the perspectives of a lot of different people. You have like Muslim Palestinians, you have Christian priests, you have some British characters. You have more like the cosmopolitan city people, the journalists, the government people and then kind of the people that live in the villages, the farmers and the shepherds and stuff are. I, I, I guess I'm curious, like when you start writing this, you're trying, you're trying to write about like a history of a people but through like very specific characters. Like do you, do you base those characters on real people in history or are you just kind of like mixing people? Like Jeremy Irons is in the movie. Like is his character based on, on a real person?

10:58

Yeah, some of them are based on, on real people. Some of them are based on real people. Jeremy, Jeremy Irons character, which is the High Commissioner walk up, is based on an actual, you know, the four main British characters are all based on actual people. So Jeremy Irons character is based on a real person. His secretary Thomas is based on a real person. Liam Cunningham plays Charles Taggart, who's this, you know, counter surveillance, counterinsurgence expert is based on a real guy. The guy who actually came up with the idea of the first wall and all these forts and how to sort control the population. And Rob Aramao, who plays Captain Wingate, who's based on a real character. So I had a lot of fun with that and some of the things that they say are just right, exactly what they said. You know, Jeremy Irons has seen in the film where he's inaugurating the first radio station in 1936 in Palestine and basically everything that he says in that speech is from the actual speech. So I'm playing a lot between fiction and nonfiction. The Palestinian characters are a mix of people. Yeah, go ahead.

11:39

I was just gonna ask. It's interesting. We've been doing the show for a long time, but we rarely do kind of have interviews where we're dealing with historical fact and fiction kind of combined. It's either documentary or pure fiction. So I'm curious just about how you parse those decisions. Is it. Are you purely coming from a place of, like, what's going to make this a great movie? Or what sort of obligation do you feel to historical accuracy when you're making those creative decisions?

12:54

Yeah, it's interesting question. I feel. I feel like a contradiction, like, of both. You know, I feel that. I feel really responsible for, you know, there are historical events, there are the, you know, the perspective. Of course, you know, it's all perspective. This is definitely, you know, the Palestinian perspective, those years. But I feel there's a responsibility to be correct, historically correct. And it's why I shared the script with a lot of historians. And I had a lot of. I involved a lot of people. You know, after I wrote it, I shared it with a number of historians, and I wanted it to be solid in that way. And at the same time, I feel completely free. Cause I'm a filmmaker and I believe in poetic license and in storytelling. And there are things that, you know, you just. That have to make. Move the story forward. So I feel. And I don't feel, you know, I feel that there's. You have. That's what we do, why we do what we do, because there's a freedom in it. And so I took that poetic license. And I'm always nervous, though, whenever historians watch this film, too, because there's a lot missing. I mean, I'm not trying to tell the story. I'm not trying to provide, like, a document for this is what happened from A to Z. Like, it's not what the film is. So it's like, why is this, like, huge? You know, this historical figure is missing, or this historical figure is missing, or this leader is missing. It's like, that's not the story. The story is about a group of villagers. And, you know, that's what it is. So I want to be correct. But also, you know, it's a story, it's a film.

13:23

Yeah, it's so interesting because you think of, like, a movie like Inglourious Basterds, you know, and how. I mean, he just does whatever he wants to do. He doesn't really care about the historical thing. Like, if Hitler gets randomly killed at a dinner party or whatever, that's fine for him, you know, but you think about a movie, even just the title, Palestinian, Palestine 36, made in the last, you know, few years, when, like, kind of there's this giant magnifying glass on that region, and people are. That never even knew where. Where that was on a globe, are now thinking and learning and discussing and debating. It seems to me, like, kind of stressful to be in your shoes, to be, like, knowing, like, every single line, every single piece of dialogue, every single piece of wardrobe, every single vehicle, someone is going to be like, yep, well, nope, nope, that's not right.

15:03

Not just scrutinizing, but also taking it personally. Like. Like, there's so much emotional investment from people in the subject matter.

15:53

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

16:01

I mean, I don't know. It's interesting because, yeah, he can. He gets away with, like, a total fantasy, but, you know, you. Like, I saw something where he's like, oh, but Wingate's hair is long. He didn't have long hair. I was like, no, he didn't have long hair, actually, you know, he also

16:02

wasn't a movie star.

16:20

Yeah, exactly. And he was also, you know, shorter than that or whatever it is. But. But, like, that's also, like. So the character that Rob plays, Wingate, was like. He was always dirty. His uniform was always filthy. He was, like, really, like an unhinged character. I made his hair long because I wanted to show he was also sort of. He was working outside of the system. He was like, sort of. He ended up getting dismissed by the British army, by the way, but he was sort of doing his own thing out there. And for me, like, his hair, like, dirty, oily, kind of, you know, unkempt, was a way to show that, but now it's like, getting. People are like, but he didn't have long. You know, he didn't have long hair. There's a lot. If you want to go that. That direction, where there's a lot of things that, you know, you could. You could nitpick about.

16:21

You know what I like about that character? He's. He's like a soldier, right? He's a British soldier. He's kind of like the big bully of the film. And he. Yeah, he's. He's the villain, like, from my point of view, and maybe I'm trying to come in without a strong point of view, but he seemed like the villain of the movie. And I do think, like, as a filmmaker, I Remember, I was pitching on these, like, short horror stories, Horror series. What was that? Like, web horror. Web series. Crypt tv is that. And they were like, okay, if you pitch a story to us, this is what we need the villain. The villain has to have a unique silhouette that anyone can recognize, even if they're just lit from behind.

17:07

And, Marie, these are monster movies.

17:46

We're talking about movies. And number two, there has to be a sound associated with your villain. It's. Is it the leg of some sort of chain? Is it the robotic arm? Something we can hear and be like, oh, no, he's near. And I feel like when you're creating a villain, like, the long hair that does make him stand out and the way he wears his hat and I mean, he is. You also cast an actor that just has, like, really unique facial features that. Yeah, he. He plays it in a way that he's just very. You just don't know what he's going to do at any second.

17:48

Yeah, I thought it was. Yeah, yeah. Well, it was tricky for him. Cause he's like, you know, he, like. I don't want him to be the, you know, the obvious villain, but he is the villain of the film. But he, like, you know, how do you know? And we talked a lot about that when we, you know, when I was working with Rob. It's like, how do we. He's got to really believe in the things that he's doing. Otherwise, it's just kind of, you know, it's a bit silly if he, you know, and you would feel that. So that was interesting. But I think also it's interesting that the people who are. You know, some people, they want to see everybody in the film. Like, this is. Oh, this is a film about Palestine in 36. So you got to see everybody and everything. And I don't know if you guys ever saw this film by Michael Winterbottom called Shoshana. You see that it was also set in the 30s. It's set at the same time period as Palestine. 36. It's about a Jewish immigrant who's having an affair with a British soldier. And there are no Palestinians in the film because the story's about Tel aviv in the 30s and this relationship. And I don't think anyone asked Michael Winterbottom the question that I keep getting asked. How. Where are the Jewish characters? Where is. Where's the Jewish main character? I mean, there isn't a Jewish main character. A lot of people are missing. Like, it's not. I'm not trying to tell the story of everything. And I wonder if anyone asked Michael Winterbottom that question about his film.

18:17

Yeah, you got it. Now I'm about to remove a question. It wasn't my question wasn't. It wasn't really a question. It was more of an observation that

19:38

she's like, here it comes.

19:48

Yeah, tell us.

19:49

Or I saw the movie. I. I had heard about this movie. My friend is a, is a really huge fan of the movie and told me about it a while ago and luckily I got the screener finally yesterday. But this movie, he. I had heard that it had been banned from certain places. It was controversial in certain ways that I mean and then just listeners the podcast know. But I, I grew up in, in a suburb of Tel Aviv. I've been in living in the US since the 80s, mid-80s. So I've been here for a while. My dad still lives in Tel Aviv, my mom lives here in Orange County. But I was expecting it to. Because it was banned because I was expecting there to be something remotely controversial in it. And maybe there is, but I just did not.

19:52

Maybe it's lost on you.

20:37

Yeah, yeah, it like for one, there are like, you know, there's maybe like a settler guard or something in one scene real quick and there's like obviously like the Zionist press and there's. There's machinations in the government and levers that are kind of being pulled. But it really, the movie has, it's really did not seem to me to be very controversial. Like as a viewer, it felt like a story of the villagers and the people. And it actually like really reminded me of kind of like what we see in a lot of Holocaust movies, you know, like in like Berlin, 1930s. And you know, all of a sudden they're like, hey, you know, we know that you work for the news station, but we are going to move you to be like behind the scenes. And hey, you don't want to have like Jewish accountants anymore. So maybe just, just the government stuff you can't work in, but everything else is fine. Then we don't want lawyers and then we don't want you to shopkeepers. Then we're going to put you all over here, live over here and then put this thing on your arm and then we're going to and it. And you have these people that are trying to help them but are also can't. Like you have a British character that's very much like kind of trying to help the Palestinian reporters and help the, you know, an assistant that he has from the village. And it just it had, like, a real parallels of that same storytelling where a people that are very much ingrained in society are being sidelined and pushed away without, you know, any input on. On the whole thing. But I guess. Yeah, I guess I'm just curious about, like, what's. What's the controversy?

20:38

I don't know either. And I. To be honest with you, it's. Yeah, I feel the same. I mean, it's like we, you know, the film was, you know, screening in Jerusalem, and the Israeli authorities came in and they. They shut it down and they detained the projectionist, and we were all like, they're not even. They're not Israelis in the film. Like, it's like Free State. It's like the 30s. It's about the British, and it's very much about the British. And that was, you know, of course, that was, you know, intentional. That was the idea of the story that, you know, the British have really, you know, I'm sorry, but they, you know, they fucked up the whole world, and they've been let off the hook for it. And so this film is very much about, you know, the group of villagers and the relationship with the British as, you know, you. You've noticed and felt, and that's the story. So I don't know. We also don't know why we're not allowed to screen the film anymore. And, you know, I think, yeah, it's what it is. It's what it is.

22:08

Yeah.

23:06

Yeah. Well, that's why I was, like, very excited to have you on our podcast.

23:06

Yeah. He's like, I've heard about this movie. We got to do it, boy. And so for Anne Marie, for context, you know, this whole conversation, I'm constantly just like, oh, check your privilege, you know, to myself, right. Because Oren and I are both, like, American comedy directors, right. And so the thing that's been on my mind for a long time, and I was thinking about it in advance of this conversation, is, like, in America, obviously, we're in such a political moment, and I believe that filmmaking is inherently political, whether you're intending to make a statement or. Or the lack of a statement. Right. All of a sudden becomes. Becomes a statement. An omission of a statement is a, you know, tacit sort of reinforcement. And as a person who kind of got into this, you know, for fart jokes, you know, all of a sudden you have to think of it in a different. In a different light.

23:10

Right.

24:01

And so I'm curious about your approach on how you. You're aware that you're you know, you're going to be making. Just by the virtue of including something or excluding something, you're unintentionally or intentionally making a political statement. And the amount of pressure or just. Just the scrutiny that you're under that we've kind of been talking about this whole time, how as a filmmaker and as a creative, how do you tackle that? That's just. It's so foreign to me. Again, thanks to privilege of like, you know, selling Doritos with a fart joke.

24:01

This.

24:35

It's just. It's a different class of, you know, capital F filmmaking that I admire so much.

24:36

Yeah, well, yeah, I absolutely agree with you that everything is. Is political. And those, you know, comedy films or horror, I mean, I. I don't. Yeah, I don't know. I don't understand when people think something is not political. And of course, those are the most political things that, you know, saying that it's, you know, not political. I feel like. I mean, it's just. It's just, you know, I don't know, it's. It's what our life is. Right? You're just. You make films about the world and you can escape from it and do science fiction, which is also political, as we know, or, you know, you make the films about, you know, I mean, Palestine 36 is about a very specific moment in history. It's loaded with, you know, it's a political moment. But the story for me is about, you know, these people, this group of people, this mother and her daughter and the grandmother, you know, this relationship, the father and the son, the priest and his son, and this little boy who sees his father be humiliated, who doesn't have a political consciousness, but he's witnessing something and it changes him. And it's all. It's for all of them how, you know, change happens and how, you know, life affects us and it changes us. Whether, you know, it's. It's in a very direct way or more indirect way, you know, without giving spoilers away. Whether it's like, you know, joining a resistance movement or leaving your husband or, you know, whatever it is, you know, it's all these, these small ways that something has. Has changed you and has changed you forever. And that's, for me, I guess, that that's what the film is about. If I were to. If I were to describe it, the point of. Of decision in your life and how it, how it, how it changes you.

24:40

Yeah, fascinating. I wanted to get like a little into the tech, the filmmaking things. It's starting with casting, so I noticed again on your Wikipedia entry that you were on a panel at Cannes with Jeremy Irons. Is that. Was that connected to how you got him to be in the movie?

26:34

I was on a jury with Jeremy Irons, and, yeah, it was how he got connected, because we were hanging out a lot, and he was there with his wife, who's Irish and very feisty. And of course, Irish know very well the story of, you know, Palestine, and have a lot of solidarity with it. So we were. I was telling them I was working on. I was writing the script at the time, and so I was like, oh. I was chatting with them about it, and she's like, oh, tell me more. And we were talking about it, and then she just looked at Jeremy and we were having dinner, and she's like, have you heard this? Did you hear about this? You have to do this film. And he was very sweet, and he looked at me and said, I'd like to move Emery.

26:51

Good move.

27:31

Yeah, so good. Go through the wife.

27:32

Yeah.

27:34

Respect.

27:35

Yeah.

27:35

But he was like, yeah, I'll read the script. I'll have a look at it if there's a role for me. And I was like, okay, great. And then it was, like, amazing to, like, be able to tell my producers, guess what? Like, Jeremy Irons is attached. Like, we didn't have anybody attached at that point, but we had Jeremy. So that was. Yeah, that was the beginning of everything, in a way.

27:36

And so when you get him, are there, like, parameters? Like, okay, you can have Jeremy for two shooting days. Like, let's read for that. And where did you even film his scenes? I'm curious.

27:55

So, yeah, Jeremy, of course, there were parameters. And when, you know, the whole film was supposed to be shot in Palestine, and we had prepared it for that and set up, you know, you know, the normal three months of. Of, you know, pre production, in our case was one year of pre production. Because, you know, we're all living here, and we all. We knew it was. It was. It was so such a huge project for us. And we never, you know, the most ambitious film we've ever shot here, and we had to be ready for it. And so we took the time to do that, and we had to build stuff and we had to create stuff, and we don't have, you know, a prop house, and we don't have all this stuff. So we had to make everything, whether it's, you know, the weapons or the bus or the. The military vehicles, and we had to plant crops. I mean, it was, like, a huge process.

28:05

Yeah, that Was. My big question is, like, what? What? So you have to build the apparatus to pull off a history, like a historical film in the first place. Like, you're not sourcing things. You're building it from the ground up.

28:52

Basically, we're building it from the ground up. I mean, and it's like, yeah, there's no studios. There's no nothing. It's just like, this is. This is what we. We have to make the place and the villages even know. We. We had to. We restored this village and all the crops because Palestinians don't plant those crops anymore. So we had to plant the crops. Our, like, Greens guy was like. It became a joke. He's like, I'm gonna. I just planted, like, this tobacco. There's a 5% chance it's gonna survive. We'll know in three months. We're like, what do you mean, 5%? Like, no, we need, like, 100%. And then, like, it was. The tobacco started growing. Yeah, tobacco started growing. It's like, okay, 10% chance it's gonna survive. And, you know, we're like, oh, my God.

29:04

Did you ever have that moment where you're like, I'm a filmmaker. Like, I didn't plan on, like, being a farmer and a manufacturer and a sign painter, you know? Or was that part of the fun?

29:45

You know, I think it was part of the insanity. Like, the obsessive. Like, all of us were in some crazy space where, like, okay, we're gonna. We were just living in the 30s, you know, this was, like, way early in prep. But I remember at one point, the crew. We've been working, you know, really hard. Everybody, you know, there was crew all over the country. Like, people were doing costumes. People who were, you know, building the. The British, you know, tank, you know, or like, this or that. And we had a party. We said, we're going to have a party this Friday night. And we decided we're all going to come in, like, 30s costume, you know, and that was like, really? Yeah, it was great as we all. Everybody showed up. Whether it was, like, villager or, like, city or, like, British soldier or whatever, everyone, like, it tells you a lot about people. Like, it's like kind of like Halloween when people, like, dress up. Do you understand something else about them? So, yeah, I think it was daunting, but it was fun because it was so insane. It was like everybody was telling us it's impossible to make such a film. And, like, in, like, how do you do a film like this in the West Bank? You know, you're stopped at checkpoints all the time. You know, you're prevented from crossing. For us, probably it was more fun for us.

29:56

All these, like, all these prop weapons, too, right?

31:05

Yeah, well, we're like, yeah, we've got, like, a weapon, like a car full of, like, weapons. But, like, yeah, like topics at the checkpoint. I open that up, we have to explain what this is. Like, you know, we got to be really clear these are fake, you know, and, like. Yeah, but also that became a thing with the shooting. Like, when everything got, you know, really bad here. We're like, we're not going to put cast wearing, like, guns like, out in the hills. Like, if somebody sees them from far away, it doesn't understand the situation. It's actually dangerous for the crew. And that's. That's part of the reason why we also, you know, moved a lot of the shooting to Jordan because it was just like. It was. It was too. It was not possible to do that in the west bank after. At some point.

31:08

Well, I'm curious, like, you know, we touched a tiny bit on, like, the controversy that, again, I, like, failed to really understand of the completed film. But when you're making the film, you know, you mentioned that you kind of don't have a ton of filmmaking infrastructure in the west bank and Palestine. Like, but was there, like, a tension behind the scenes at all? Or was it. Would it have been cool to go to, like, an Israeli, like, lean on some of the Israeli existing filmmaking structure or the Jordanian or, like, get, like a props guy that's done all the TV show they worked on, you know, Tehran or, you know, there's all these, like, big historical TV shows.

31:47

Yeah, but there's nothing really of the 30s, really, you know, and. And that Michael Winterbo I just talked about is supposed to be Tel Aviv, but he didn't shoot it here. He ended up shooting, I want to say, in Italy or Malta or somewhere. He ended up shooting somewhere else because he thought it was just too tense and too, like, it was just, like, not comfortable. But I think we're really used to not being comfortable, so I think we thrive on that. But it's important, you know, I think it's important that the production designer is Palestinian, the costume designers Palestinian, like, because, like, all of those details, like, they're. You know, you feel it. You feel when it's a little bit, you know, not authentic, and because they live and they breathe that stuff. Like, even when we restored the village, you know, the art department, the production designer, they did it in the way that A village was built in the 30s. Not in, like, a prop, like a cinema building, a set way, just so that it looks good on camera and then, like, falls apart when we're done. He actually went in it. He's an architect as well. He approached it as if he was actually restoring a village in the 1930s. He didn't use anything. Any modern stuff, any kind of. Like, there was some concrete in some places. He actually removed stuff that had been, you know, gathered or put there over the years, and so that it was even in places we weren't even shooting. I was like, why are you. Why are we restoring this part of the village? We're never gonna see it. He's like, oh, it's okay. It's okay. I think he was like, project. Yeah.

32:28

I'm curious, but what about, like, the British tanks, like that? You didn't necessarily need, like, a Palestinian point of view to build those. Right?

33:59

Yeah, but. But only Palestinians are crazy enough to do that right now because there are actually. There's. There are period vehicles, but they're all post World War II. And things really changed in terms of weapons and vehicles after World War II. And so all of that World War I, like, pre. You know. Sorry, not World One, pre World War II, like, stuff, none of that exist. So that's why we had to build it. And so we built it in, like, in Nablus, in, you know, Ironsmith, you know. It was. Yeah, it was. It was work. It was work for a lot of people.

34:07

That's awesome. Yeah, that's, like, you know, so fun to me. I don't know. Matt. Matt is raising financing right now for a feature film, and I've done it in the past, and I feel like there's this thing that we say. We kind of forget it instantly after the movie comes out, but we're like. We're like, we. We're going to employ, like, a thousand people, you know.

34:42

Yeah.

35:00

Like, the money that you're putting into this film, even if you never see a scent of it back, like, just know that it's. It's brought up like a community.

35:01

Yeah. Yeah. You know what? It's true. And it's like thousands of people made a living for almost a year, you know, because of. We were working. Yeah. We lost everything. We couldn't shoot in the west bank. In the end, we couldn't shoot in that village. But a lot of people worked. And I have to say something. That village that we restored is still, like, the villagers who live nearby there, that's like, their Village, actually, they're still planting the crops now. Like, there's a whole thing happening there.

35:08

So I was like, 70%.

35:35

Yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

35:37

And that's on a personal level, it's like, oh, these are my friends. Do you know what I mean? Like, that architect that you're talking about, like, you build these incredible relationships with them, and it's like, such a privilege just to kind of get to. You know, we get to dip our toes in so many different worlds, you know, we don't think. I understood when I first became a filmmaker or decided to become one.

35:41

You know, I mean, that's like my daughter yesterday was asking me, I was trying to change some design. I forget. I was trying to do something that seemed like a little to the side of, like, directing. And she was like, but why? Why, Daddy? That's not your job. Like, why are you, like, telling them, like, where to buy this table or whatever that's going to be on the set? And I was like, your job as a director is all the jobs.

36:02

Yeah. As well. How old is she?

36:24

She's just turned 10.

36:26

Yeah, my daughter just turned 10 also. So she was on set a lot. She's like. She's got a little cameo in the film. She was on set, but now. Yeah. I think she should do, like, a masterclass about filmmaking from her point of view because she's got, like, so much to say about things, and I'm just like, why are you. Why are you dealing with that? Why isn't, you know, you know, the DOP talking, you know? Yeah, yeah, exactly.

36:28

Yeah.

36:54

Like, you don't understand that. Details are the essential part of my craft.

36:54

All filmmakers, kids end up having the same perspective, which is. This is incredibly boring compared to what I.

36:58

She was really bored on.

37:05

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Absolutely.

37:07

I'm curious. Sorry, one last technical question about the production design. Specifically those British tanks, which I'd never kind of seen those types of vehicles before, because I. I think you're right. Like, everything I know is from World War I or World War II movies. And these seem like kind of to be unique Middle Eastern type of vehicles of their time. But you do blow up one of these tanks, like a complete explosion. Can you tell us a little bit about. Yeah. How involved you are in figuring out how that would work and stuff and how it did work?

37:10

So I'm not. I'm not ashamed to admit this. I'm going to admit I don't watch, like, war movies a lot. It's not my genre. And suddenly I'M working on this film where I'm like, we got to blow stuff up. We gotta blow shit up. I don't know how to blow shit up. I don't know what to like, you know. And I had my, the cinematographer with me and we were like working one day in the office and we're like, you know, storyboarding and planning and I just shut the door and I said, look, I don't really know how to, how like I'm trying to like, I don't know how to do this. And she was like, I don't either. I didn't grow up watching, I don't watch war movies. And we were like, don't tell anybody about this. It's like so embarrassing that female director and female DOP are having this conversation right now. But I'm not ashamed. It's just not my language. And I learned it and it was, you know, I had an amazing, you know, SFX team on board. Really incredible group of people. And you know, it's just like, it's a bigger, it's a film that was on a bigger scope that I'm, you know, used to. And so SFX as well as VFX there was all like a lot of stuff that for me was really new and it's, it's. Yeah, I got sound like a 12 year old boy. But it's kind of fun to blow stuff up, you know. Oh no, like, yeah, no, it's like we built this thing and now we're all going to like go really far away and like put the cameras and like go like. It's, it's a bit crazy.

37:38

One take? Did you do one take?

39:05

Yeah, we did.

39:07

Yeah, sure, yeah. The one take aspect of it always stresses me out. But you know, it's funny in real just realizing like for the explosion, a bunch of cameras. Yeah, yeah, sure, sure, sure, yeah.

39:09

But then the hard part as an editor and a director is to not. You're like, let's use all four angles. Yeah, yeah, yeah,

39:20

yeah.

39:29

But I kind of lump it all in. Like the explosions are fun in kind of the same way that cost like period costumes are fun or incredible production design is fun. It's all like this situation of make believe that's not. Obviously cameras have to be there to photograph it. And it's not acting. Even though actors wear costumes. It's kind of, it's the arts and crafts of it all. It's that tactile kind of. You're a little bit more into, you know, manufacturing and construction and stuff that I think I really relish.

39:29

Yeah.

40:03

I was curious though, backing up a little bit. Oren, you'd mentioned that I'm fundraising and you know, at the top of your film, you know, you see a lot of cards, you see a lot of different way places, I presume, where the money comes from. And you know, as a person who's very ignorant of the way the film industry works in Palestine, I'm curious, how does a movie at this scale even come together?

40:05

Yeah, it took eight years to finance this thing and we don't have any system of support at all. We don't really, I mean there's nothing. So it's always, you know, co productions. So in this case it was a co production with France and with the UK and Palestine and there's official co production treaties. There's only two countries in the world that have co production treaties, treaties with Palestine. One is France and one is the uk. So we, we, we, we had both of those. So we had, you know, French and, and British co producers.

40:27

At least you're focused. At least, you know, like, okay, these are the places we got to go to.

41:00

We, we know to go to. Yeah, exactly. And it's interesting also the like having like the French have a very different way of working than, than the British also. And so, and then, you know, we had a lot of cigarette.

41:05

We know.

41:16

Yeah, yeah. And we had, so we had BBC films and you know, the British Film Institute. And that was like a lot of people were like, but you're not British. How on earth did you get that? And it's like, well, it's the British story. I mean it's not just the Palestinian story, it's their story. I mean, you know, they, and the executives who were behind the project were incredible and they were like, you know, it's very important, you know, the British have. It's time to face our colonial past and like talk about it. And so they were, you know, hugely supportive, like the British cast and you know, they were like, it's not, you know, it's not something that should be, you know, stuffed under the rug, you know, anymore. We, we have to talk about these things. So they were great. And then it was like all those credits that you see were like a lot of institutions with like a little bit of support for this, a little bit of support for that and private money, financiers. That's why it took so long. And it's like. And you know, a lot of them, you know, you hope the film will be successful but you know, you Also know that it's. It's supporting, you know, like, you just, you know, we just talked about, like, all the crew and all the. All the, like all the people who actually had work. And it's like a cultural investment too. A lot of them were involved. They've never seen this film on, you know, this story on screen before. And so they wanted to participate. So it was like, you know, a huge, you know, the credits are long at the beginning. Yes. But at the end even longer because it's like all the people that helped to make this happen, plus with all the stopping and starting and the support time. Stopping and starting. We had, you know, mostly the same core crew, but a lot of other people. So. So we got long credits at the end. Yeah, five minutes.

41:17

Where did you end up? I'm really curious. Speaking of the starting and stopping, where did you end up shooting the Jerusalem scenes? Were those shot in Jordan or. I mean, it very much looked like the kind of, you know, the alleyways of Jerusalem.

42:58

The Jerusalem scenes are. Are shot in Jerusalem. And that's where the last thing we shot actually, when we managed to come back, we filmed in Jerusalem. The scene with the explosion with the women in the market, we couldn't do in Jerusalem. That's in Jordan, in a town called Salt. And so that's where. So it's a mix of those two places, but mostly it's the actual Jerusalem. And the most amazing thing that I think the miracle of this film, and I still don't understand how we managed to do this, is that those last days in Jerusalem, for the shooting in Jerusalem, that one of those British vehicles that we built, we managed to get to the old city and is parked at the old city walls. And you see it in the background when the little girl is running. You see that thing there. And it was like, really insane to us. At some point I showed up on set, I'm like, this is crazy. We have a British, you know, army vehicle from 1930 just sitting at the gates of the old city right now with what's going on in the world and what's going on here. And, you know, people were sort of walking by and they were like, what is that? Because it's a very weird looking machine. Actually. The shape of it is different.

43:09

Were you guys able to shut down the area? I mean, Matt, I don't think. Matt, I'm assuming you've never been there. It is probably one of the biggest tourist areas in the world.

44:27

Sure.

44:36

Though, you know, tourism is probably not. Not where it was five years Ago.

44:37

Yeah, it's not where it was. We were given two hours to shoot. Two hours at 5am to 7am and we're like. But the sun is not up at 5:00am you know, they're acting. So we haven't had, like, six Sam to seven, you know. And then another part where. Where Karim, the boy, is walking, we couldn't really close that down. So we were like, just asking people, please just stay out of the frame for like, a second. And we were doing that. And then suddenly there was, like, a big commotion and there was a funeral comes walking down, you know, carrying, like, an open casket. We're like, oh, my God. Like, it was like, a lot of it was very.

44:42

This was a real funeral that was happening.

45:20

A real funeral. Yeah. I was really glad when we finished those scenes, I have to say. And then the final part is when the boy, he's walking down that alley, and then he turns. He goes into an area which is technically French territory because the French own, you know, they have, like, churches that, like, owned by the French or, I know, other countries, I'm sure have, you know, also. So this was technically French territory at some point in Jerusalem. So we had to get approval from the French to be able to be there.

45:22

And did anyone, like, want to read the script or anything before approving it? Like, was that part of that? Was it difficult to get. I mean, just. It seems just in general difficult if it was like the Arc de Triomphe to shut it down for, like, two hours. But this, you know, there's. There's even more elements going into this.

45:52

Yeah, but as you said, there's nothing really in it that's, like, controversial. So that's why, you know, it's like, now getting shut down today after it's. It's done. It's interesting, but. But I. I think it's because it's about. I think people are threatened by. It's about resilience. Right. It's about keeping. Keeping going. Like, and, and is. I. That's what, you know, I'm wondering the same thing you are. What is it that that is so controversial about this? Well, maybe it's just that. That it's like human beings keep going and that's threatening to people. I don't know.

46:08

Yeah, I hope not. I mean, my, My, my guess, and I have no idea, and I've. You know, this is. I'm just kind of learning about this in the past couple days, and my, My guess is the people that are shutting it down probably haven't seen It. Yeah, but I. I can be wrong. I wanted to ask one more technical thing, which was about you have a lot of this kind of archival footage throughout the movie.

46:42

Yeah, yeah.

47:03

Is it all real or what? Because you kind of. The movie is like kind of widescreen, anamorphic kind of, you know, narrative style filmmaking. And then you cut to these kind of four by three pieces of footage from the 1930s. But I. In my mind, like, I don't know how many. How much footage is captured in that part of the world in the 1930s.

47:04

A lot. That's the crazy thing. A lot was captured because the British really loved to film everything because they were. They were putting out newsreels. So they were across all their colonies. They were filming absolutely everything. Really boring daily life. And also all their crimes. Like, you know, they were just like. And they just filmed everything. And then they were putting out, you know, these newsreels. And the newsreels are really crazy to watch because then there's this, like, voiceover about them. Like, a funny day in Jerusalem today. You know, like, there's like a guy talking about what you're seeing, and sometimes it's really mismatched. It's kind of. That could be a whole other film. But the footage is amazing and some of it is really well shot. So I was seeing all of it. You know, it's all in the British archives. Different archives we access to find different things. But there's really so much. I could have kept going. I could have made like an hour of, like, more. I just love the archival footage. And what we did was, you know, we just restored it. We didn't manipulate it in any way. We just restored it and colorized it. And one of the reasons that I wanted to. Yeah, I wanted to colorize it. So you always know when it's archived in the film because the screen, you know, the ratio is different. You know, we've got our size and then, you know, when it's archived. So that, you know, it's archived, but the color, it's just kind of all. It's flows together. And I didn't want that black and white look of archive. And I didn't want to go backwards in time. I wanted to, like, keep, you know, the story kept moving forward. And it was, you know, part of. Part of the trajectory of the character's, you know, life. It's like this is the world that they live in. And the archive, you know, helped create that world and, you know, helps. You can see the actual, you know, the world of it. So it's beautiful stuff. And I also wasn't sure what it was going to look like. I kept insisting we have to color. We have to colorize it. And, you know, we're like. They were like. We were, like, financially bankrupt at this point with this film. I was like, that's one thing I'm not gonna let go of, is that it's got to be colorized. It could. It's gonna make a difference.

47:22

I was telling Matt that there's this shot where these two guys are, like, turning the train tracks, like.

49:25

Yeah.

49:30

Reroute a train by hand.

49:30

Yeah.

49:32

You know, I'm like, where. Where is that? That's, like, not something people do nowadays.

49:33

Yeah, we were speculating. Oh, did you, like, recreate that, or was that archival or.

49:37

So that's not archival. And I'm glad you mentioned that shot, because I love that shot. I thought it was, like, amazing. It's like this train station has been, like, you know, it's been really well taken care of. And so the train station that we shot in was, you know. You know, we erased some stuff in vfx, but, like, that track is still running and those pieces that, you know, moving. And I love that. That circular motion of that thing when they move it. But, yeah, that's not archive.

49:42

Yeah, yeah, it's. I'm not saying at all that you. That. That AI was used, but it did. What. While I was watching the movie, it did make me think, like, oh, nowadays, if you made a period piece, you could probably use AI to do some kind of fake archival type of footage. Because, I mean, you know, people are posting that stuff all the time. Like, here's the. Yeah, 1930 Brooklyn or whatever.

50:10

Yeah. Some people thought it was. There was a journalist who wrote about it, and she. She wrote. Oh, they had. They have great use of AI, you know, And I was like, no, it's not. It's not A.I. that's. That's real. That's real stuff.

50:33

Yeah. I think. I wonder if it's because I. It was on my mind, and maybe it's the colorization that. That matched the rest of the movies really nicely.

50:45

Yeah, maybe.

50:52

Yeah.

50:53

And also, I think restoration techniques sometimes tend to kind of, like, smooth over things a little bit in a way that AI often does as well, so.

50:54

And the frame rate of the actual archival footage is, like, kind of weird, right? It's like, almost like Benny Hill sometimes, you know?

51:01

Yeah, sure, sure.

51:07

Yeah.

51:08

You're like 24 frames per second.

51:09

Yeah, that's true.

51:12

Yeah.

51:13

Yeah. We slowed it down. We play with the frame rate. Sometimes we slowed down. There's a couple moments where we slowed it down a little bit just to look like, not like. Yeah, like, you know, Charlie Chaplin, like, you know.

51:13

Yeah, yeah, I know we have to wrap things up. And I wanted to ask a question, like, career. A bigger, like, career question beyond this movie. I mean, again, you've. You've been involved with Cannes and Berlin and Tiff and Sundance. You directed an episode of Rami. You've done. You've made three movies that, you know, were all submitted for the Academy Awards for Palestine. You. It seems like you are definitely at a place where you could probably just get hired to direct things and just, you know, like, direct TV in. In Israel and, you know, Jordan in the US and maybe with. Work with studios and stuff. But you chose to kind of go make this very difficult to make movie in a very difficult time in a very difficult place. Like, do you. Is there a future where you become more of, like, you know, journeyman director for hire or, like, where do you see your career going?

51:24

So, I mean, I feel like if I like the project, I will. I will do it. And I'd love to be, you know, given a great script or a great series, you know, a great feature like that, you know, and just like, be able to do it and work kind of in a normal. In a normal way, like normal filmmakers, whatever that is. You know, when we were doing the Oscar campaign, we had a screening in. In la, and there was a. There was a couple of, you know, LA producers there, and they were like, how much did you make this film for? Oh, my God. You should be doing, like, a master class for, like, people here, like, how to do, like, stuff, you know, for, like, no money. That's incredible.

52:19

Of course the producer is excited about that.

52:57

But you have taught at Columbia Film for.

52:59

I went to Columbia. I've done some teaching. I do, like, I think that, yeah, if you can make. I don't know, there's a Palestinian director named Hani Abu Assad who. He had two films nominated for Oscars, and he also did a film in la. And, you know, that was his, like, Hollywood film, like, one or two. And I remember when he came back, I was like, how was it. How was it working there? And he's like, oh, my God, it's so easy. If you can make a film in Palestine, you can make a film anywhere.

53:03

Yeah, I can breathe that.

53:30

And I was like, now I'm like, I'd like to have that. Like, I like to have it Easy. Like, just focus on directing and not like, yeah, the 5% crops, are they gonna die? Are they not gonna die? The thing you. Things you think about at night, you know, I don't know if that's possible, but yeah, it would be great.

53:31

Cool.

53:49

Do you have a next project or is it kind of. You have a lot of. A lot of different plates spinning and you're gonna see what happens.

53:49

Yeah, I've got some things spinning and I also need a little bit of recovery from this, but I have some stuff. But yeah, there's a recovery. I think the producer and I still need to recover because we haven't stopped. The production designer went to Thailand for several weeks and he came back, like, fresh and new. He's like, over the trauma now. So I'd like to have that.

53:55

A little coconut water system. Right?

54:18

Exactly.

54:20

Before we get to our unpaid endorsements, just one final technical question. I'm just curious. You were in New York last week, right, for a screen?

54:22

Yes, I was.

54:29

And you live in Haifa or you're. You're in Haifa right now? Is it, according to my understanding, like, only 50 people are allowed to be, like, on an airplane and you can't leave the terror, like, territory like Ben Gurion Airport. If you're going to come back within the next 30 days. How did you.

54:31

Or just has travel tips online?

54:46

Yeah, yeah. So travel wise, I didn't. I went through. Through Amman, through Jordan. So I crossed by land and I went through by land, crossed the border into Jordan and then flew out of and airport. I got to tell you, when the flight was taking off, I thought, this is completely insane that, you know, I feel like I want to be. I want to be in New York. I want to be at these screenings. Especially, sorry to say, with what's going on in the US Right now. I feel like all voices are important, voices of dissent, voices that are not mainstream are really important. So I wanted to go out and represent the film. And then I was sitting on the plane and I was looking out the window and we took off. And I thought, oh, my God, this is like, there are, like, missiles flying. And I thought, if I, like, I wonder if I would see one. I actually had this thought, like, am I going to see a missile, like, from this window? And, like, is it going to be higher than the plane or lower than the plane? And at what point is the plane, like, high too? Like, I guess we get out of that space at some point that it's dangerous. I mean, this, like, kind of crazy thoughts were going through my head. And then I said, you know what if we get hit, we get hit. That's how I'm gonna go.

54:48

Yeah.

55:55

And I just.

55:56

Time to close the window, I think, and I'll be.

55:56

Time to order a wine or a whiskey at that point. Yeah. So, yeah. Yeah. What was your question?

55:59

You flew back through travel tips.

56:06

Yeah, I flew back through our men, too.

56:07

Yeah.

56:09

Now, my parents. My mom was there, and she was. They were stuck there for a couple weeks and they got. When they left, they were letting 100 people on a plane at a time. But now I think it's down to 50.

56:10

I think it's down now. I don't know what it is. It's like, airspace is opening, closing. Get all these travel alerts, like, go through this bridge or go through Egypt or go through Jordan, or go through. You know, the airport's open, the airport's closed. I don't think anyone really knows, you know, what's going to go on and how long is this going to last. Also, we've been really lucky. You know, we've been talking for almost an hour and there has been no missiles, like sirens, so that's. Yeah, we lucky. We're lucky.

56:20

Yeah, you can say that.

56:52

Well, on that note. Yeah, let's keep it going on that happy note. Are you okay to spend a few more minutes just doing an unpaid endorsement with us?

56:54

I am, yes. All right, let's have some fun. Unpaid endorsements.

57:02

Oren, have I talked about water balloons? Okay, okay, so this feels so trivial, but maybe that's nice. Maybe that's the point. Have either of you two filled up a water balloon in the last five or 10 years? Since you were a kid?

57:09

Yeah, I mean, I have little kids, so, yeah.

57:23

Yeah. Oren, you know what's up, Emory? You probably have you.

57:25

Actually, I. I haven't, but I. But I bought like this thing that's like a multi water balloon thing. I saw it, but I haven't used it. Just like sitting in the drawer. Yeah.

57:29

It is like magic. So what we're talking about, for those of you who don't have kids or haven't played with a water balloon in a while. Now, when we were kids, you would get a bag of balloons and you put them on the spigot, and then you'd have to time each one by one, and so you'd be like, let's have a water balloon fight. And then 45 minutes later, you'd be ready with your 15 water balloons, and they would be over in about 45 seconds. And now kids these days, you basically, you put. It almost looks like a bouquet of water balloons on the end of plastic straws, and you twist them onto the nozz, you turn them on, and then they all simultaneously fill up at like, 30. That's exactly right, Emery. That's exactly right.

57:40

This is it.

58:18

Bunch of balloons.

58:19

They fill. Yeah, they fill up.

58:20

They fill up. And, you know, you can't go too fast, you know, but you, You. You go nice and slow and let them get bigger and bigger and bigger. And then the weight of the water eventually causes them to slip off and cinch with a rubber band that's already loaded on the.

58:22

Oh, wow, that's cool. You don't have to tie them.

58:36

You don't have to tie them. So I'm saying. So the bag that you have, Anne Marie, you could fill that up in about 45 seconds and have a hundred water balloons ready to rock. My daughter is like, let's play with water balloons. And I'm like, yep, no problem. And I just.

58:39

It feels.

58:53

It feels like magic. It's incredible. And so this is the summer of water balloons, baby. You know, if you need a little. Little dose of magic and joy that water balloons are, the leap in technology is so exquisite. So. So that's my.

58:54

That's amazing.

59:11

Endorsement business balloons. Yeah.

59:12

100. 100 water balloons in 60 seconds. You're right about this. I never. I haven't opened it. Still sealed. And I thought this. I don't know what this is. I didn't know that it ties by itself. That's amazing.

59:14

Treat yourself, Emery.

59:26

I mean, very excited.

59:27

That.

59:28

Good, good.

59:29

Is that Matt came up with this random endorsement and halfway around the world, you just happen to have it at your desk. Incredible.

59:29

That is incredible.

59:36

Yeah. By the way, the things I don't recommend. Do you know what Orbeez are?

59:38

Yes. Yeah. And they think they're quite bad for the environment also.

59:41

Yeah. I think they're actually an Israeli invention. But they're these, like, little. It's like a. Almost like a powder. And you put them in water and they turn into these like big jelly balls that kids love playing with. But then once you make them, they're really difficult to get. To get rid of. But they. They, like a hundred x in size, from, like a tiny little pellet to, like a big squishy ball.

59:44

Yeah. It's almost like. Imagine like small beads, basically, that turn into, like, big.

1:00:04

Oh, yeah.

1:00:08

Gelatinous.

1:00:08

Yeah. Yeah.

1:00:09

Anyway, Anne Marie, what you got?

1:00:11

So I. My husband and I have some tension sometimes. Because when I go somewhere and as I make films and I have to travel a lot afterwards, our house plants die because I'm in charge of. I, I'm, I'm into the plants and I do all the plants and, and take care of plants and, and he manages to kill them. So I go away for like a week and I come back and they're dead. And I get really emotionally upset by this. And then he's like, so don't travel like if you're, you're so obsessed with the plants, you know. But I, so I just found these things. I haven't tried them out yet, but I think they're going to be great. And it's like a ceramic, like a pottery, like a pointy thing. I don't have them at my desk actually, that you stick like into the soil and then you get a, like a wine bott or whatever bottle and you turn it upside down and it's, it's supposed to just slowly drip water out while you're away. And I think they look, they see, they're, they're, they're nice. They're like a kind of terracotta like pottery thing. And I, I feel, I have faith. This is going to be amazing.

1:00:13

Well, I've seen like the bird shaped ones, you know, but the one that, where you can just put a wine bottle seems better.

1:01:22

Seems nice.

1:01:28

Yeah.

1:01:29

Much more water and. Yeah. Like Ann Marie, why are you buying so much wine all the time?

1:01:29

Like, I keep forgetting to walk to water my plants. I can't figure out why. That's great. Yeah.

1:01:34

My endorsement is a video that I just watched today. I came upon it somehow. It's a lecture, an MIT lecture from 2019, six years ago by this guy named Patrick Winston. It's called how to Speak. And it's just this one hour lecture about giving good presentations. And it's, it's really good. And he just, he, he says he's going to give you a bunch of tips and he's pretty sure that at least one of them will change how receptive people are to your ideas. But one of the tips, he, he says right at the beginning, his speech, the way he gives the speech is kind of instructional in a way, but he says that you should not start a presentation with a joke. And it's a problem that I do have sometimes and I, and it's kind of like plummeted. Like I've had pitches before where I start with like a joke that I make. Not, not like a scripted joke, but I just make A joke. And people don't know my voice yet and don't know.

1:01:41

Yeah.

1:02:34

Understand how serious or not I am. And it just kind of sours the entire meaning. And I'm. That's the. The biggest thing I took away from it then I'm trying to internalize is like, do not start. You can end with a joke.

1:02:34

Does he tell you how to then set the tone? Because I think you and I both like, like to, you know, lighten the mood a little bit or just not

1:02:45

like anti small talk. I mean, he's really a university lecturer, so it's. It's different than a zoom pitch presentation like we do nowadays. But he says you should really start by telling people, you know, what you're going to tell them. What, what the promise of this lecture, like, how they're going to change in the next.

1:02:51

Tell them what you're going to tell them.

1:03:08

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

1:03:09

A marketing adage.

1:03:11

Yeah. But the other thing, Matt and I just recorded the podcast yesterday and we talked about props in auditions and how I like them. And Matt doesn't like them, but he's a big fan of props. He says that people will remember, like, if I took this coffee cup and I tell you that this thing represents this thing, or people will remember things like that. Like, oh, yeah, the presentation with the coffee cup where you tore the coffee. You know, like they're. They're touch points that will kind of stay in people's brains. But anyway, it's called how to Speak by Patrick Winston. I just literally somebody tweeted about it and said, like, if you go sign up for this MIT course thing, it's free. But then I just went to YouTube and I just typed in, yeah, Patrick Winston, how to Speak. And it came up and it has 21 million views. A copy that I saw. I'm sure it's all over the place. So it's. It's already changed the way I think I'm going to present things. I'll put it in the chat here if you guys are interested at all.

1:03:12

Well, fingers crossed. Oren used to do warmup with our guests where he would just make jokes about their name.

1:04:02

That's a different thing. That's for me. I talk. I asked, like, how to pronounce the name or something so that I remember your name.

1:04:08

You know, this is the orange Anne Marie. Your parents couldn't decide between the two like that. So Warren would say that before an interview starts.

1:04:14

I am curious. I am curious about your name because I, you know, we're at the end of the show.

1:04:23

I am the only. I'm the only one. I'm the only Palestinian. Anne Marie.

1:04:29

There you go. All right, that's get your Googleable then. That's great.

1:04:32

Awesome. Speaking of finding you, is there if people want to find out more about you or the movie, where should they go?

1:04:35

So probably Instagram is the best thing these days. I have my Instagram Instagram which is Anna Maria Jasser J A C I R. And then there's the film Palestine 36 film on. On Instagram.

1:04:42

Okay.

1:04:56

And where our US release all info

1:04:56

is there there too on Instagram. People can find out where it's screening, how to see it, where to play. I'm assuming it'll be on rentable at some point too.

1:04:59

It will be. And it's distributed by Watermelon Pictures in the United States. And there's also a website, palestine36.com.

1:05:06

Awesome, awesome, awesome.

1:05:16

Well, if you have any questions for Emory or any for us as well, you can email us@just gmail.com. we're across all social media, just you a pod, especially Instagram nowadays. And you can find me at Mr.

1:05:18

Matt Inlow and I'm at O Kaplan on Instagram. This episode was edited by Kevin Oyang. Our social media maven is Lily Bouvier and our producer is Tyler Small. Thanks everyone. We'll see you next time.

1:05:28

Thanks everyone.

1:05:39

Thank you. Bye.

1:05:40