{"id":86898,"date":"2025-03-28T07:07:37","date_gmt":"2025-03-28T12:07:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/?p=86898"},"modified":"2025-03-28T17:18:10","modified_gmt":"2025-03-28T22:18:10","slug":"maya-rudolph-james-schamus-among-filmmakers-calling-to-protect-no-other-land-team-after-directors-arrest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/maya-rudolph-james-schamus-among-filmmakers-calling-to-protect-no-other-land-team-after-directors-arrest\/","title":{"rendered":"Maya Rudolph, James Schamus among filmmakers calling to protect \u2018No Other Land\u2019 team after director\u2019s arrest"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By GRACE GILSON<\/p>\n<p>(JTA) \u2014 A number of Jewish filmmakers are among thousands who signed a petition in support of Hamdan Ballal, the Palestinian co-director of the Oscar-winning documentary \u201cNo Other Land\u201d who was arrested this week by Israeli troops.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_86899\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/NoOtherLand.png\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-86899\" class=\"wp-image-86899 size-medium lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/NoOtherLand-300x154.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"154\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/NoOtherLand-300x154.png 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/NoOtherLand-1024x526.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/NoOtherLand-768x394.png 768w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/NoOtherLand-1536x789.png 1536w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/NoOtherLand.png 2021w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 300px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 300\/154;\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-86899\" class=\"wp-image-86899 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/NoOtherLand-300x154.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"154\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/NoOtherLand-300x154.png 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/NoOtherLand-1024x526.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/NoOtherLand-768x394.png 768w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/NoOtherLand-1536x789.png 1536w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/NoOtherLand.png 2021w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/noscript><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-86899\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A scene from &#8220;No Other Land.&#8221; (Directed by Yuval Abraham, Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal and Rachel Szor)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Ballal was released Tuesday, a day after he was beaten by West Bank settlers before being arrested. He is one of four directors \u2014 two Israeli and two Palestinian \u2014 of \u201cNo Other Land,\u201d which chronicles Israeli demolitions in a Palestinian West Bank village. The film won the Oscar for best documentary this year.<\/p>\n<p>Since his release, Ballal has said he believes he was retaliated against because of his film, which an Israeli leader denounced as \u201csabotage.\u201d As he was being beaten, he recalled to CNN, \u201cAt that moment, I thought because of my Oscar, they wanted to kill me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>An online petition that initially called for Ballal\u2019s release, and now calls to \u201cProtect the No Other Land Film Team,\u201d has climbed to over 18,000 signatures since it was posted Monday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSuch treatment of an internationally acclaimed filmmaker gravely undermines artistic freedom, human rights, and freedom of speech \u2014 core values vital to democratic societies,\u201d the petition says.<\/p>\n<p>The petition was launched by a Jewish filmmaker, Lee Hirsch. And among the signatories are Jewish actors and filmmakers including Maya Rudolph, Fisher Stevens, James Schamus, Liz Garbus and Daniel Chalfen.<\/p>\n<p>At least two of the signatories have been involved with documentaries that, like \u201cNo Other Land,\u201d spotlight tensions in Israel or the discourse surrounding it. Chalfen is the producer of \u201cIsraelism,\u201d the 2023 documentary about Jewish generational divides over Israel. And Alex Gibney gained attention last year for producing \u201cThe Bibi Files,\u201d about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s corruption trial.<\/p>\n<p>Schamus, the former CEO of Focus Features, is also a professor at Columbia University. In addition to signing the petition, he recently lambasted the school\u2019s response to the Trump administration\u2019s plan to cut funding over objections to campus antisemitism. He has also been a vocal critic of Israel\u2019s conduct in the Gaza war.<\/p>\n<p>The majority of the petition\u2019s signatories are not Jewish. They include Ava DuVernay, whose most recent film depicts the Holocaust in exploration of caste, and Guy Pearce, who was nominated for an Oscar this year for his appearance in the post-Holocaust film \u201cThe Brutalist.\u201d Pearce has become one of Hollywood\u2019s most outspoken pro-Palestinian advocates since the start of the war.<\/p>\n<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_toolbar\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" class=\"lazyload\" \/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\"\/><\/noscript><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services_t=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Pinterest\",\"Linkedin\",\"Tumblr\",\"Email\");var hupso_background_t=\"#EAF4FF\";var hupso_border_t=\"#66CCFF\";var hupso_toolbar_size_t=\"medium\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_url_t=\"\";var hupso_title_t=\"Maya%20Rudolph%2C%20James%20Schamus%20among%20filmmakers%20calling%20to%20protect%20%E2%80%98No%20Other%20Land%E2%80%99%20team%20after%20director%E2%80%99s%20arrest\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share_toolbar.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":86899,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7139,26,27],"tags":[14454,14532,14529,14530,8790,8795,14531,14528,8788],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86898"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86898"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86898\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":86900,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86898\/revisions\/86900"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/86899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}