USA: Actors Sean Penn and Vanessa Redgrave hit the red carpet in support of Julian Schnabel's movie "Miral"

Record ID: 1538263

  • Title: USA: Actors Sean Penn and Vanessa Redgrave hit the red carpet in support of Julian Schnabel's movie "Miral"
  • Date: 18th March 2011
  • Summary: NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES (MARCH 16, 2011) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) JULIAN SCHNABEL, ARTIST AND FILMMAKER, SAYING: "Actually most directors probably need a job and don't want to get blackballed. I mean I think that there is a lot of articles that were written, people don't want to get fired for supporting something that might not be popular. Me personally, I don't need to get hired, I don't care. I'm not looking for a job, if people don't want to make any more movies with me it's fine."
  • Embargoed: 1st April 2011 22:49
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Usa, Usa
  • Country: USA
  • Topics: Arts / Culture / Entertainment
  • Reuters ID: LVAD0CUU74MWX5SKBDJOYWTAI98J
  • Aspect Ratio: 4:3
  • Story Text: Filmmaker Julian Schnabel on Wednesday (March 16) defended the premiere of his new film "Miral" at the United Nations which drew the ire of Israel and several U.S. Jewish groups who see it as having a pro-Palestinian message.
    The movie, screened at the U.N.'s General Assembly Hall on Monday (March 14), stars Freida Pinto as a Palestinian girl growing up in East Jerusalem and dealing with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
    Schnabel called the U.N. premiere of "Miral," which debuts in U.S. theaters on March 25, a "peace-making mission".
    "I thought it was a great opportunity to show the movie at the United Nations. And for whatever Jewish group opposed that or tried to cancel that, there are other Jewish groups that opposed that Jewish group, that said it was a great thing to have happen," said Schnabel.
    Israel's mission to the U.N. issued a statement calling the screening "a politicized decision of the U.N., one that shows poor judgment and a lack of even-handedness".
    "The birth of the state of Israel occurred in that room in 1948 and I thought it was, it's a peaceful place and it's a place where we are suppose to listen to other points of view," he added.
    The 59-year-old American-Jewish film director and painter said the intention of film was to created a dialogue.
    "When you see finally a finished thing in the United Nations and it's a complete work and there are people that are communing together watching it and interacting with it and you're asking me questions about it I guess this is the goal to open up some kind of a dialogue about peace, about understanding other people about empathy," Schnabel told Reuters.
    He said the film doesn't represent all people involved in the conflict, but only the story of one Palestinian girl.
    "We're not showing all Palestinians like their saints or all Israelis like they're not. I mean my daughter Stella plays the Israeli girl Lisa and I think if you left the future to Lisa and Miral we'd be much better off then leaving it to the people that are in power and Hamas or in Israeli. So we need to get rid of all of those leaders and let the young people that just want to have, to be able to come home from school at the end of the day without getting blown up on either side, have a nice peaceful, non-violent resolution."
    The film is adapted from the semi-autobiographical novel of Italian-Palestinian journalist Rula Jebreal, who is now Schnabel's girlfriend. Jebreal was born in East Jerusalem to a father who worked in the Al-Aqsa Mosque. She described the film as a cry for peace.
    "It's actual dream to be able to show this story in the United States at this moment because what's happening is for sixty years this side of the story was not heard. This is a unique opportunity to hear a side of story that is about civil society, about women and how they live, the conflict from the other side. To show all of this in a movie that is distributed by a Jewish company directed by a Jewish man is showing that actual to the rest of the world that Judaism is about listening," Jebreal explained.
    This was the first time the United Nations General Assembly Hall was equipped with the latest technology to serve as the venue for a film premiere.
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