18th Jun 2015 7:00 pm
Friends Meeting House, 6 Mount Street (behind Central Library), Manchester
“In 2002, I was approached by the Palestinian director, Leila Sansour, to front a documentary about the International Solidarity Movement, anti-occupation activists operating in the West Bank and Gaza. She wanted me to go to Bethlehem. I was quite flattered, unaware that she had asked 98 other people, working downwards from Madonna.
Leila assured me that, because the ISM is a non-violent movement, I would be in no danger. Unfortunately, while I was on the plane, Ariel Sharon launched a full-scale invasion of the Occupied Territories. I got to Bethlehem shortly before his tanks. The ISM were indeed peaceful, the Israeli Army, not so much. It all got a bit lairy.” (Quote from www.jeremyhardy.co.uk)
“This outstanding documentary from film-maker Leila Sansour follows the stand-up comedian Jeremy Hardy as he travels to the occupied West Bank in Easter 2002 at the invitation of the International Solidarity Movement of Palestine. There he experiences for himself the brutality and heavy-handedness of the Israeli military… and Hardy is refreshingly honest about how very, very frightened he gets, realising that the army has no compunction about shooting at protesters like him with real bullets.”
Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian ****
Jeremy Hardy is a stand-up comedian, broadcaster & writer who was born in Farnborough, Hampshire in 1961. He has worked on BBC Radio 4, on television & in film. Apart from his successful stand-up career, Jeremy has written columns for The Guardian and Red Pepper, & is the author of three books.
Leila Sansour was born in Moscow in 1966 to a Palestinian father and a Russian mother. She grew up in the West Bank city of Bethlehem. Leila is an acclaimed documentary filmmaker, a regular freelancer with ITN news and is the founder and Executive Director of the NGO Open Bethlehem. Her film credits include “Jeremy Hardy vs The Israeli Army” (2003) and “Open Bethlehem” (2014).
