CINE-PEACE AWARD HONOREE

 

ARI SANDEL, film director, has been selected to receive the inaugural CINE-PEACE Award, honoring him for demonstrating the ideals of the event in his personal and professional endeavors. 

 

Sandel is a very fitting honoree.  He burst into the film world with the film West Bank Story (“A musical comedy set in the fast-paced, fast-food world of competing falafel stands in the West Bank.”).  Done as a masters film for the USC Film School, one of his main goals was to present a pro-peace perspective and offer a message of hope.  Due to Ari’s filmmaking abilities, openness, and tenacity in the face of those who doubted a film on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict would receive such widespread attention and praise, West Bank Story was screened at more than two hundred festivals and events internationally.  This included being an official selection of the Sundance Film Festival, the inaugural CINE-PEACE Event, Jewish and Arab film festivals in the U.S., as well as in Israel and the Arab world.

 

Amazingly enough, the film that was almost never made ended up winning Sandel an Academy Award (Best Live Action Short 2006)!  In his speech after receiving the Oscar, he said:

 

“…to get this award just goes to show that there are so many other people out there who support that notion that when it comes to the situation between Israelis and Palestinians, hope is not hopeless.”

 

Sandel capitalized on the opportunity to personally promote his pro-peace message by traveling and speaking around the globe to a wide array of audiences, some of whom would rarely, if ever, hear such a message. He was a guest at the Dubai International Film Festival where West Bank Story received a warm reception and ended up being screened more than any other film.  Other significant locations for screenings included Ramallah in the West Bank and in Chechnya. World-wide attention has been furthered by interviews and screenings of the film on Al Jazeera, CNN, BBC, and NPR

 

In addition, the U.S. State Department and Pentagon-sponsored think tanks have asked Sandel to speak to address conflict through comedy and understanding through filmmaking.

 

Even as Sandel has continued on to direct feature films, West Bank Story continues to reap dividends for the cause of Israeli-Palestinian peace and reconciliation.  Sandel elected to provide proceeds from the sale of the DVD to organizations working in this area, and notes that the DVD has been seen by people as far away as China, Uganda, Qatar, Egypt, Israel, and Gaza, with pirated bootleg copies turning up in video stores from Tel Aviv to Beirut to Amman!

 

Americans for Peace Now is very pleased to present the 2008 Cine-Peace Award to Ari Sandel, a filmmaker who has so significantly promoted the ideals of the event.