PDF File - The Peggy Siegal Company

His Excellency Mr. Joseph Deiss,
(President of the Sixty-Fifth Session of the United Nations General Assembly)
Invites you and a guest to join
DIRECTOR JULIAN SCHNABEL
and
WRITER RULA JEBREAL
for the U.S. Premiere of
MIRAL
BASED ON THE LIFE OF RULA JEBREAL
PRODUCED BY JON KILIK
Monday, March 14th, 2011
7:00PM screening
doors close at 6:30 pm for security
UNITED NATIONS GENERAL ASSEMBLY HALL
United Nations Visitor’s entrance
First Avenue at 46th Street
New York, NY 10017
The screening will be followed by a conversation
featuring Julian Schnabel and Rula Jebreal
THIS EVENING WAS MADE POSSIBLE THROUGH
THE GENEROUS SUPPORT OF Gucci
Vanessa Redgrave, Julian Schnabel, Rula Jebreal Stella Schnabel
Sean Penn
Josh Brolin
Lee Daniels
Zac Posen
Grace Hightower, Robert De Niro
Willem Dafoe
Julian Schnabel, Joseph Deiss
Gayle King
Steve Buscemi
Lou Reed
Dan Rather
Harvey Weinstein
Famke Jansen
Paula Zahn
Chuck Close
Candice Bergen
Dick Cavett, Julian Schnabel, Rula Jebreal
Julian Schnabel, Robert De Niro
Zainab Salb
Lotte Verbeek
Sean Penn, Julian Schnabel, Josh Brolin
TWC bows 'Miral' at UN
Film offers message of peace
By Lucas Shaw
Leading up to Monday night's screening of
TWC's "Miral" at the United Nations, Israeli
and Jewish protests began to dominate any
discussion about the movie. Yet apparently
just two words can sum it up -- "fear" and
"peace."
Peace is the message of the film, according
to its director, Julian Schnabel, and scribe,
Rula Jebreal. It's that message that brought
the pic to the attention of the president of
the U.N. General Assembly, Joseph Deiss,
who then asked to host the event.
Yet fear is bringing all the attention. "I loved
the fact that the U.N. wanted to screen it
and I hate the fact that the American
Jewish Committee didn't want to screen it,"
said Harvey Weinstein. "But it's not the first
time. It's just been one obstacle after
another."
Schnabel questioned whether the protesters had even seen the movie. "The question is
does a Palestinian girl get to have her portrait painted?" he said. "Is she entitled to it or
do you have to portray the Israeli girl standing next to her at the same time? I thought
it'd be an interesting thing for me to tell the story from the eyes of a 16-year-old
Palestinian girl, not that of a 59-year-old Jewish guy from New York City."
After the screening, Schnabel and Jebreal took part in a panel, moderated by Dan
Rather. -
Julian Schnabel, Willem Dafoe
Harvey Weinstein, Joseph Deiss
Screening of 'Miral' at the United Nations draws
protests from Jewish groups
The American Jewish Committee and the Anti-Defamation League are
outraged that the film, described by Harvey Weinstein as 'pro-Palestinian,'
would be given such a forum.
March 15, 2011|By Melissa Maerz and Nicole Sperling
Freida Pinto and Omar Metwally star in Julian Schnabel's "Miral." (Jose Haro / Weinstein Co.)
Israeli-Palestinian politics often prove polarizing at the United Nations, but rarely does
the furor involve Hollywood celebrities and power brokers, a red carpet and a film
screening at the world body's own headquarters in New York.
Such was the case Monday night when the U.N. played host to the U.S. premiere of
director Julian Schnabel's new film "Miral," which follows a Palestinian girl's relationship
with terrorism and Israel after the 1948 war for Israeli independence. The screening was
met with protests from Israel's delegation to the U.N. as well as prominent U.S.-based
Jewish groups including the American Jewish Committee and the Anti-Defamation
League, which were outraged that the world body would open its doors to a film that
even its Jewish American distributor, Harvey Weinstein, describes as "pro-Palestinian."
Friends in High Places
Sean Penn, Robert De Niro, and More Support Julian Schnabel's Miral at
the U.N.
As guests arrived at the United Nations General
Assembly Monday night for the Weinstein
Company's screening of Julian Schnabel's latest
film, Miral, they were greeted by guards in uniform
and a series of security checkpoints. But the
roadblocks they faced paled in comparison to the
obstacles that Schnabel and his lover, screenwriter
Rula Jebreal, battled in the process of releasing
their movie.
Based on Jebreal's semi-autobiographical novel,
the movie is an illuminating and poetic portrait of a
young girl in east Jerusalem caught in the cross
fires of the 1987 Palestinian uprising. "I feel that this
is not my story anymore—it's a universal story
about women living in a war zone and it's about little
girls and their destiny," Jebreal said of Miral, which
Sean Penn, Julian Schnabel, and Josh Brolin
she named after her own little girl. "In the beginning, she didn't understand it perfectly."
Apparently, Jebreal's daughter wasn't the only one who didn't quite grasp the movie's
message at first. The film's creators wrestled with rating conflicts with the MPAA and,
more recently, protests from the American Jewish Committee (AJC) claiming that it's
anti-Israel. "What do I say to the critics? Come watch the movie and then I will talk to
them," said Schnabel. "Obviously, we are showing the movie and they can't do a damn
thing about it."
Representatives from AJC didn't come to the screening, but close friends of the
Schnabel clan, including Robert De Niro, Sean Penn, and Josh Brolin, were all on
hand to show their support. Lou Reed told Style.com, "Amazing it got made, amazing
it's being shown at the U.N.—perfection."
Sorry to bother you...
Julian Schnabel bristled at the premiere of his controversial new film, "Miral," on
Monday night, when we asked if he'd been painting recently or had dedicated himself to
film. "That's ridiculous," Schnabel replied at the UN, where the movie about a
Palestinian orphan was screened. "I am a painter. I just made five movies - but I have
made 3,000 paintings." Got it.
Palestinian tale is jeered
The premiere of the film "Miral" -- the diary of a Palestinian girl living in Israeli-occupied
East Jerusalem -- was met with more protests outside the UN Monday when it was
screened in the General Assembly. The film has been called anti-Israeli by some,
including the American Jewish Committee, who asked the UN to cancel the event.
Some at the screening for the Weinstein Co.-produced film hissed or walked out during
the panel discussion moderated by Dan Rather, which included director Julian
Schnabel,his girlfriend, Rula Jebreal, who wrote the memoir on which the film is
based, Egyptian journalist Mona Eltahawy, Rabbi Irwin Kula and former Israeli Air
Force Capt. Yonatan Shapiro. Schnabel repeated, "I don't get what the problem is, why
don't people want to see this film?" while guests shifted in their seats. Attendees who
didn't leave included Robert De Niro and Sean Penn, and others.
Gaga For Gaza!
By Nate Freeman/March 15, 201
In candy apple red slip-ons, silk pajamas,
a chest-baring shirt and a scowl, Julian
Schnabel blustered toward The Observer
to defend his new film, Miral, which was
about to have its premiere at the U.N.
Based on the semi-autobiographical novel
by Palestinian journalist and Schnabel
squeeze Rula Jebreal, the film focuses on
the title character‘s coming of age, her
rebellion against her father and her
infatuation with dreamy but violent revolutionaries.
For Monday‘s screening, the first in the U.S., the Weinstein Company booked the
General Assembly Hall, where, in 1947, the state of Israel was signed into existence.
The American Jewish Federation was not pleased with the location, and had fired off a
letter urging U.N. officials to block the event.
―Obviously, they‘re showing the movie, and the AJF can‘t do a damn thing about it!‖ Mr.
Schnabel told The Observer. ―I‘d love it if they would see it.‖ He and his producer,
Harvey Weinstein, had extended an invitation. ―No response,‖ Mr. Schnabel said.
―I‘m used to it,‖ Mr. Weinstein said of the protests. ―Trust me. That‘s not the first letter.
It‘s the first letter to go super-public. And it won‘t be the last letter.‖
Attendee Josh Brolin was asked what he thought of the controversy. ―I don‘t know much
about it!‖ he said.
Across the Great Divide to a Hollywood Ending
When a Jewish Director and a Palestinian Writer Found Common Ground
in a Script, a Cross-Cultural Romance Blossomed
Following a recent screening of "Miral," a new film about a young Palestinian woman by
the Jewish-American director Julian Schnabel, Dan Rather moderated a panel that
included Mr. Schnabel, his girlfriend Rula Jebreal, on whose autobiographical novel the
film is based, and several others. As the guests settled into their seats, it became clear
that Ms. Jebreal's microphone was malfunctioning. No one could hear her voice. It may
only have been a technical glitch, but since this screening was being held in the main
hall of the United Nations General Assembly, the moment seemed emblematic.
"Miral," which is being distributed by the Weinstein Co., follows the title character,
played by Freida Pinto, as she comes of age amid a reality of war and occupation.
Politics intrude on Miral's educational, her first love, and her relationship with her father,
but they are hardly the focus of the film. Still, in advance of the U.N. event, some Jewish
groups, such as the American Jewish Committee and the Simon Wiesenthal Center—
not to mention the nation of Israel—condemned the location of the screening.
"[Producer] Harvey Weinstein is very generous and pro-Israel, and I'm certain that in the
past he's been at our dinners," said Rabbi Marvin Hier, founder and dean of the
Wiesenthal Center and an Academy Award-winning producer in his own right. "But the
U.N. is a political body with a controversial record on the Middle East." (Messrs.
Schnabel and Weinstein said they extended invitations to their critics, but Mr. Hier and a
spokesperson for the AJC each insisted they weren't invited to the U.N. event.)
Mr. Schnabel, left, on the Jerusalem set of 'Miral' with star
Freida Pinto in the title role and cinematographer Eric Gautier.
A day after the screening, in the sun-soaked kitchen of Mr. Schnabel's 11th Street
palace of a home, Ms. Jebreal laughed about the microphone incident, but
acknowledged its symbolism. In fact, she said, it took the presence of Mr. Schnabel—as
a partner and a filmmaker of international stature—to amplify her story. "In all of Julian's
films, he always gave a voice for the people who are not heard," she said. "He uses his
privilege to speak about them, for them."
When she met Mr. Schnabel in 2007, Ms. Jebreal, 37, had already sold the screenplay
for "Miral" to an Italian production company. But before she signed off on its version,
she asked Mr. Schnabel, the renowned painter who has forged a successful second
career in film, to take a look at it. He did, then asked for a copy of her book. Enchanted
by its descriptions of Jerusalem, and touched by its depiction of the relationship
between Ms. Jebreal and her father, Mr. Schnabel agreed to work on the script. As a
Brooklyn-born Jew whose mother had been active in Hadassah, Mr. Schnabel was also
troubled by its description of a violent country.
"When I read the book I thought, why are these people villainized? I need to go there,
and I need to see for myself what's happening," he said. "And in the process of doing all
that, I felt like my mother's wish—that I should go to Israel and see what it was—would
be realized."
Before his encounter with Ms. Jebreal, Mr. Schnabel, 59, had never met a Palestinian
person. He knew Israel from the prayers he recited as a child ("Next year, in Israel"),
and from a brief trip in 1987, just as the intifada began. Ms. Jebreal gave him books by
writers like Benny Morris, and films like "Jenin, Jenin" to watch. She often found him
crying. In turn, he wanted to know the details of her story.
"I was struck by how sensitive he was, and how he not only understood it, he embraced
it," she recalled. "There were things I didn't write that he asked me about. He felt there
was a deeper level I didn't touch."
From 2007 through 2008, the pair worked on the script while Ms. Jebreal continued
working as a TV journalist in Rome, sending it back and forth over email, and eventually
spending ten days in Morocco to finish it. At some point—neither one can pinpoint it—
they fell in love. "It was very complicated to be so immersed in what we were doing, and
in that place, and I saw everything there through Rula's eyes," said Mr. Schnabel, who
at the time was married to his second wife, actress Olatz López Garmendia. "It was her
world, and it was impossible to be in two places at once, emotionally. So we just had a
very, very intense relationship and..." He paused. "And I guess that's what happened."
On the Jerusalem set of "Miral," which opens Friday in New York, Ms. Jebreal played
multiple roles: negotiating access to sensitive sites, like the inside of al-Aqsa mosque,
where her father was an imam; assessing a location's faithfulness to reality; and even
swimming out to sea to simulate the drowning of her mother's character.
"She was really my guide—I believed her," said Mr. Schnabel. "I also believed I was in
certain places that could be dangerous, but I trusted her, and I didn't want the movie to
be made by a tourist."
Mr. Weinstein saw the film in London prior to last year's Cannes Film Festival, and
immediately made an offer for the North American rights. He said the film is intended to
promote a peaceful dialogue. "It is one side's perspective of the conflict," he said, "but
that should not be a criticism of it."
Indeed, the film's uneasy reception in the States stands in contrast to the warm
welcome the crew received in Israel, according to Jon Kilik, Mr. Schnabel's longtime
producer. There, Mr. Kilik said, government officials such as the mayor of Jerusalem, an
Israeli production company, and a mostly Israeli crew were supportive, in, for example,
making arrangements for filming in sensitive areas or at inopportune times. "They knew
this was not without controversy, but they encouraged us to come," Mr. Kilik said.
"There's a really interesting irony which is that without the Israeli government, without
the help we got everywhere in Israel, we could never have made this movie."
Miral Screens at the United Nations General Assembly
"Who would not want to see my film?" asked painter/director Julian Schnabel at the
premiere of his new movie Miral. Shown at the UN's General Assembly, with a quarter
of a million dollar screen and sound equipment supplied by Gucci, Miral reflects
Schnabel's scale: out-sized and awesome. Still, his question was provocative and
ambiguous, a cry for commerce amidst rumors that the film was not very good and an
email campaign by B'nai Brith asking for a boycott, claiming the film is anti-Israel.
In fact, introducing the film in the gigantic space, and for an audience that included
Sean Penn, Candice Bergen, Steve Buscemi, Zac Posen, Lou Reed, Laurie Anderson,
and many more, Schnabel asserted that he loved Israel and that the film if anything is a
plea for peace. Based upon a novel by Rula Jebreal, Miral tells the story of a young
Arab girl, an Israeli citizen, caught, in the modern tragedy of the Middle East. No one
wants to see children suffer: the film's narrative underscores the aching longing for a
workable solution. And, by the way, this is a good film.
Performances by a Freida Pintos Miral, Haim Abbass as the head mistress of a girls'
school and Alexander Siddiq as Miral's father are compelling, as are cameos by
Vanessa Redgrave and Willem Dafoe, who also attended. The director's daughter Stella
Schnabel plays a Jewish girl in love with a Palestinian man. Issues of violence vs. nonviolence are weighed. In perhaps the most inflammatory scene, a house is demolished
as a helpless family watches -- an insensitive and arbitrary power play by a government
obsessed with security. The film does not instigate a new critique. Rather, Schnabel
enters into an ongoing discourse in Israel with intellectuals and writers like David
Grossman, Amos Oz, and Yehuda Amichai.
Afterwards, Dan Rather led a panel in a conversation extolling the fundamental need for
dialogue, for finding new ways toward peace. No one could argue with that. Journalist
Mona Eltahawy, Rabbi Irwin Kula, former Israeli Yonatan Schapira all agreed with Rula
Jabreal and Julian Schnabel, noting the irony that it would take a Jewish man-Schnabel's mother was active in Hadassah-to tell this story.
One Turbulent World Readied Her for Another
ON the evening of March 14 at the United Nations General Assembly, the Palestinian
journalist Rula Jebreal welcomed a crowd of cultural luminaries that included Robert
DeNiro, Dick Cavett and the designer Zac Posen to the United States premiere of Julian
Schnabel‘s film ―Miral‖ — based on her autobiographical novel named for her teenage
daughter and starring Freida Pinto.
Wearing a floor-length black matte jersey Alaïa dress that hugged her delicate curves (
―If I could buy a company, I would buy Alaïa,‖ she said), Ms. Jebreal seemed entirely at
ease on a stage that usually bears world leaders, publically thanking Mr. Schnabel, her
boyfriend, for ―healing‖ her and asking Miral to bring her a black sweater to stave off a
chill in the auditorium.
In the year and a half since she moved to New York from Rome, Ms. Jebreal, 37,
appears to have made a surprising seamless transition into the city‘s social whirl and
into Mr. Schnabel‘s complicated patchwork quilt of a family. The union of the largerthan-life Jewish artist in pajamas, whose mother was the Brooklyn head of Hadassah,
and Ms. Jebreal, a Muslim 22 years his junior, seems ripped from a Leon Uris tale.
They met at an exhibition of Mr. Schnabel‘s paintings at the Palazzo Venezia in Rome
in 2007; that Mr. Schnabel was at the time still married to his second wife, Olatz López
Garmendia, a Spanish former model, had New York City gossip circuits crackling.
When Cindy Adams reported in November 2008 that Mr. Schnabel was housing both
Ms. Garmendia (with whom he has teenage twins; there are also three children from his
marriage to Jacqueline Beaurang, a designer) and Ms. Jebreal at the Palazzo Chupi,
his Pompeii-red building on the West Side Highway christened after his nickname for
Ms. Garmendia, the blogosphere went wild.
Mr. Schnabel and Ms. Garmendia have since divorced. ―My wife actually said to my
agent, ‗He‘ll make a wonderful movie, but it will cost us our marriage,‘ ‖ Mr. Schnabel
told The Daily Telegraph in London in December.
―The movie definitely came out of their love story, and is a reflection of their love story,‖
said Amalia Dayan, the art dealer, the wife of the collector Adam Lindemann and a
close friend of Ms. Jebreal‘s. The two women meet every few weeks for long lunches,
often conducted in their native Hebrew — sometimes uptown near the gallery Ms.
Dayan co-owns, though recently Ms. Jebreal suggested Cipriani instead.
―I guess that‘s the Italian in her,‖ Ms. Dayan joked.
Sitting in a high-ceilinged drawing room at the palazzo a few days before the premiere,
Ms. Jebreal, who grew up in an orphanage on the West Bank, seemed to be inhabiting
a citified, dual-career version of a fairy tale.
―I understand that he needs to paint until two o‘clock in the morning, and I think it‘s great
that he has that passion and that he sees things with different eyes,‖ she said of Mr.
Schnabel, who was in Los Angeles (the two generally enjoy weekends at home, she
said, and recently snuggled up for the Wall Street documentary ―Inside Job.‖). ―He
understands my passion when I‘m sitting there watching the news from Egypt eating my
hands saying, ‗Can you believe that idiot, what he said?‘ ‖
She held her hands up in front of her mouth, showing nails neatly cut and coated in
clear varnish.
Ms. Jebreal was wearing Prada blue jeans that tapered to a slim boot-cut hem above
her ankle and a white linen short-sleeve blouse from H & M with princess sleeves, two
open buttons revealing a flash of slender, tawny stomach. It was cold out, but she wore
platform espadrille sandals: house slippers, she explained, so that she can be as tall as
Miral. A large Roman tapestry covered the back wall of the room. A stuffed bear, fangs
bared, stood watchful in the corner; a grand piano, above which dangled a candy-pink
and blue Murano glass chandelier, occupied the middle of the stone tiled floor.
―I don‘t know who plays piano actually,‖ Ms. Jebreal said. ―That just arrived a few days
ago. New things arrive every day here.‖
But she insisted such material trappings were unimportant to her.
―I don‘t really connect with the physical things,‖ she said. ―I could live with Julian and my
daughter under a bridge.‖
She refuted, also, any whisper of friction between herself and Mr. Schnabel‘s children.
―I love Julian‘s kids,‖ she said emphatically. ―All of them. I feel like they are my own, and
I think he feels the same about Miral.‖
Ms. Jebreal was born in Haifa, Israel, in 1973. After her mother committed suicide by
walking into the sea when Rula was 5 and her sister, Rania, was 4, their father, a
groundskeeper at a local mosque, took them to the Dar El-Tifel orphanage, where she
came of age during the first intifada, the Palestinian uprising that began in the late
1980s.
After earning a degree in physiotherapy on scholarship at Bologna University in Italy,
she specialized in young people with brain trauma before switching to print and then
broadcast journalism, where she had a rapid rise, interviewing everyone from Silvio
Berlusconi to Mohamed El Baradei.
In 2007, Walter Veltroni, then the mayor of Rome, told her about an American man
wearing pajamas who turned off all the lights in the mayor‘s office so as not to mar the
view of Rome‘s ruins with artificial light.
―Is he crazy?‖ she asked.
―No,‖ Mr. Veltroni told her, ―he‘s an artist.‖
Ms. Jebreal attended not only Mr. Schnabel‘s show, but also the large dinner party
afterward. She said she remembered seeing Mr. Schnabel from far away and thinking
he‘s got some nerve ―to walk around in pajamas, he really doesn‘t care.‘ ‖
She asked if she could send him a copy of a script based on ―Miral‖ that had been
written by an Italian company. Their interaction was brief, so when Mr. Schnabel called
several weeks later, Ms. Jebreal was surprised. ―I thought, ‗O.K., if this is a joke I should
say something funny,‘ but I didn‘t have any sense of humor!‖ she said.
He told her that he didn‘t like the script but that he loved the book and wanted to make a
movie of it himself.
The film has garnered mixed reviews so far. ―I read some critics and I think this movie
scares them,‖ said Ms. Jebreal, who is working on her fourth novel, an international
thriller. ―Something about this story scares them. If you are not ready to hear a story
about love and education, what are we ready to hear about, the Kardashians?‖
Certainly the lives of the Schnabels hold as much fascination for a certain subset of
New York as that reality-show family. After agreeing by text message to discuss Ms.
Jebreal, Mr. Schnabel‘s son Vito fell silent. But Stella Schnabel — who when asked in
December by The New York Times about the new addition replied: ―I can‘t talk about
that. I don‘t want to make my father mad‖ — was diplomatic and complimentary
recently.
―I think she was waiting for it for a long time,‖ Ms. Schnabel said of Ms. Jebreal‘s move,
adding that though she ―knows how to operate,‖ there are endearing moments of
greenhorn-ness. ―It‘s cute because she doesn‘t know the Lower East Side, or I‘ll tell her
we‘re going to 14th Street and she‘ll head downtown, it‘s sweet,‖ she said with a kind
giggle.
Not that we should be worried about Ms. Jebreal getting lost.
―She‘s pretty fierce and intense,‖ Ms. Schnabel said. ―She has that great quality of a
cat.‖
Julian Schanbel screens "MIRAL" At UN
Julian Schnabel premiered his new film "Miral" last night despite controversy over
screening it at the United Nations General Assembly Hall. While the subject infuriated
Isreal and members of the American Jewish Committee who protested the affair, Sean
Penn, Robert De Niro, Williem Dafoe, Josh Brolin and more showed up to
unquestionably provided their support.
Based on the autobiography and screenplay by Rula Jebreal, Schnabel's girlfriend, the
film focuses on an orphaned Palestinian girl growing up in the wake of Arab-Israeli war
who finds herself drawn into the conflict. AJC Executive Director, David Harris, was so
infuriated he personally wrote a letter to UN General President, Joseph Hiess. Aside
from feeling that the film misinterpreting Israel, the AJC felt it was entirely inappropriate
to show a film of such disputable political statements at the UN. Shockingly, Israel was
never consulted prior to an event that David Harris claims, depicts Israel in a ―highly
negative light.‖
[Julian Schnabel, Robert DeNiro]
Schnabel, A Jewish American whose mother was President of the Hassadah in
Brooklyn in 1948, hopes the film opens discussion on the Israeli/Palestinian
relationship. He defends that this is a movie about empathy and peace.
He told the LA Times: ""I love the state of Israel. I believe in it, and my film is about
preserving it, not hurting it. Understanding is part of the Jewish way, and Jewish people
are supposed to be good listeners. But if we don't listen to the other side, we can never
have peace."
[Sean Penn, Julian Schnabel, Josh Brolin]
[Lou Reed, Crystal Renn, Zac Posen]
[Willem DaFoe]
[Harvey Weinstein]
―I‘m very proud that TWC is distributing Julian Schnabel‘s Miral,‖ Harvey Weinstein said
in a statement. ―We pride ourselves on aligning our company with films that take risks
and provoke dialogue. Miral is precisely that kind of picture. We are honored that it will
have its premiere at the United Nations General Assembly hall, and it saddens me that
some in the Jewish community are protesting this screening and judging Miral before
they have had an opportunity to see it.‖
[Steve Buscemi, Jo Andres, Rula Jebreal, Vanessa Redgrave]
Following the screening, a panel discussion was held with journalist Mona Eltahawy,
Rabbi Irwin Kula, and Yonatan Shapira, current co-founder of Combatants for Peace
and former Israeli Air Force Captain. Dan Rather moderated.
Schnabel Film Goes to the UN; Springsteens Add
Color to Rock Hall
Julian Schnabel‗s ―Miral‖ got its premiere last night in the General Assembly Hall of the
United Nations, a place I hadn‘t seen the inside of since I was 12. It‘s still there! A giant
state of the art screen was erected by a Boston company, and Schnabel assembled as
his delegates Robert DeNiro, Sean Penn, Josh Brolin, Chaz Palminteri, and
Candice Bergen and daughter Chloe Malle. Cast members Vanessa Redgrave,
Willem Dafoe, and Stella Schnabel were in the room, too, along with Famke
Janssen, James Toback, and the film‘s author and inspiration, Rula Jebreal. DeNiro
didn‘t stay for the screening, and Penn left during the Q&A moderated by Dan Rather.
But Steve Buscemi and wife Jo were among those who toughed it out. Star Freida
Pinto must have been in India or shooting a film. ―Miral‖ is much changed, by the way,
from its festival cut last summer. Producer Jon Kilik — who told me he had lunch with
Bono recently to discuss ―Spider Man‖– said they took 15 minutes out of it. Palestinian
actress Haim Abbass is still wonderful in it…PS Schnabel didn‘t conform just because
we were at the UN. He wore trademark pajamas, albeit under a sportcoat.
Miral Screens at the United Nations General Assembly
th
Regina Weinreich/March 15 2011
―Who would not want to see my film?‖
asked painter/director Julian Schnabel at
the premiere of his new movie Miral.
Shown at the UN's General Assembly,
with a quarter of a million dollar screen
and sound equipment supplied by Gucci,
Miral reflects Schnabel's scale: out-sized
and awesome. Still, his question was
provocative and ambiguous, a cry for
commerce amidst rumors that the film
was not very good and an email
campaign by B'nai Brith asking for a
boycott, claiming the film is anti-Israel.
In fact, introducing the film in the gigantic
space, and for an audience that included
Sean Penn, Candice Bergen, Steve
Buscemi, Zac Posen, Lou Reed, Laurie
Anderson, and many more, Schnabel
asserted that he loved Israel and that the film if anything is a plea for peace. Based
upon a novel by Rula Jebreal, Miral tells the story of a young Arab girl, an Israeli citizen,
caught, in the modern tragedy of the Middle East. No one wants to see children suffer:
the film's narrative underscores the aching longing for a workable solution. And, by the
way, this is a good film.
Performances by a Freida Pintos Miral, Haim Abbass as the head mistress of a girls'
school and Alexander Siddiq as Miral's father are compelling, as are cameos by
Vanessa Redgrave and Willem Dafoe, who also attended. The director's daughter Stella
Schnabel plays a Jewish girl in love with a Palestinian man. Issues of violence vs. nonviolence are weighed. In perhaps the most inflammatory scene, a house is demolished
as a helpless family watches --an insensitive and arbitrary power play by a government
obsessed with security. The film does not instigate a new critique. Rather, Schnabel
enters into an ongoing discourse in Israel with intellectuals and writers like David
Grossman, Amos Oz, and Yehuda Amichai.
Afterwards, Dan Rather led a panel in a conversation extolling the fundamental need for
dialogue, for finding new ways toward peace. No one could argue with that. Journalist
Mona Eltahawy, Rabbi Irwin Kula, former Israeli Yonatan Schapira all agreed with Rula
Jabreal and Julian Schnabel, noting the irony that it would take a Jewish man Schnabel's mother was active in Hadassah-to tell this story.
DAN RATHER Moderated World Class Panel At The
United Nations General Assembly Hall For New York
Film Premiere Of “MIRAL”
The United Nations General Assembly Hall housed a first of its kind premiere screening
and panel discussion for Academy Award® nominee Julian Schnabel‘s MIRAL, on
Monday, March 14, 2011.
The discussion panel following the film was moderated by Dan Rather, Anchor &
Managing Editor, HDNet, Dan Rather Reports. In addition to director Julian Schnabel,
and Rula Jebreal, screenwriter and author of the book on which the film is based, the
panel will include the following experts:
MONA ELTAHAWY – Egyptian born, Eltahawy is a Harvard educated Palestinian
journalist with over a decade of experience reporting across the Middle East and North
Africa. Now based in New York, she has become a highly respected media authority on
the region, within both mainstream news outlets and through social media channels.
Most recently she has emerged as the face and voice of the current Egyptian uprising
and is widely regarded as one of the most popular and powerful speakers on the Arab
youth movement today.
RABBI IRWIN KULA – Rabbi Kula is president of Clal – The National Jewish Center for
Learning and Leadership in New York City. Named by Fast Company Magazine as one
of the leaders shaping the American spiritual landscape, Rabbi Kula received the 2008
Walter Cronkite Faith and Freedom Award and has been ranked by Newsweek as one
of the Top 10 rabbis in America for the past three years. He has worked with leaders
from the Dalai Lama to Queen Noor and with institutions and groups from Bhutan to
Rwanda to Europe and across the United States to promote compassionate leadership.
YONATAN SHAPIRA – Co-founder of Combatants for Peace, Shapira is a former
Israeli Air Force Captain from the Elite Black Hawk Squadron. He famously issued the
―Pilot‘s Letter‖ refusing to participate in military operations in the occupied territories.
Having devoted his life to the fight for social justice and human rights, Shapira is
committed to ending conflict and finding equality for all Israelis and Palestinians. He
speaks out for non-violence and against the dehumanizing elements of the occupation
both sides of the wall.
Attendees at the premiere of MIRAL included: Julian Schnabel, Rula Jebreal, Willem
Dafoe, Vanessa Redgrave, Stella Schnabel, Harvey Weinstein, Robert DeNiro, Sean
Penn, Josh Brolin, Dick Cavett, Lee Daniels, Famke Janssen, Chaz Palminteri, Zac
Posen, Lou Reed, James Toback , Fisher Stevens, Dan Rather, Steve Buscemi, Paula
Zahn, Gayle King, Candice Bergen
Julian Schnabel Premieres Latest Film At The United
Nations
George Whipple
Earlier this week, renowned artist Julian Schnabel debuted his sure-to-be-controversial
new film. NY1's George Whipple attended the premiere and filed the following report.
Artist Julian Schnabel premiered his latest film, ―Miral,‖ this week. He selected the
unusual location of the United Nations General Assembly for the screening.
The film is a coming-of-age story for a young Palestinian girl growing up in the midst of
the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It is expected that this film will be quite controversial.
―You know what, I don't care [if I get criticized],‖ said Schnabel. ―I mean, I made the
movie that I wanted to make. I'm guilty. I'm responsible. That's what an artist does. I
believe in this film. Israelis and Palestinians need to be able to wake up in the morning
and get through the day without being terrified and without war. It's just a prolonged war
that has to stop."
Rula Jebriel wrote the screenplay for the film and also wrote the book of the same
name.
"It's about the many girls that are still living in the Middle East waiting for a solution,‖
Jebriel said. ―I was saved by education. I became a writer when I was five years old.
Because when my mother committed suicide and we were brought to an orphanage. In
that moment, my sister was four and I was five, I was telling her stories to keep her
quiet because she was crying and crying, and in that moment, I became her mother."
The film is being released by The Weinstein Company. Co-chairman of the company,
Harvey Weinstein, has already endured criticism from the most powerful force in his life.
"Well, all I can tell you, George, is two weeks ago I was the biggest hero with my Mom.
She said, 'God, you won the Oscar for ‗King's Speech,‘ what a classy, great movie.'
Now she said, 'Alright, you're done, now I'm putting you up for adoption,‘‖ said
Weinstein. ―And she said, 'Did [your brother Bob] have anything to do with it?" I said,
'Yeah, he did it, too.' And she said, 'I'll put him up for adoption, as well.' So if you know a
nice home that will take the Weinstein boys in, let me know!"
Vanessa Redgrave says she was honored to portray her character.
"I think the story shows how great values imparted to young people by people they trust
and know they are telling the truth, are much their worth to all of us," she said.
The film opens March 25th in New York.
Sean Penn and Robert De Niro support controversial
'Miral' at U.N. premiere
Sean Penn, Julian Schnabel and Josh Brolin at the UN premiere of 'Miral'
Julian Schanbel's "Miral" didn't get much buzz when it premiered in Venice last
September, but has created something of a firestorm before its U.S. release. The film
had its U.S. premiere at the United Nations Monday night, but before hand the
American Jewish Committee referred to the screening as a "one-sided event" and
accused the film having a "clear political message, which portrays Israel in a highly
negative light." The Israeli U.N. delegation reportedly echoed those comments.
In a statement released before the event, director Julian Schnabel said, ―I love the State
of Israel. I believe in it, and my film is about preserving it, not hurting it. Understanding
is part of the Jewish way and Jewish people are supposed to be good listeners. But, if
we don‘t listen to the other side, we can never have peace. Instead of saying ‗no,‘ I ask
the AJC to say ‗yes,‘ see 'Miral' and join the discussion.‖
Screenwriter Rula Jebreal, who also wrote the source novel, and whose life was the
inspiration for both remarked, ―'Miral' is a story about human beings - Palestinian,
Israeli, Muslim, Jewish and Christian - and it explores how we all react differently to the
violence around us, whether physical, emotional, political or otherwise. It is a film about
love, education, understanding, and peace. That seems like a good thing to show at the
United Nations.‖
Schnabel, who also directed the critically acclaimed "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly,"
"Before Night Falls" and "Basquiat," received a lot of support from his friends in the
movie industry at the premiere including photo ops with Sean Penn, Josh Brolin
(pictured), Robert De Niro, Vanessa Redgrave and Steve Buscemi.
"Miral" opens in select theaters on March 25.