As a tumultuous awards season nears its thrilling conclusion, the Webster University Film Series will host the St. Louis premiere of the Academy Award–nominated documentary No Other Land from March 7-9.
No Other Land is a nonfiction film directed by a Palestinian-Israeli activist collective that includes Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham, and Rachel Szor. It focuses on the destruction of Masafer Yatta in the occupied West Bank by Israeli soldiers and examines the alliance that forms between Adra—a Palestinian activist who has lived in the Masafer Yatta region his whole life—and Abraham—an Israeli journalist—as they fight against being expelled from the region across half a decade. The collective’s creative statement for the film was to “act as a creative resistance to Apartheid and a search for a path towards equality and justice.”
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Despite widespread acclaim, taking home Best Documentary awards from many critics organizations (including the St. Louis Film Critics Association) and film festivals, the film still does not have a U.S. distributor. So, the filmmakers decided to self-distribute instead, a move Pete Timmermann, director of the Webster University Film Series, notes is unusual.
“This is the type of film that even five or 10 years ago someone like Sony Pictures Classic, IFC, or even Netflix would have been all over, but nobody seems to want now,” Timmermann says.
Through pure chance, Timmermann was able to connect with the film’s U.S. booking agent and bring the film to St. Louis. At the moment, Ragtag Cinema in Columbia, Missouri, is the only other theater in the region screening the film. Timmermann notes that the film’s roadshow approach puts it in good company with other self-distributed independent films and politically minded documentaries.
“There have been a lot of lines drawn between this, Brett Story’s Union, and the documentary The Last Republican, as a lot of similarly themed political documentaries that no one wants to touch,” Timmermann says. “But the modern American documentary is built on the back of Michael Moore, and his Fahrenheit 9/11 remains the highest-grossing documentary in American box office history. So it seems kind of ridiculous that distributors would shy away from something like this.”
While No Other Land has courted controversy from some in the industry, as Adra, Abraham, and their collaborators have understandably been vocal in their criticism toward Israel and support for a ceasefire, it has not tarnished its accolades or awards momentum. The film currently boasts a coveted 100 percent on Rotten Tomatoes and a 93 from Metacritic, while also being a heavy favorite for the Best Documentary Oscar.
“The awards attention this film has gotten from the Academy and critics groups, especially for a documentary like this, is close to unprecedented,” Timmermann says. “Whether it ultimately wins or not, it’s going to get wider attention as a result of the Oscars. I want to show movies that people want to see, and clearly, there is an audience for this one.”
No Other Land runs from March 7-9. For more information on the Webster University Film Series, visit webster.edu/film-series/.
