Broadcast and cable networks will supplement their ongoing news coverage of the war in Israel with programming specials this weekend.
NBC News is planning two primetime specials, NBC News Special Report: Israel-Hamas War, to be simulcast across MSNBC, NBC News Now and CNBC from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. Et on Saturday and Sunday. The special also will stream on 11 NBC News local Fast channels and on NBCNews.com. The specials will be anchored by Tom Llamas, joined by Jose Diaz Balart on Saturday and Kate Snow on Sunday. Richard Engel, Raf Sanchez, Kelly Cobiella, Josh Lederman and Ellison Barber will report from Israel and Matt Bradley from London. Llamas also will anchor a special one hour edition of NBC Nightly News from Israel on Saturday for NBC News Now.
PBS tonight is presenting War in the Holy Land: A PBS News Special Report, co-anchored by PBS NewsHour‘s Amna Nawaz...
NBC News is planning two primetime specials, NBC News Special Report: Israel-Hamas War, to be simulcast across MSNBC, NBC News Now and CNBC from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. Et on Saturday and Sunday. The special also will stream on 11 NBC News local Fast channels and on NBCNews.com. The specials will be anchored by Tom Llamas, joined by Jose Diaz Balart on Saturday and Kate Snow on Sunday. Richard Engel, Raf Sanchez, Kelly Cobiella, Josh Lederman and Ellison Barber will report from Israel and Matt Bradley from London. Llamas also will anchor a special one hour edition of NBC Nightly News from Israel on Saturday for NBC News Now.
PBS tonight is presenting War in the Holy Land: A PBS News Special Report, co-anchored by PBS NewsHour‘s Amna Nawaz...
- 10/13/2023
- by Ted Johnson
- Deadline Film + TV
Oliver Stone said Friday he was shocked to hear that the stars of Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer had walked out of its London premiere the day before as SAG-AFTRA officially declared strike action.
“I know several producers are opening movies, like Oppenheimer. Chuck Roven, he was in London. I heard it was going to be cancelled,” said Stone, when asked for his view on the strike.
“I don’t know if it went ahead but all the actors left. That was shocking that they really meant business and cut off right away all the promotion, which is big.”
Commenting on the ongoing 11-week WGA strike, Stone suggested the roots of the current industrial action lie in the deal brokered to end the five-month writers strike in 1988.
“There was a basic miscarriage of justice way back when, when Brian Walton was the head of the WGA, when we gave in. I...
“I know several producers are opening movies, like Oppenheimer. Chuck Roven, he was in London. I heard it was going to be cancelled,” said Stone, when asked for his view on the strike.
“I don’t know if it went ahead but all the actors left. That was shocking that they really meant business and cut off right away all the promotion, which is big.”
Commenting on the ongoing 11-week WGA strike, Stone suggested the roots of the current industrial action lie in the deal brokered to end the five-month writers strike in 1988.
“There was a basic miscarriage of justice way back when, when Brian Walton was the head of the WGA, when we gave in. I...
- 7/14/2023
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- Deadline Film + TV
Jeffrey Epstein’s calendar is revealing secrets years after the billionaire’s death in a New York prison. The now head of the Central Intelligence Agency, a college president, a former Obama White House counsel, and scholar Noam Chomsky are all listed in the financier’s private date book, according to a new report from the Wall Street Journal.
The private calendar is different from other Epstein documents, such as his flight logs or his “black book,” both of which have been made public. None of the names reported by...
The private calendar is different from other Epstein documents, such as his flight logs or his “black book,” both of which have been made public. None of the names reported by...
- 4/30/2023
- by Peter Wade
- Rollingstone.com
Jerusalem — Ask Israelis what has taken hold of their country — which has been paralyzed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s “legislative blitz” and the massive protests it has triggered — and they’re more likely to reply with a sound than with an actual word. A grunt, or a long, drifting whistle. Very often, a deep sigh. A nervous titter accompanied by a shrug.
For most Israelis, there are no words to describe the consuming fear that, as former Mossad director Tamir Pardo puts it, the country is “on the verge of collapse.
For most Israelis, there are no words to describe the consuming fear that, as former Mossad director Tamir Pardo puts it, the country is “on the verge of collapse.
- 3/14/2023
- by Noga Tarnopolsky
- Rollingstone.com
Ahead of Sunday’s world premiere of documentary “1341 Frames of Love and War,” which plays in Berlinale Special, Variety spoke to the film’s writer-director Ran Tal, and Israeli war photographer Micha Bar-Am, who is the subject of the film.
In some ways “Frames” continues Tal’s interest in Israeli history evident in his previous work, “What If? Ehud Barak on War and Peace,” which centered on the former prime minister of Israel. Bar-Am was born in Berlin in 1930, but grew up in what became Israel, and across a five decade-long career as a photographer he documented many of the major episodes – in particular the wars – in the life of the young country, founded in 1948.
“I wanted to do two films: one about a player in history […] and the second one should be about the witness,” Tal says. The filmmaker got in touch with Bar-Am, who showed him his archive...
In some ways “Frames” continues Tal’s interest in Israeli history evident in his previous work, “What If? Ehud Barak on War and Peace,” which centered on the former prime minister of Israel. Bar-Am was born in Berlin in 1930, but grew up in what became Israel, and across a five decade-long career as a photographer he documented many of the major episodes – in particular the wars – in the life of the young country, founded in 1948.
“I wanted to do two films: one about a player in history […] and the second one should be about the witness,” Tal says. The filmmaker got in touch with Bar-Am, who showed him his archive...
- 2/13/2022
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
“Oslo” tells the story behind the iconic photo of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman Yasir Arafat shaking hands on the White House lawn in 1993. The new TV movie from HBO dramatizes the top-secret negotiations that led to the historic Oslo Accords, a milestone in the ever-winding road to peace in the Middle East.
The movie is an adaptation of J.T. Rogers’s Tony-winning play of the same name, which centers on the Norweigan couple who brought representatives from Israel and Palestine together for the back-channel meetings that would eventually culminate in the signing of the Oslo Accords, the first formal mutual recognition between Israel and the Plo.
As with any based-on-a-true-story flick, the subjects’ lives are much fuller than a two-hour narrative can afford to flesh out. Before you stream “Oslo,” read up on some of the real people behind the historical drama.
Getty Images...
The movie is an adaptation of J.T. Rogers’s Tony-winning play of the same name, which centers on the Norweigan couple who brought representatives from Israel and Palestine together for the back-channel meetings that would eventually culminate in the signing of the Oslo Accords, the first formal mutual recognition between Israel and the Plo.
As with any based-on-a-true-story flick, the subjects’ lives are much fuller than a two-hour narrative can afford to flesh out. Before you stream “Oslo,” read up on some of the real people behind the historical drama.
Getty Images...
- 5/26/2021
- by Alex Noble
- The Wrap
Left to right: Ehud Barak, Bill Clinton and Yasser Arafat at Camp David, in July 2000.
Photo credit: William J. Clinton Presidential Library. Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics.
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is one of the most intractable the world has seen. The Human Factor focuses on the effort to bring a resolution to that conflict through negotiations mediated by the U.S., but particularly on the human side, the human factor, in that effort. Interestingly, it is also presented from the viewpoint of the guys in the middle, the American mediators, rather than the two sides in the conflict. The result is an engrossing, surprisingly gripping documentary that makes one ache for what might have been.
The Human Factor is also a revealing documentary about the long-running effort to resolve the conflict, that offers up remarkable insights, some unexpected humorous moments, and many fascinating details about the process and the personalities involved.
Photo credit: William J. Clinton Presidential Library. Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics.
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is one of the most intractable the world has seen. The Human Factor focuses on the effort to bring a resolution to that conflict through negotiations mediated by the U.S., but particularly on the human side, the human factor, in that effort. Interestingly, it is also presented from the viewpoint of the guys in the middle, the American mediators, rather than the two sides in the conflict. The result is an engrossing, surprisingly gripping documentary that makes one ache for what might have been.
The Human Factor is also a revealing documentary about the long-running effort to resolve the conflict, that offers up remarkable insights, some unexpected humorous moments, and many fascinating details about the process and the personalities involved.
- 5/7/2021
- by Cate Marquis
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
After premiering at the 2019 Telluride Film Festival and screening at the Hamptons, Chicago, AFI Fest, and more, Dror Moreh’s insightful documentary “The Human Factor” is finally gearing up for a wide release, care of Sony Pictures Classics. Per the film’s official synopsis, it documents “the untold, behind-the-scenes story of the United States’ 30-year effort to secure peace in the Middle East, told from the perspective of the American negotiators.” Filmmaker Moreh previously helmed the 2012 Oscar nominee “The Gatekeepers,” which followed the former leaders of Israeli security agency Shin Bet.
When the film was preparing for its 2019 Doc NYC premiere, IndieWire’s own Anne Thompson wrote that it was an “intelligent examination of the peace process in the Middle East through the lens of six wily, strategically sensitive negotiators who led the diplomatic talks over 25 years with a series of U.S., Israel, and Palestine leaders.” The film boasts...
When the film was preparing for its 2019 Doc NYC premiere, IndieWire’s own Anne Thompson wrote that it was an “intelligent examination of the peace process in the Middle East through the lens of six wily, strategically sensitive negotiators who led the diplomatic talks over 25 years with a series of U.S., Israel, and Palestine leaders.” The film boasts...
- 11/11/2020
- by Kate Erbland
- Indiewire
Fugitive, the production and financing company run by Anthony Kimble and Merrily Ross, has picked up international distribution rights to four new projects from Rogo Productions, including transgender Jewish drama “Abby” and a high-profile doc series about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Fugitive has also formed an exclusive partnership with the London-based production company, run by Alex Holder, producer of feature doc “Keep Quiet,” which has played on Netflix.
The deal will also see Fugitive take international distribution rights to “Empty Planet,” a new fast-turnaround Covid-19 series, as well as “Keep Quiet.”
Drama “Abby” is based on the true story of Abby Stein, a young woman from New York, who used to be an ultra-Orthodox rabbi. Seven years ago, she was Yisroel Stein, a Jewish rabbi in Brooklyn with a young wife, a small child and and rising star on the rabbinical circuit — until he shocked his community and came out as Abby,...
Fugitive has also formed an exclusive partnership with the London-based production company, run by Alex Holder, producer of feature doc “Keep Quiet,” which has played on Netflix.
The deal will also see Fugitive take international distribution rights to “Empty Planet,” a new fast-turnaround Covid-19 series, as well as “Keep Quiet.”
Drama “Abby” is based on the true story of Abby Stein, a young woman from New York, who used to be an ultra-Orthodox rabbi. Seven years ago, she was Yisroel Stein, a Jewish rabbi in Brooklyn with a young wife, a small child and and rising star on the rabbinical circuit — until he shocked his community and came out as Abby,...
- 4/8/2020
- by Tim Dams
- Variety Film + TV
There’s a certain group of documentary-loving policy wonks who’ll be clamoring for “The Human Factor,” with its nostalgic spotlight on a time when the U.S. understood the value of international diplomacy (how quaint that now sounds!). For director Dror Moreh, making a film about the Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations was a natural follow-up to his well-received “The Gatekeepers,” in which Israeli security agents spoke of their work and Moreh exposed conflicting rationales and troubling moral relativity. His latest documentary, while potentially more sellable, is far more problematic, on multiple fronts.
First, there’s his decision to see the conflict only through the eyes of six negotiators for the Americans, several of whom admit to a latent Israeli bias. Then there’s the problematic way Yasser Arafat is presented, depicted as usual as petulant and childish, with no recognition that his insistence on being treated with respect was at...
First, there’s his decision to see the conflict only through the eyes of six negotiators for the Americans, several of whom admit to a latent Israeli bias. Then there’s the problematic way Yasser Arafat is presented, depicted as usual as petulant and childish, with no recognition that his insistence on being treated with respect was at...
- 8/31/2019
- by Jay Weissberg
- Variety Film + TV
Ehud Barak admits referring movie mogul to private investigators who reportedly helped to suppress sexual abuse allegations
The former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak has said he introduced the disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein to a Tel Aviv-based investigations firm made up of former spies reportedly hired by the producer to suppress sexual abuse allegations against him.
Weinstein allegedly hired an “army of spies” in an attempt to stop accusers from going public with sexual misconduct claims against him, according to a report in the New Yorker this week.
Continue reading...
The former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak has said he introduced the disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein to a Tel Aviv-based investigations firm made up of former spies reportedly hired by the producer to suppress sexual abuse allegations against him.
Weinstein allegedly hired an “army of spies” in an attempt to stop accusers from going public with sexual misconduct claims against him, according to a report in the New Yorker this week.
Continue reading...
- 11/8/2017
- by Peter Beaumont in Jerusalem and Gwilym Mumford
- The Guardian - Film News
Fed up with the stalled peace talks, the Palestinian leader defies Israel and vents about Obama. With unfettered access, Dan Ephron profiles Mahmoud Abbas in this week's Newsweek. Plus, Ephron's Q&A with Abbas.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is disillusioned by President Obama. He tells Newsweek's Dan Ephron that Obama, who seemed open to helping the Palestinian cause before his election, quickly cooled once he got into office-and at a crucial moment, betrayed him.
Related story on The Daily Beast: Palestinians React to Benjamin Netanyahu's Washington Speech
Things came to a head earlier this year when Obama called Abbas before a critical United Nations vote on Israeli settlements in the West Bank. For almost an hour, Abbas says, Obama tried to get the Palestinian leader to withdraw the resolution-using first carrots then sticks, threatening that Congress might not approve the hundreds of millions of dollars America gives to the Palestinians in aid.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is disillusioned by President Obama. He tells Newsweek's Dan Ephron that Obama, who seemed open to helping the Palestinian cause before his election, quickly cooled once he got into office-and at a crucial moment, betrayed him.
Related story on The Daily Beast: Palestinians React to Benjamin Netanyahu's Washington Speech
Things came to a head earlier this year when Obama called Abbas before a critical United Nations vote on Israeli settlements in the West Bank. For almost an hour, Abbas says, Obama tried to get the Palestinian leader to withdraw the resolution-using first carrots then sticks, threatening that Congress might not approve the hundreds of millions of dollars America gives to the Palestinians in aid.
- 4/25/2011
- by The Daily Beast
- The Daily Beast
The most effective counterterrorism force in the world is Israel’s Sayeret Matkal—“the Unit.” A highly secretive special-operations brigade, it has taken on mythic status with swift, surgical victories in Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, and, perhaps most famously, Entebbe, Uganda, where its commandos freed 103 Jewish hostages after a 1976 hijacking. Probing the Unit’s shadowy history, Rich Cohen reveals the leaders it has forged (including Prime Ministers Ehud Barak and Benjamin Netanyahu), the methods by which it hunted down the members of Black September, and the brutal lessons it can teach the U.S.
- 2/23/2011
- Vanity Fair
While the Middle East erupts in protests, King Abdullah II of Jordan is publishing a new memoir that Karen Elliot House says shows that his true political test is still to come.
King Abdullah of Jordan has the good-or perhaps bad-fortune to have his prosaic memoirs published just as the Middle East is engulfed in momentous changes that began in Tunis a month ago, spread to Cairo, and now reverberate in other capitals, including, in a still-small way, his own.
Related story on The Daily Beast: The Right's Democracy Hypocrisy
The Hashemite dynasty, of which Abdullah is the latest leader in a line stretching back to the Prophet Muhammad, once played leading roles in the Mideast drama, though these days King Abdullah has been reduced to a modest supporting actor. As he recounts at the opening of his book, Our Last Best Chance, his great-great-grandfather, Sherif Hussein of Mecca, launched...
King Abdullah of Jordan has the good-or perhaps bad-fortune to have his prosaic memoirs published just as the Middle East is engulfed in momentous changes that began in Tunis a month ago, spread to Cairo, and now reverberate in other capitals, including, in a still-small way, his own.
Related story on The Daily Beast: The Right's Democracy Hypocrisy
The Hashemite dynasty, of which Abdullah is the latest leader in a line stretching back to the Prophet Muhammad, once played leading roles in the Mideast drama, though these days King Abdullah has been reduced to a modest supporting actor. As he recounts at the opening of his book, Our Last Best Chance, his great-great-grandfather, Sherif Hussein of Mecca, launched...
- 2/22/2011
- by Karen Elliot House
- The Daily Beast
The whistleblower's latest document dump exposes Saudi Arabia's plot against Iran, a corrupt Afghan's $52 million payday, Putin and Berlusconi's "bromance," and more. See nine of the most startling details.
1. Yemen Takes the Fall for U.S. Drones
Related story on The Daily Beast: An American in Full
Leaked documents reveal that Yemen has been covering up for the U.S in the fight against al Qaeda by saying publicly that attacks initiated by the State Department were directed by Yemen. "We'll continue saying the bombs are ours, not yours," Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh told General David Petraeus in January 2010. The coverup, made necessary by severe distrust of the U.S. in the Middle East, prompted Yemen's prime minister to joke about how the president had "lied" to his parliament about the strikes.
2. China Hacked Google-and the Dalai Lama
The Chinese government was behind the much-publicized cyberattack on Google's computer network this year,...
1. Yemen Takes the Fall for U.S. Drones
Related story on The Daily Beast: An American in Full
Leaked documents reveal that Yemen has been covering up for the U.S in the fight against al Qaeda by saying publicly that attacks initiated by the State Department were directed by Yemen. "We'll continue saying the bombs are ours, not yours," Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh told General David Petraeus in January 2010. The coverup, made necessary by severe distrust of the U.S. in the Middle East, prompted Yemen's prime minister to joke about how the president had "lied" to his parliament about the strikes.
2. China Hacked Google-and the Dalai Lama
The Chinese government was behind the much-publicized cyberattack on Google's computer network this year,...
- 11/29/2010
- by The Daily Beast
- The Daily Beast
HBO Documentary Films
NEW YORK -- It should come as no surprise that director Oliver Stone -- who has demonstrated a willingness to tackle such issues as the assassination of JFK, the presidency of Richard Nixon and the Vietnam War -- should approach no less a topic than the Middle East morass in his new documentary. Arriving in the region in March of last year with his camera crew in tow, Stone snared a series of filmed interviews with no less than three former Israeli prime ministers, as well as a spokesman for the militant Palestinian organization Hamas and a group of masked terrorists for a group dubbed the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade. It must have been supremely galling for this filmmaker/provocateur that he was unable to land sessions with Ariel Sharon or the big kahuna, Yasser Arafat, but unfortunately, suicide bombings and military offensives got in the way.
The resulting 67-minute film, "Persona Non Grata", was shown at the Tribeca Film Festival and airs on HBO in June.
Stone's necessarily improvisational approach to his subject results in a less than cohesive, fragmentary film, featuring a style that, other than in its self-centeredness, resembles a lengthy "60 Minutes" segment. When he tried to film as a suicide bomber killed 20 Israelis in what has become known as the Passover Massacre, followed by the Israeli military retaliation in Ramallah, Stone's efforts were quickly squelched. His frustrations are depicted in rather too much detail here, as if the most important aspect of the political and social chaos in the region was its becoming an impediment to his cinematic aspirations.
Still, the interviews he did manage to assemble, with himself acting as an onscreen questioner, are quite interesting, featuring insightful comments provided by such former Israeli leaders as Shimon Peres, Benjamin Netanyahu and Ehud Barak.
The most articulate and persuasive of the three is Peres, who offers philosophical musings reflecting a thoughtful approach to the process that has been in too rare supply through the years.
On the other side of the spectrum are the hooded militants, who present matter of fact information about their methods, including the rather surprising detail that a huge cache of guns and ammo was purchased from one of Sharon's former security guards.
The presentation at Tribeca was of an unfinished version, minus end credits, projected on video with the phrase "For Promotion Only" prominently displayed on the upper left hand quarter of the screen.
NEW YORK -- It should come as no surprise that director Oliver Stone -- who has demonstrated a willingness to tackle such issues as the assassination of JFK, the presidency of Richard Nixon and the Vietnam War -- should approach no less a topic than the Middle East morass in his new documentary. Arriving in the region in March of last year with his camera crew in tow, Stone snared a series of filmed interviews with no less than three former Israeli prime ministers, as well as a spokesman for the militant Palestinian organization Hamas and a group of masked terrorists for a group dubbed the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade. It must have been supremely galling for this filmmaker/provocateur that he was unable to land sessions with Ariel Sharon or the big kahuna, Yasser Arafat, but unfortunately, suicide bombings and military offensives got in the way.
The resulting 67-minute film, "Persona Non Grata", was shown at the Tribeca Film Festival and airs on HBO in June.
Stone's necessarily improvisational approach to his subject results in a less than cohesive, fragmentary film, featuring a style that, other than in its self-centeredness, resembles a lengthy "60 Minutes" segment. When he tried to film as a suicide bomber killed 20 Israelis in what has become known as the Passover Massacre, followed by the Israeli military retaliation in Ramallah, Stone's efforts were quickly squelched. His frustrations are depicted in rather too much detail here, as if the most important aspect of the political and social chaos in the region was its becoming an impediment to his cinematic aspirations.
Still, the interviews he did manage to assemble, with himself acting as an onscreen questioner, are quite interesting, featuring insightful comments provided by such former Israeli leaders as Shimon Peres, Benjamin Netanyahu and Ehud Barak.
The most articulate and persuasive of the three is Peres, who offers philosophical musings reflecting a thoughtful approach to the process that has been in too rare supply through the years.
On the other side of the spectrum are the hooded militants, who present matter of fact information about their methods, including the rather surprising detail that a huge cache of guns and ammo was purchased from one of Sharon's former security guards.
The presentation at Tribeca was of an unfinished version, minus end credits, projected on video with the phrase "For Promotion Only" prominently displayed on the upper left hand quarter of the screen.
- 5/13/2003
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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