Skip to Content
Zero Degrees of Separation cover image

Zero Degrees of Separation 2005

Recommended

Distributed by National Film Board of Canada, 1123 Broadway, Suite 307, New York, NY 10010; 800-542-2164
Produced by Graphic Pictures, Inc and the National Film Board of Canada
Directed by Elle Flanders
DVD, color, 89 min.



Sr. High - Adult
Gay and Lesbian Studies, Middle Eastern Studies

Date Entered: 10/27/2006

Reviewed by Gerald Notaro, University Librarian, Nelson Poynter Memorial Library, University of South Florida, St. Petersburg

It was recently written that as political causes go, Palestine is the new Cuba. Interestingly, a recent crop of Middle Eastern GLBT themed documentaries has been showing at international film festivals. The comparison between Cuba and Palestine is appropriate; though the one form of oppression comes from various religious traditions, while the other, the supposed lack of any. With Zero Degrees of Separation, filmmaker Elle Flanders visits Israel and its occupied territories, places where her grandparents came as immigrants themselves to settle a new Israel. Those interviewed in the film attest to the discrimination to not only displaced Arabs, but also non European Jews. Flanders focuses on two same-sex, present day couples whose struggles are as much about their partners' ethnic birth right as their sexual orientation.

The complaints of the Arab citizens are eerily similar to the Blacks and Southern whites involved in the Civil Rights struggle in the United States. When describing the wall being built to keep the "terrorists" out of Israel, images of the Mexican American border situation immediately come to mind. Interspersed with the interviews and scenes of modern day Israel is archive footage of the early years and the founding of the State of Israel. Ironic does not come close to describing the effect. The documentary soundtrack is seldom as arresting and engaging as it is here, especially the solo piano. Flanders has said in interviews that her viewpoint is biased. Sometimes great filmmaking, especially documentary filmmaking, can come from such passion. Though not great, Zero Degrees of Separation is illuminating, offering a valid point of view, and has an earned and deserved place in public and academic library collections.