In Defamation, Israeli filmmaker Yoav Shamir poses the question: "What is anti-Semitism today? To find the answer, Shamir travels around the globe questioning a cross section of the world's citizens about their behavior and attitudes towards Jews and Judaisim.
Casting himself as a player in the film -- as a sort of no nonsense, somewhat naive and very open minded reporter whose aim is to stumble upon (rather than provocatively pursue) the truth about his subject, he investigates an Anti-Defamation League (ADL) case of gang violence against Jews in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, interviews ADL critic Norman Finkelstein, accompanies Israeli school children on a field trip to Auschwitz and chats with the wide range of people he meets randomly on his fact finding mission.
Shamir's breezy personality, casual manner and deft approach in Defamation (or Hashmatsa in Hebrew) works brilliantly. It encourages people to speak quite candidly, and their comments are shocking -- horrendous, really, but sometimes quite surprisingly funny, as well. The conversation gets intensely serious, though, on the subjects of Israel, Middle Eastern politics and the influence of American foreign policy and interests.
The film and Shamir's approach are reminiscent of Bill Maher's take on religious doctrine and practice in Religulous, which undermines the efficacy of dogma by showing it to be ridiculous.
Distributed by First Run Features, Defamation opens theaters in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco on November 20. with future screening dates set for Boston, Fresno and Cleveland. The film has been nominated for Best Documentary in the 2009 European Film Awards. Meanwhile, you can watch the trailer. As you'll see, Defamation is an education!
(PHOTO: Yoav Shamir in 'Defamation.' Courtesy First Run Features.)
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