Live From Bethlehem

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SYNOPSIS

Palestinian media has always been media of war. Journalists are forced to propagandize an agenda or ideology—usually containing hate against Israel and the West. When we founded Ma’an in 2002, we wanted to give the Palestinian people an alternative to hate.

- Ma’an News Agency’s founder, Raed Othman

Out of the ashes of the second Intifada the Ma’an News Agency came into existence as the only independent news network in the Palestinian Territories. Live from Bethlehem is a feature documentary and online video source that tells the story of how journalists from the Ma’an Network have declared independence from hate-filled propaganda and are revolutionizing media in the Palestinian Territories.

•	This film is aimed at a Western television audience with a goal of humanizing the Palestinians
•	The mission of this project is to create a layered, meaningful portrait of the Palestinian people
•	This project counters longstanding stereotypes of Palestinians as either terrorists or suffering masses

Live From Bethlehem chronicles the struggles, failures and triumphs of the Ma'an News Network, the only major independent news source in the Palestinian Territories. Following the lives of the station's reporters, producers and photographers, this documentary provides an in-depth, balanced look into the challenges of making news in one of the world's most combative regions. A highly observational film, Live From Bethlehem focuses more on people than politics while still engaging with questions of gender equality and freedom of expression in the evolving Palestinian mediascape.