Rachel - An American Conscience

director: Simone Bitton, France 2009, 1h 30m

The late Rachel Corrie (1979 - 2003) was articulate, straightforward and resolute. Her castigation of Israel's military occupation of the Palestinian people and the Israeli Government's disregard for the safety of Israelis and Palestinians rang with clarity. Through peace activism she ascertained the facts on the ground. She called it as she saw it.

The documentary, "Rachel Corrie: An American Conscience," chronicles her humanitarian work with the International Solidarity Movement in Rafah, Gaza Strip, just prior to her murder in March 2003. While Corrie stood in front of a Palestinian home to prevent its demolition, an Israeli soldier in a Caterpillar D-9 bulldozer crushed her.

Director Yahya Barakat, a professor in the Mass Media and TV Department at Al-Quds University in Jerusalem, edited 80 hours of film footage from Gaza, the West Bank and Olympia, Washington for two years. He created a cinematic collage of international voices; people who work for peace and who support the Palestinians in their daily life activities. Through interviews, Barakat presents a collective chastisement of the military occupation, the U.S. and Israeli Governments, as well as U.S. mainstream media