Framing the Truth

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Framing the Truth

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By Ben Elliott

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It’s hard to know what’s real these days.

The digital age has flooded us with misinformation, creating a culture where discussions about contentious issues, rather than fostering dialogue, often deepen our divisions. Instead of finding common ground, it’s exceedingly easy to fall down a rabbit hole of what-about-ism when faced with a conflicting point of view, moving us farther away from the truth at hand.

This tension between truth and narrative is the heart of the controversy surrounding No Other Land, a new documentary coming to The Triplex this week. The story of Palestinian activist Basel Adra and his resistance against Israeli military displacement in the West Bank, the film has drawn criticism from all sides.

No Other Land, 2024

A collaboration between Palestinian and Israeli filmmakers, No Other Land was denounced by Israel’s Culture Minister as “sabotage” while also being rejected by leaders of the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions movement who opposed Israeli involvement. When Yuval Abraham, one of the film’s Israeli directors, used an award acceptance speech to call for equality for Palestinians, he was called antisemitic. And despite winning Best Documentary at the Academy Awards, the film struggled to secure U.S. distribution and recently sparked controversy when a Florida mayor threatened to pull funding from a theater for screening it.

No Other Land, 2024

Documentary filmmaking (and journalism as a whole) uses the same storytelling techniques as its fictional counterparts: when we frame a story, it means there’s something past the edges not being seen — the author of a story is directing our attention to a specific place, leaving out some part of the larger context. That’s why it’s crucial to approach every narrative with both curiosity and discernment, recognizing that no single film can capture the full complexity of its subject.

While we need to bring critical thinking to every piece of content we encounter, we also need to listen when someone speaks their truth. Screening a film like No Other Land isn’t about endorsing a singular perspective — it’s about making space for stories that might otherwise go unheard. While No Other Land isn’t a comprehensive history of the Israel-Palestine conflict, it does offer a window into one man’s lived experience.

How — or if — we integrate his reality into our own is a choice each of us has to make.

Showtimes

Showtimes Freakier Friday | 1:00PM, 3:30PM, 6:00PM, 8:30PM The Life of Chuck | 1:15PM, 4:15PM Highest 2 Lowest | 1:45PM, 4:45PM, 8:00PM The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg | 7:00PM

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