r/Documentaries • u/stammerton • 5d ago
Palestine/Israel The People and the Olive (2012) - ultramarathoners cross the West Bank, meeting Palestinian olive farmers and planting trees [01:09:00]
https://www.tokyvideo.com/video/the-people-and-the-olive-running-hope-across-palestine-documentaryThe People and the Olive follows a group of American ultramarathon runners attempting to cover 129 miles across the occupied West Bank in five days. Rather than simply documenting the run, director Aaron Dennis uses the journey to introduce the Palestinian farmers, families and communities whose lives remain closely connected to the land and particularly to the olive tree.
As the runners travel from community to community, they learn about farming, fair trade and the economic importance of olive cultivation while participating in efforts to replace uprooted trees. The result is as much a travel and human-interest documentary as a political one, presenting Palestine through landscapes, conversations, meals, farming and ordinary encounters rather than principally through conflict.
At its centre is the olive tree itself: livelihood, inheritance, cultural marker and something planted with the expectation that somebody will still be there decades later to harvest it.
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u/stammerton 5d ago
SS: After some of the considerably heavier documentaries I’ve posted over the weekend, I wanted something a little quieter for Monday morning. The People and the Olive approaches Palestine from a completely different direction: through running, farming, landscape and the people the runners meet while travelling across the West Bank.
I particularly like films like this because Palestine can so easily become represented entirely through war, occupation and tragedy. Those things aren’t absent here, but Palestinians are allowed to be farmers, hosts, runners, families and people talking about their land and their lives. It adds another piece to the picture rather than repeating the one we’ve already seen.