It´s not a gun

Summary

Ramzi Aburedwan is Palestinian. In 1998, he comes to France to study music. Four years later, he sets up the Association Al Kamandjati (the violinist). His target is to create schools of music for the children of his country.
Since 2003, every summer, Ramzi invites musicians from different countries to come to the Palestinian territories. More than thirty people followed one another to give concerts and animate stands of music for the youngest.
From their first coming in the streets of Ramallah in 2003 to the first school inauguration in 2005, those young musicians are confronted to the complex reality of a region."It´s not a gun " tells in music, the ups and downs of those young people and makes them wonder about their utopias.

Intentions of direction

It's not a gun explores two different fields : musicians discovering a torn apart country and children daily suffering from this situation. The film presents portraits of young ones who want to make things evolve. Young people who react differently in front of unpredictable and difficult events. The directors stay immersed in the musicians' universe questioning the nature and the strength of their actions. The close friendship they built with them, by following the project step by step, allow them to understand their feelings.
But the film is not only set on this immersion sincePierre-Nicolas Durant et Hélèna Cotinier go and meet the children concerned by those young militants' project. To clarify how to make the project it is necessary to let those young Palestinians talk. While discussing with them and their family, by observing their daily life, their drawings, they understand their state of mind so they can express the dimension of such an action as well as its weaknesses.
It doesn't have to oppose the musicians' universe to the children's but to consider one beside the other.

It´s not a gun gives a wide place to music, far away from the usual images we have of this part of the world. The association wants to substitute the violence to the music. The film offers images of life instead of images of violence. The conflict has consequences on the children and on the association: the conflict is not the subject of the film but its frame. The music, oriental and classical, is part of the musicians' journey. It follows the sinuous and unpredictable roads of this torn apart country.

The production of this documentary is leaded by two basic demands:

- The first one consists in the will to tell the story of young militants by emphasizing the various questions risen up by their action. The question is not to promote the actions of their association but to state the events that occurred since its beginning.
- The second one consists in speaking about the Israeli Palestinian conflict in a moderate way. Although it's not the topic of the film, it is obvious the conflict is in every scene of life, in each landscape. The Middle-East situation is so complicated that the film avoids any manicheism. It is its consequences we can see but not the radical judgement on ones' or others' responsibilities.

The narration

The documentary is made out of three distinct parts.

August 2003
The association Al Kamandjati makes its first steps in Palestine. Ten French musicians are joining the Association. They discover an amazing country, wonderful landscapes and military barricades everywhere. Then, no one knows how the children are going to react.
From the first music works to the first concerts, their smiles are indispensable. Enthusiasm is overjoyed. Activities are increasing in the West Bank and in the Gaza Strip.
And then, facing the constant violence of the situation and the difficulties of Palestinians, the doubts of the musicians rise up...
What is the use of music in a country at war? What can music change in a country at war? Is the learning of an instrument possible when blood flows?

July 2004
This time, 20 musicians from different nationalities are part of the adventure. The project is getting more and more important. The association gets used to the Palestinian society. The musicians, more numerous, go on animating music stands and organizing concerts through the Palestinian territories. The project of building a school in Ramallah is getting concrete. The association develops links with the Palestinian Authorities.

Nevertheless, besides the children's enthusiasm, some obstacles discourage. The Israeli army makes the access of some cities difficult. Thus, some children can not get the musical activities.

The separating wall continues along its inexorable advance, emphasizing the derisory aspect of the project of the association. And then the Palestinian society, in the most remote and the most religious areas, seems sometimes incompatible with music.
On one side there is a project animated by an utopia of a pacific future, on the other side there are children punctually delighted but really difficult to reach, whose environment of violence stays the same afterwards. Among them, one named Oday, a child met in the street in august 2003. He sings. His voice is impressive. We think about taking him to France to give a concert.

August 2005
The general situation is not getting better, but Al Kamandjati goes on with its own activities. Oday, the young Palestinian boy, becomes the symbol of the association.
The first school of music opens in Ramallah. The teaching is free. The utopias can sometimes reach concrete results.

The Authors-Directors

Pierre-Nicolas Durant et Hélèna Cotinier met in Angers while studying their audiovisual studies. Both passionately fond of cinema, they rapidly chose the documentary, a propitious genre for expression and discovery. In 2002, they go to Paris in order to go on with their studies.
Their collaboration comes from a will to produce a creation documentary about young militants, whatever the cause they are defending. The aim target was to question the associations in their commitments and their connections with utopias.
Then they met Karim Rissouli, Vice president of the association Al Kamandjati. They decide to make a film about this initiative and about the concrete actions it generated.
Therefore, the shooting is in Palestine.

After they spent one month, august 2003, it seems necessary to them to work durably. The association aims at bringing music to Palestinian children; the project is so ambitious that it must be dealt with on a long-term. The producers decide to follow this association until it opens the first school of music.