When I was 17, I came to the U.S. to study Middle Eastern history and politics at Columbia University.

Where is the Palestinian Gandhi?

Violence and nonviolence are, after all, two different forms of theater. They both depend and thrive on the response of an audience.

For any filmmaker who has just released a film and who is experiencing some measure of success, the temptation can be great to respond to every screening request that comes in.

Violent resistance and nonviolent resistance share one very important thing in common: They are both a form of theater seeking an audience to their cause.

Nothing scares the army more than nonviolent opposition.

At the heart of any successful film is a powerful story. And a story should be just that: a narrative with a beginning, middle, and end, powerful protagonists that audiences can identify with, and a dramatic arc that is able to capture and hold viewers' intellectual and emotional attention.