Los Angeles (CNN) -- The first Palestinian filmmaker
nominated for an Oscar was briefly detained by U.S. officials who
questioned the validity of his Academy Awards invitation as he and his
family arrived in Los Angeles for this weekend's event, his publicist
told CNN on Wednesday.
The brief detention of
Emad Burnat, a West Bank farmer who spent five years making his "5
Broken Cameras" home video in his village of Bil'in, was quickly
criticized by fellow documentary filmmaker Michael Moore, whom Burnat
had contacted for help while being questioned at Los Angeles
International Airport.
U.S. authorities also
placed Burnat's wife and 8-year-old son, Gibreel, in a holding area at
the airport Tuesday night, Moore said on his Twitter account.
"Apparently the
Immigration & Customs officers couldn't understand how a Palestinian
could be an Oscar nominee. Emad texted me for help," Moore tweeted.
"After 1.5 hrs, they decided to release him & his family & told
him he could stay in LA for the week & go to the Oscars. Welcome to
America."
Julia Pacetti, Burnat's
publicist, told CNN that Burnat e-mailed her and Moore about how
"immigration authorities were telling him he needed to give them a
reason for his visit.
"He asked me to send his
invitation to the Oscars. But before I did, immigration authorities
released him. It was a short-lived situation," Pacetti said.
Burnat told Moore that
"It's nothing I'm not already used to" and "When u live under
occupation, with no rights, this is a daily occurrence," Moore wrote on
his Twitter account.
Burnat is the first Palestinian ever nominated for an Oscar, his film's website says.
The title "5 Broken
Cameras" refers to the damage to the filmmaker's equipment while
documenting local resistance to encroaching Israeli settlements and the
construction of an Israeli wall separating farmers from their lands and
olive groves.
Burnat was the only
cameraman in the village, sometimes recording violent events. He was
jailed and put under house arrest in 2006 "after which, his cameras were
broken," the film's website says.
The film is told from a
Palestinian perspective, though it is co-directed by Burnat's Israeli
friend Guy Davidi, a filmmaker and peace activist.
In the documentary,
Burnat captured how the ongoing conflict influenced the life of his son,
Gibreel. Burnat recorded some of his boy's first words: army, cartridge
and the Arabic word for the security fence separating Israel and the
West Bank.
"Our kids grow up like
this, in this situation. So they open their eyes and they are facing the
soldiers around the houses, in the streets. And they talk about the
army and the soldiers," Burnat told CNN's Christiane Amanpour.
In a recent interview with CNN in the West Bank, Burnat said his son has lost much of his innocence.
Speaking in Arabic,
Gibreel remarked to CNN's Sara Sidner about the nomination: "The Oscar
... half should go to us and half to the Palestinian people."
Davidi said he knew his work with Burnat would be criticized.
"The minute we decided
the film was going to be Emad as the main character," Davidi said,
"then, it was much more comfortable for me, as an Israeli, to work with
Emad, because I'm helping him shape his voice and not interfering with
my own voice."
Emad Burnat/Getty Images
