COEXISTENCE, MY ASS! follows activist-turned-comedian Noam Shuster Eliassi as she writes, lives and performs her one-woman show about racism, war, peace, and… her ass. But when one terrible day her life’s work comes undone, can she continue the fight for justice and equality for everyone between the river and the sea.
SYNOPSIS
When you hear the name “Noam Shuster,” a tall, dark, Hebrew/Arabic/English speaking funny-girl-peace-activist doesn’t come to mind. Noam is an anomaly, a mash-up of extreme identities. Her mother is a dark-haired Iranian Jew and her father the blond, blue-eyed son of Holocaust survivors. They raised her in “Oasis of Peace,” a bilingual intentional community made up of 50% Jews and 50% Palestinians in a country hellbent on “separation.”
Her parents always told her she was the "model" of what Israelis should look like, and be like. But after partaking in every peacebuilding initiative imaginable, including a gig at the UN, Noam realizes that “peace” in Israel/Palestine is more of an industry than a lived reality. Convinced that peace is a meaningless abstract notion without remedying power imbalances, she becomes a vocal critic of the “optics” of coexistence and pivots to comedy and her political satire goes viral across the Middle East.
But then, one devastating day, everything she’s worked for suddenly comes undone and even “coexistence,” seems unimaginable. Can Noam continue to stand in unequivocal solidarity with besieged Palestinians and empathize with Israeli fears, frustrations, and phantoms, while picking up the pieces of her own shattered mixed Arab-Jewish community?
COEXISTENCE, MY ASS! navigates the serious terrain of Middle East peace (or lack thereof) with a healthy dose of humor offering an entirely new perspective on the struggle for justice and equality in the most divided land in the world — one joke at a time.
Director Statement
I met Noam Shuster several years ago in the West Bank, when she was working for the UN and I was making my first film, SPEED SISTERS. I continued to follow her from afar, until she brought her comedy to the US where I got to see her perform. She’s funny! But beyond that, I’ve never encountered a person so fluid in their ability to move between groups that appear to be mutually-exclusive. Noam is what one might call: “culturally non-binary.” Noam models allyship and how we can use our privilege to fight for others. She is an Israeli Jew who moves easily among Palestinians and a rare voice able to convince an increasingly rightwing society to engage with questions of justice and equality. She represents a new way forward for intractable conflicts like the Israeli-Palestinian one, but also for any immigrant society with a settler-colonial past haunted by racism. As a brown woman of Lebanese Muslim origin who grew up in a predominantly white community in rural Canada — I relate to Noam’s experience. I have a dual insider/outsider perspective on Noam’s story, and while many great films about Palestine have been made by Israeli filmmakers, rarely does an Arab filmmaker get the chance to "own the narrative" and reverse the gaze.
Supporter Statement
In June 2021, AJE aired a 24-min short version of COEXISTENCE, MY ASS! commissioned by their flagship doc strand “Witness,” titled RECKONING WITH LAUGHTER (syndicated on The New Yorker as well) has given us an indication of what is to come.
“For the 20 minutes I was watching this movie, my personal feelings of isolation were lifted. All of the nagging doubts I have about my own politics as an American Jew, like ‘maybe I really am crazy, maybe I really am a traitor, maybe I should just retreat into privilege and ignore the political situation forever,’ were instantly silenced by this film.”
“It is just and exactly what I believe needs to be done — to open up the cracks as much as possible, and do it with compassion, honesty and creativity.” "My face is a mess of tears, such deep relief for having this story told and hearing Noam's demands and seeing her intellect and bravery shared this way."
“Thank you so much for sharing this content. I can’t tell you how beneficial it is. As a Palestinian American whose family was forced from their Jerusalem home… and helped lead the Builders of Peace initiative… it is so critical that we remove the veil from people’s eyes so they understand our plight and see why this conflict is not a “clash.” “I can hardly wait [for the long version].
ABOUT FILMMAKER(S)
Director, Producer, Cinematographer Amber Fares
An award-winning documentary filmmaker best known for her directing debut SPEED SISTERS (HotDocs, 2015). Her subsequent credits include WE ARE AYENDA (WhatsApp/Amazon) which won the Best Director at the Sundance Brand Storytelling conference. She also directed an episode of GUTSY (AppleTV, 2022), RECKONING WITH LAUGHTER (AJ Witness), was a co-director on CONVERGENCE: Courage Under Crisis (Netflix). She was a Supervising Producer on an episode of AMERICA INSIDE OUT with KATIE COURIC (National Geographic), and a Co-Producer and Cinematographer on the Peabody-winning THE JUDGE (PBS). Amber was a Sundance Momentum Fellow and Sundance Editing and Story Lab Fellow, and is based in New York.
Creative Producer Rachel Leah Jones
A critically acclaimed award-winning documentary filmmaker, Rachel is a two-time Sundance alumna best known for her films ADVOCATE (2019), which won an Emmy for Best Documentary and was shortlisted for the Oscars; GYPSY DAVY (Sundance, 2012); ASHKENAZ (2007); and 500 DUNAM ON THE MOON (Human Rights Watch, 2002). Rachel, currently based in Tel Aviv, is both American and Israeli and speaks English, Hebrew, and Arabic.
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