[MUSIC PLAYING]
SHANE SMITH: Now, Beirut's a huge, cosmopolitan city.
It's got casinos.
And it's got fancy swimming clubs and all the big mansions
going up into the hills.
But the camps are totally exempt from that.
Ahmad was born in Lebanon.
His dad was born in Lebanon.
But they're not considered Lebanese.
360 degrees of their life is consumed with
living in the camps.
But because he started making films and getting noticed for
making those films, he's been able to get beyond the borders
of the camp.
He got invited to go up to the mountains to a rich French
boarding school and exchange ideas and creativity with
other young, budding filmmakers.
It's like France up here.
It's nice.
It's like French.
So I guess this is some sort of humanitarian
project that they give.
Palestinians can come up to the nice French high school
and learn things.
It's nice here.
It's a lot nicer than the camp.
And you like coming up to the mountains?
AHMAD: Yeah.
I like this area and I like this place.
SHANE SMITH: Yeah.
AHMAD: We cannot be late.
SHANE SMITH: OK.
AHMAD: We have to go inside.
SHANE SMITH: During the year, this is a boarding school for
rich Lebanese families.
In the summer, there's a program for young Palestinian
filmmakers to come up, take a break from
the camps, and learn.
MALE SPEAKER: [SPEAKING LEBANESE]
[MUSIC PLAYING]
SHANE SMITH: But even here, the kids can't escape the
political situations that exist in the camps.
This film workshop turned into a political rally.
MALE SPEAKER: [SPEAKING LEBANESE]
SHANE SMITH: You know, all these kids from the camps get
a sort of pass for the summer to come up here into the rich
neighborhood.
It's really nice, it's clean, it's beautiful.
It reminds me of France.
And then you come in in the morning, and they're like, OK,
welcome to the Black Death Organization.
MALE SPEAKER: [SPEAKING LEBANESE]
[CHANTING]
SHANE SMITH: Politics are embedded into the Palestinian
mindset at the basic level.
You see it every day there.
And you especially see it in modern-day Palestinian cinema.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
SHANE SMITH: What we found at the film retreat is that even
though Palestinians are hyper-political and they do
grow up surrounded by violence, there is a group of
Palestinian grassroots filmmakers that are making
really thought-provoking films about their situation.
Can you tell us where we are right now?
SHANE SMITH: And you're the coordinator
for the whole event?
SHANE SMITH: Wow.
And you also make films.
HICHAM KAYED: [SPEAKING LEBANESE]
MALE SPEAKER: [SPEAKING LEBANESE]
FEMALE SPEAKER: [SPEAKING LEBANESE]
MALE SPEAKER: [SPEAKING LEBANESE]
SHANE SMITH: And so how did the other Palestinians get to
Berlin that you interviewed there?
SHANE SMITH: They smuggle them.
HICHAM KAYED: Yeah.
Yeah.
MALE SPEAKER: [SPEAKING LEBANESE]
[MUSIC PLAYING]
SHANE SMITH: This story is kind of weird for us to report
on for a couple of reasons.
One, because we're so close to it and it's kind of
personal for us.
And also because what it shows is that film has become woven
into our culture.
And these people with the worst conditions, with
nothing, yearn to tell their stories by making films.
And this gives us hope that our film and future won't be
dominated by vapid and vacant escapist Hollywood cartoon
franchises.
And two, that maybe Palestinian kids will see
Ahmad and his friends' example and drop their rocks and
instead pick up cameras.
[MUSIC PLAYING]