The Israeli documentary film, “Advocate,” which follows noted human rights lawyer Lea Tsemel, who defends Palestinians in Israeli courts, won the award for the Best Documentary on Wednesday at the 42nd Annual News and Documentary Emmy Awards.
The film, directed by Rachel Leah Jones and Philippe Bellaiche and originally produced for Israel’s Hot 8, focuses on the personality of Tsemel, a human rights lawyer who represents Palestinians in Israeli courts. It was an Oscar documentary nominee in 2019. The film was also an Emmy nominee in the Outstanding Politics and Government Documentary category.
Following their win, filmmakers released a statement referencing to part of the film, in which talk show host Judy Nir-Mozes tells Tsemel, “I can’t understand you at all.” Tzsemel responds: “You should try to understand me, because…I’m the future.”
“It seems as if the future is already here,” the filmmakers said. “What’s left now is to build a future here of justice and equality for everyone.”
Other winners at the award, which was held separately from the ceremony for television series awards, included “Miles Davis, Birth of the Cool” for best arts and culture documentary, “The Story of Plastic” for best writing and “Kingdom of Silence,” about Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, for the best politics and government documentary.
Over 2,200 documentary films, which were first broadcast on television in 2020, competed for the award, and the winners were chosen by a group of 950 U.S. documentary professionals.
An American version of the film was shown as part of the Public Broadcasting Corporation’s series of leading documentaries, and reached about 200 million screens across North America.
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Before it was aired on American television, the film won a clutch of other prizes at the Sundance Festival and the Best Film award at Tel Aviv’s DocAviv festival in 2019.
The DocAviv award caused a political uproar. Following political pressure exerted by right-wing actors, Mifal Hapayis, the state-owned lottery company, said it was pulling funding for future grants given to best picture winners at the festival and refused to award the producers the prize money.
Artists in the film and television industries protested the move, saying it would silence creative voices and amounted to censorship. Three authors – Nomi Levitsky, Lea Aini and Orit Wohlfeiler – removed their names from the list of candidates for the Sapir Prize, another honor awarded by Mifal Hapayis. Scores of other writers claimed that the company had withdrawn support for the film “for improper political reasons” and promised that if they won the prize, they would share the winnings with the producers of “Advocate.”
Ultimately, Mifal Hapayis reneged on its decision to withdraw its support from the DocAviv festival.
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