A still from the film "Occupation 101".

Abdallah and Sufyan Omeish, the brothers who directed "Occupation 101", never attended film school. Abdallah earned his degree in international affairs and Sufyan studied management information systems. However, after traveling to Palestine in December 2000 and observing the Israeli occupation, they resolved to chronicle it. The result is an exceptionally moving documentary.

"In the beginning, making a film was intimidating but after awhile it became instinctual," said Sufyan Omeish in a recent interview. "Holding a camera, interviewing people, researching, editing; we did it all for the first time. Despite the ups and downs, we knew we had to finish it. People in Palestine shared a piece of their soul with us and we had to bring that back to America," he added.

In the tradition of documentaries like Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 911" and "Bowling for Columbine" and Noam Chomsky's "Manufacturing Consent", "Occupation 101" uses a mix of emotional images, hard evidence and personal interviews.

The film opens with powerful videos of the Palestinian intifada juxtaposed side-by-side with images of other resistance movements in Ireland, India, South Africa, Algeria and the United States. These images, accompanied by searing music, place the Palestinian issue in the same context as the anti-apartheid movement and the struggle for civil rights in America.

Through a series of vignettes, we experience the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. We see the world through the eyes of a Palestinian mother whose home has been demolished three times, and whose child attempted suicide as a result. We are enchanted with a precocious, articulate Gaza youngster "who cannot be more than 5 years old" who lectures the camera on how the occupation has disrupted her life and ruined her toys. And we sympathize with an elderly man whose olive trees have been uprooted.

A still from the film "Occupation 101".

These vignettes are supplemented by interviews with prominent Americans and Israelis like former Israeli Ambassador Ed Walker, former US Congressman Paul Findley, executive director of Rabbis for Human Rights Arik Ascherman and Israeli journalist Amira Hass.

The words and images are woven together skillfully, leading to one chilling conclusion: the daily lives of ordinary Palestinians are arbitrarily and brutally ruled by a foreign military that views Christian and Muslim Palestinians as inferior to Jewish Israelis. The oppression and lack of equal rights come across as an anachronism in the post-colonial world.

The Omeish brothers do not stop there. Using compelling graphical animation, they illustrate the staggering magnitude of American financial, military and diplomatic support for Israel and its occupation.

Sufyan Omeish quit a secure corporate job in New York to join his brother in making "Occupation 101". For four years, they worked on the film, pausing each time they ran out of funding to perform side jobs to pay the rent. "It was stressful," says Omeish. "We started living month-to-month. Yet when we looked at the footage we knew what we were going through was nowhere near what the Palestinians were going through. That gave us the inspiration to continue."

"Occupation 101" has won several awards and has been shown to packed audiences at various film festivals, including the San Francisco Arab Film Festival, the Harlem International Film Festival and the Boston International Film Festival.

"Occupation 101" is now available on DVD and can be purchased at the film's website.