Yesterday we finally locked picture on my new film Eye  For An Eye. More than 11 years ago I went to Dallas for the first time, drawn by Mark Stroman’s  “manifesto” of Hate  in which he explained his motivation  for the killing of   2 people and wounding one , part of his murderous campaign  of revenge  against people from the Middle East . It was  a revenge ,he claimed, for 9/11  terror attack.

It is an amazing journey  that began with Mark’s victims and ended  up as I witnessed his execution. It was an  intensely personal  journey for me to watch hate  turned into forgiveness and  how   a victim and his attacker were coming together in the last weeks of Mark’s life.

The result is a 2 hours feature length documentary that will be released this fall. The first part of the journey is over!

State tuned!

Alka Patel.  The widow of Mark Stroman 3rd victim

AN EYE  FOR AN  EYE

A FILM BY ILAN ZIV 

A TAMOUZ MEDIA PRODUCTION

On April 5, 2002, Mark  Anthony Stroman, a 32-year-old stonecutter from Dallas, entered Texas’ death row for the murder of Vasudev Patel, an Indian immigrant and gas station owner in Mesquite, TX. Patel was Strroman’s third and final victim. In the three weeks after the September 11th terrorist attacks, Stroman also shot and killed Waqar Hasan, a Pakistani immigrant in Dallas, and partially blinded a gas station attendant from Bangladesh, in the erroneous belief that all three men were Arabs. The press labeled the murders, Texas’ first post 9/11 hate crimes. Stroman himself claimed that “blinded by rage,” he killed to avenge the United States. The prosecution convinced the jury that robbery was his true motive, (even though he hadn’t taken money from his victims), and he was sentenced to death.

Nida  Hassan, the daughter of Mark Stroman’s first victim

What drove Stroman to commit these horrendous acts? This question has haunted me and set me on a seven years journey investigating Mark’s Life, his crimes, his trial and the psychology of Hate. Through his letters, interviews conducted in jail, and his blogs I followed his life and his transformation on Death Row. Together they form the film ‘s first part : Revenge .
8 years after the shooting, an Islamic pilgrimage seeds in Rais Bhuiyan, Mark’s only surviving victim, a desire to forgive Mark and fights to spare his life. He had a “strange” idea: if he is ever to be whole, he must reenter Stroman’s life. He longed to confront Stroman and speak to him face to face about the attack that changed their lives. Mark asked for forgiveness from his victims and Bhuiyan publicly forgave him, in the name of his religion and its notion of mercy. Then two months before Mark’s execution, Rais waged a legal and public relations campaign against the State of Texas and Governor Rick Perry, to have his attacker spared from the death penalty. The legal battle continued until literally minutes from Mark’s execution.

The second part of AN EYE FOR AN EYE follows this amazing story of Forgiveness, Mark’s transformation, and Rais’s campaign to save his life. With unique access the film documents Mark ‘s last days and hours, as together with 4 other friends of Mark I witnessed his execution.

An Eye for An Eye is a a personal story and a powerful and riveting drama about Hate, Revenge and forgiveness in a world consumed by growing religious and ethnic violence.

The film will be released in the fall.

Rais  Bahuiyan, Mark’s second victim

The film and the book “True American” ( which details my work and relationship with Mark) are the sources for Katrhyn Bigelow’s ( Hurt Locker, and, Zero Dark Thirty) new film on the same story.

I am a consultant on the Feature and one of its Co Producers.

Released this fall in Canada  and  in the United States …details soon

In the early days of the system, that came to be known as Capitalism, political economists of all stripes struggled to understand the laws that govern the flow of capital – and of Capitalism’s related activities. As a result, a critical assessment and sketchy understanding of how Capitalism worked began to emerge. But in recent times, as the system, and the world, has grown a hundredfold more complex we have veered away from the pursuit of any clear, critical understanding of the phenomenon. Economic departments in most major universities in the English-speaking world have abolished courses in the history of Economic and political economy. We are left with incomprehensible mathematical models whose relevance to the real world is hotly disputed.

We were told very little about Adam Smith, David Ricardo and Thomas Malthus yet their names have been used to give legitimacy to contemporary economic activities.
To further obscure the issues, this « econo speak » has been supplemented by endless superficial news reports, pundits discussions and analysis filled with clichés and superficial information.

Our series intends to puncture this veil of opacity to go beyond the current « econo- speak » to re examine the ideas which have been used in the past 40 to reshape the world.

Is today’s economic crisis a temporary blimp on the road to progress or a symptom of a deeper crisis of the system as a whole?
Can the big ideas of the at the heart of our Economic system help us understand today’s economic crisis, or obscure it?
And more importantly – can they show us a way out?

THE SERIES 

Our series examines Capitalism’ “DNA”. Each chapter is devoted to key ideas, which have shaped the system and key thinkers who authored them.

Ours is not a history lesson but a contemporary investigation. Key ideas and concepts are being illustrated and examined strictly in their contemporary reality.

The investigation is being led by our story tellers; key thinkers and scholars who help to explore the relevance of key ideas and key thinkers in Capitalism and their relevance to the understanding of today’s reality. We have assembled an int’l list of scholars. Their interviews are being combined with filming in over 22 countries, illustrating key ideas by examining their contemporary reality.

The result is six riveting cinematic essays a comprehensive look behind today’s headlines and a sorely missed context to what seems to be an endless torrent of distressing and incomprehensible news reports and pundit discussions.

Zadig Productions (France), Megafun Productions (Canada), ARTE ( France/Germany) T.A.M.I. Media (Israel)

Producers: Bruno Nahon, Paul Cadieux and Ilan Ziv

Director : Ilan Ziv

Trailer

FROM THE PRESS:

“With the series Capitalism, Ilan Ziv created a captivating epic that helps us to understand today’s crisis and the inequalities…a series that without doubt becomes a major contribution to economic and social reflection.”

Le monde

 “The ambition is huge but Ilan Ziv, the director, succeeds to bring clarity to confusion makes complexities accessible and produces a clear narrative of a system that seems opaque to most people”

Journal du Dimanche

That  which sometimes seems dulls ,  becomes here  passionate as in a breathless investigation.”

“An editorial act  which is both powerful and rare  the series Capitalism directed by Ilan Ziv  demonstrate the power of television and its capacity  of being  means through which  the world of ideas can become an actor in public debate.”

Head of Arte editorial department.

 ” Six episodes of a masterly documentary series, which  is going to revolutionize our vision  of the economic world.”

La Vie

“Turn on your television sets, forget all the other programs and plunge into Capitalism , the documentary series.”

Nouvelle Ob

 “There are moments of television that should not be missed. This six-part series from director Ilan Ziv on the long history of capitalism – four years of work. Building on several key authors who have tried to think, from Adam Smith to David Ricardo, Karl Marx, Friedrich Hayek, John Maynard Keynes but also Karl Polanyi, each episode combines a highly educational explanations of concepts, economic history and contemporary life, to give a series of documentaries under an hour each of which it is difficult to stop watching !”

Alternatives Economiques

“First lets me help to remove any mental block you might have from watching this series. When you hear about a series on Capitalism you can suspect another neo marxist silliness or some new age rant… this is a truly captivating series that delves into history, philosophy, investigates four corners of the planet and try to stimulate the viewer with reexamination of the basic concepts that define our lives… so whether you are free tonight or not please do yourselves a favor and do not miss this series. ( he gave the series a 10 out 10 mark)

Globes ( Israel economic daily)

The series was chosen as one of the ten best programs in France in 2014

Yanis Varoufakis, Greece’ former  finance minster explains the true meaning of “bailout”