Jimmy Carter: "Coming to a theater near you"

The controversy over Jimmy Carter's book on the

Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Palestine: Peace Not
Apartheid, is set to be reignited by an upcoming
screening of a documentary centered on his book tour.

The film, directed by Jonathan Demme, has been picked
up by Sony Pictures Classic for distribution in North
America by Participant Productions, the
socially-conscious company that backed Al Gore's
Oscar-winning documentary An Inconvenient Truth.
According to Variety, the documentary will premiere at
the Venice International Film Festival later this
month and has been titled Jimmy Carter: Man From
Plains. It is also rumored to be among the films to be
screened at the Toronto Film Festival next month.

In the documentary, Demme follows the ex-president as
he promotes his Simon and Schuster publication, which
sparked intense criticism from the Jewish world and those that support Zionist Israel. TheADL took a particularly strong position during the
debate, with director Abraham Foxman accusing Carter of "engaging in anti-Semitism."

Carter, who was generally dogged by protests on his
tour, shows how in the book that "Israel's continued
control and colonization of Palestinian lands have been
the primary obstacles to a comprehensive peace
agreement in the Middle East." With the term
"Apartheid" in the title a word not often used with Zionist controlled Media
in North America kept Carter in theheadlines for weeks.
It also kept his book on the New York Times bestseller list.

Carter's book has been defended and "in the real
world…response has been overwhelmingly positive."

In early December 2006, Brandeis University invited
Carter to visit the university to debate his book with
Harvard University legal scholar Alan Dershowitz. He
refused, saying,"I don't want to have a conversation
even indirectly with Dershowitz. There is no need to
for me to debate somebody who, in my opinion, knows
nothing about the situation in Palestine."

Carter did eventually speak at Brandeis in a session
closed to the public. Dershowitz was prohibited from
attending, but took the stage for rebuttal afterwards.
While the University granted camera access to members
of the news media for their broadcasts, it refused
Demme's request to film Carter's January 2007 speech
for the end of the film, citing logistical and legal
considerations.

Demme, an Oscar-winning filmmaker, produced and
directed the film for his own company, Clinica
Estetico. According to The Boston Globe, Demme has
been filming Carter for three months to chart Carter's
"efforts to increase debate on the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict."

Demme's documentary credits include Neil Young: Heart
of Gold and the Talking Heads concert movie Stop
Making Sense. He won an Academy Award for directing
The Silence of the Lambs.

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