IT’S BETTER TO JUMP, a documentary film about the ancient walled city of Akka in northern Israel, inhabited by Muslims, Christians, Jews, and Baha’i, and focuses on the aspirations and concerns of the Palestinian inhabitants who call the Old City home, opens in NYC on November 22, 2013 at The Quad Cinema. The film, directed by Patrick Alexander Stewart, Gina M. Angelone, and Mouna B.Stewart, will also be featured in a number of film festivals including the Boston Palestine Film Festival on October 21st and the Other Israel Film Festival in New York on November 19.

IT’S BETTER TO JUMP is about the ancient walled city of Akka in northern Israel, inhabited by Muslims, Christians, Jews, and Baha’i.  But its history goes all the way back to rule of the Egyptian Pharaohs.  As Akka undergoes harsh economic pressures and vast social change, the present-day situation is causing Arab families to leave the places where they have grown roots for dozens of generations and shaped a rich culture for over a thousand years. This film focuses on the aspirations and concerns of the Palestinian inhabitants who call the Old City home.

Atop a forty-foot, centuries-old seawall in this ancient port city, young people dare to stand along the one-meter thick structure and risk their fate by jumping into the roiling waters below. This perilous tradition has continued for many generations and has become a rite of passage for the children of Akka. Within their current dilemma, jumping from the ancient seawall becomes not only an expression of extreme exhilaration, but also a matter of self-determination. 

 http://youtu.be/zhYiZuRSUxg