Life in Palestine

A woman gathers water from a tap in the side of a building. A minaret and the surrounding buildings. Police officers stand under an umbrella in the middle of a street. A group of men wearing fezzes looks out at a view from a doorway in a high wall. 01:02:43 Adjacent signs posted on the wall read "Church of Annunciation and Saint Mary's Veil" and "Puits de la Sainte-Vierge". Two people herd sheep through a narrow street. Sign reads "The Wedding Church of Cana in Galilee," and the gated entrance bears a cross. A man poses in front of the doors of the church. A woman leads five toddler-aged children up a path. Men ride horses on a road with a desert landscape behind them.. Herd animals graze on the shore of a large body of water. A minaret towers above a busy market street. Robert Gessner was born on October 21, 1907 in Escanaba, MI. He obtained a B.A. from the University of Michigan in 1929 and a M.A. from Columbia University in 1930. He started teaching at New York University in 1930. He married Doris Lindeman on May 27, 1938 and had two children, Peter and Stephen. Mr. Gessner was a screen playwright and the author of several books, including "Massacre" (1931); "Broken Arrow" (1933); "Some of My Best Friends are Jews" (1936); "Treason" (1944); "Youth is the Time" (1945). He was a pioneer educator in motion pictures as an art form. Gessner founded the Motion Picture Department (now Cinema Studies) at NYU in 1941, the first four-year film curriculum leading to a B.A. degree in motion picture studies in the United States. He finished his book "The Moving Image, A Guide to Cinematic Literacy" before he died in June 1968.