User:Rolandomt199/Joel Soler

Joel Soler is a French documentary filmmaker.

The themes of his films related to terrorism and dictatorial regimes have landed him a detention in Al Qaeda (southern Yemen) and 50-day incarceration in Maltepe, Turkey. During part of his 14-year residence in the United States, he was placed under FBI protection. Together with Nobel Peace Prize winners Jody Williams and Wangari Maathai, as well as Queen Noor of Jordan, he initiated the Cinema Vérité film festival. He chairs the Magos Foundation, which promotes dialogue between cultures and religions.

Biography
Joel Soler was born in southern France to a mother who wanted to be a nun and a father who was a seminarian. His family emigrated from Andalusia to Oran, in French Algeria, in the 19th century. Joel Soler is the grandson of Captain Manuel Gibaja of Almeria. The Gibaja family ruled over Almeria for over two centuries as well as the Lords of Taha de Marchena. The Gibaja family of Almeria united through successive marriages with several descendants of King Yusuf IV of Granada.

Early career
He began his career in the audiovisual industry as a columnist on Paris Première, then as a journalist for the Mag5 show on La Cinquième. After moving to the United States, he directed several projects in Los Angeles for French programs. In 1997, he organized the 40th anniversary of the Declaration of Women's Rights at the United Nations in New York with the support of Nane Koffi Annan and the activist Bianca Jagger. During the war in Yugoslavia, he organized and accompanied a humanitarian convoy to Bosnian refugee camps. In 2000, he was the executive producer of Le Manège, an opera/musical financed by Pierre Cardin at the Ivar Theater in Los Angeles. That same year, he directed his first documentary in Iraq.

First film Uncle Saddam
In 2000, Joel Soler shot a film about Saddam Hussein in Iraq. Less than two months after his stay in Baghdad, he was transferred to a hospital in Baghdad for a series of blood tests. He was released and immediately escorted back to the border thanks to diplomatic intervention. The U.S. Department of State issued an official statement before the release of Uncle Saddam. "It takes courageous documentary film producers like Joel Soler to tell any story other than the one that Saddam Hussein's regime wants you to tell.” A presentation of Uncle Saddam was also held at the British Parliament.

The film was released in 2001 in Los Angeles (Laemmle Theatre) to qualify for the Oscars. Part of the film was first broadcast on ABC Primetime. The film achieved the highest ratings for HBO/Cinemax for nonfiction in 2002 and was broadcast in over 80 countries. After the film's release, Joel Soler received several death threats posted on the Internet and also sent directly to his home in Los Angeles, where a kerosene bomb had been placed. He was subsequently granted protection by the FBI.

Bin Laden, Dynasty of terror
In 2002, he set out to meet Bin Laden's relatives shortly after September 11, 2001. During his visit to Osama bin Laden's father-in-law's village, he was arrested and detained in the village of Al Qaeda in southern Yemen, only to be deported by the military a few days later. A few months later, while still filming, he was ambushed on the outskirts of Beirut. The Lebanese Minister of Information had the culprits arrested.

Since he was based in the United States when he made his first films and worked on so-called "sensitive" topics whose content could directly jeopardize American interests, his entries on American territory, including interviews with members of Osama bin Laden's family, calling for jihad, had to undergo special scrutiny by the CIA.

Uncle Hitler
Joel Soler made a documentary about Adolf Hitler's actual family and their claims. He arranged with Hitler's grandnephew, whose real name is Alex-Adolf Hitler (who lives under a different name in the United States), for DNA tests to verify the paternity of an alleged illegitimate son of Hitler. The tests were negative. Joel Soler was received by Hitler's cousins in Spital (Austria), the birthplace of Hitler's mother, as well as by the Führer's ex-butler, and then by the director of the Third Reich, Leni Riefenstahl, as well as by Rochus Misch, the last surviving member of Hitler's entourage in the bunker. At the Berghof, he filmed the only survivor of Eva Braun's family, who returned to the residence where she had lived with the Führer.

Despot Housewives, an 8-season series
The Despot Housewives documentary series presents different families of dictators' wives and the types of regimes they embody. Souha Arafat, Yasser Arafat's widow, is the recurring character who appears in most episodes as a major witness. Due to the first season's success with 5 episodes produced by the Canal + group and France Television, the second season of 3 episodes was scheduled in September 2017.

Joel Soler is received by Imelda Marcos, qualified by Newsweek magazine as the most greedy woman in history. Then he meets Pol Pot's brother and travels to the former Khmer Rouge regions still ravaged by landmines. The former advisor of the Khmer Rouge leader, the new husband of Pol Pot's widow, offers him protection and agrees to participate in the series.

He also meets Amin Dada's widow in Uganda, the wives of Bongo, first ladies of Gabon, Marie-Reine Hassen, former Mrs. Bokassa, candidate for the next presidential election in the Central African Republic, Senator Jewel Taylor of Liberia, former first lady of the child soldier and blood diamond regime, former First Lady of Albania Nexhmije Hoxha, nicknamed the Black Spider, former First Lady of Rwanda Agathe Habyarimana, nicknamed Lady Genocide, Khaleda Zia, former First Lady of Bangladesh who became Prime Minister for 10 years and was then sentenced to prison for corruption. In Chile, Joel Soler met Lucia Pinochet, the widow of General Pinochet, and the former son-in-law of the Pinochets, Roberto Thiemes, former leader of the fascist party "Patria y libertad," as well as the family of Margot Honecker from East Germany. In Madrid, he was received in the Franco family's mansion. Isabel Perón, former First Lady of Argentina, who became the first female president in modern history (under an international arrest warrant), agreed to make a statement for the first time since the 1980s. Borislav Milosevic, the brother of Slobodan Milošević participates in an episode, as does the family of Simone Gbagbo. A few weeks after the end of the civil war that affected the Ivory Coast, Joel Soler was able to cross the roadblocks of the various militias to get to the residence, under surveillance, of Simone Gbagbo.

Hostage of the Turkish regime
Joel Soler went to Turkey in September 2020 for location scouting on the story of the Magi. During his trip, he bought a carved stone at a market for €50. At the airport, he presented the stone to the customs service, which gave him permission to leave the country with the object after checking with the Istanbul Archaeology Museum. As the plane was about to take off, Joel Soler was taken off the plane by the Turkish police and questioned not only about his films about dictatorships but also about the reasons for his stay in Turkey. All of his media material was seized and duplicated: his computer contained a short script written for the "Despot Housewives" series summarizing the life of President Erdogan's wife, entitled "The Sultana Pinochette." In violation of international conventions, the filmmaker was immediately incarcerated for 50 days in the Maltepe prison, which has a bad reputation, under the false pretext of "illegal export of protected property" in reference to the stone for which he had obtained a permit to leave the territory. He was then placed on parole for several months, with a fine and a ban on leaving Turkish territory pending his trial.

During this forced stay, amidst a diplomatic crisis over the new publication of cartoons of Prophet Mohammed by Charlie Hebdo, Joel Soler becomes fascinated with Saint Sophia, which he can visit daily, and takes the opportunity to meet the Syriacs (Christians of the East) so badly treated by the current regime. He becomes aware of the extent of what should be called a cultural genocide perpetrated against the Christian heritage of the country.

During Joel Soler's trial, he was once again summoned to explain to the judges the content of his next film. His lawyer denounced the violations of human rights of which he was a victim and was able to prove that the stone in question was of Armenian origin, antinomic to a property protected by the Turkish state. When he was released, his fine was reimbursed, a de facto recognition of a groundless indictment. His period of detention in Turkish jails and subsequent conditional release in Turkey undoubtedly acted as a catalyst for the creation of the Magos Foundation to foster respect for cultures and dialogue between religions.

Magos Fundation
The Magos Foundation was created to share and transmit the works of its collection to present and future generations. It is the custodian of the largest collection in the world dedicated to the most celebrated Kings in the history of mankind: the Biblical Magi. This collection will serve as a support for the international traveling exhibition "TREASURES OF THE MAGI," whose objective is to carry the symbolic message transmitted by these Wise Men. Their message, coming from the mists of time, continues to illuminate the present and represents a compass for the future: a nourished and fruitful dialogue between cultures and religions, a guarantee of a sincere bridge between the East and the West. A secondary collection has also been launched to prepare cultural and educational programs on other Eastern kings, such as kings of the Muslim Nasrid dynasty of Granada and their support of the "Convivencia." A fundraising campaign was also launched to support, through the MAGOS PRIZE, entrepreneurs in the dialogue between cultures and religions.

Filmography

 * 2000 : Uncle Saddam
 * 2004 : Bin Laden, Dynasty of terror
 * 2009 : Uncle Hitler
 * 2015, 2017 : Despot Housewives, 2 seasons, 8 episodes.