When I was 17, I came to the U.S. to study Middle Eastern history and politics at Columbia University.

Violent resistance and nonviolent resistance share one very important thing in common: They are both a form of theater seeking an audience to their cause.

At the heart of any successful film is a powerful story. And a story should be just that: a narrative with a beginning, middle, and end, powerful protagonists that audiences can identify with, and a dramatic arc that is able to capture and hold viewers' intellectual and emotional attention.

Violence and nonviolence are, after all, two different forms of theater. They both depend and thrive on the response of an audience.

Nothing scares the army more than nonviolent opposition.

If we don't pay attention to [nonviolent protests], they are invisible, and it's as if they never happened. But I have seen first hand that if we do, they will multiply.

Where is the Palestinian Gandhi?