Q&A with the director of "Rachel" | "You can still see her face ... "

On March 16, 2003, at the southern tip of the Gaza Strip, Rachel Corrie, an Olympia native and Evergreen State College student, was crushed by a bulldozer. Corrie, 23, had been protesting the razing of Palestinian homes when she fatally crossed paths with the Israeli Defense Forces' Caterpillar D9.

In the film documentary "Rachel," director Simone Bitton rigorously investigates the circumstances that led to Corrie's death. The film is currently playing at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York City, making its U.S. premiere.

We spoke on the phone with Bitton, who lives in Paris and is an Israeli citizen.

Q: When did you decide to make the film?

A: About three or four years ago. I was in Palestine when she was killed and I remember seeing it on the news. It was quite something because it was the first time that a foreign peace activist was killed.

Q: The IDF has taken a lot of heat over this incident, internationally. What convinced officials there to speak to you on camera?

A: They didn't want to talk. They wouldn't let me meet the soldiers who were directly implicated in the incident — the army protects them very well. But I'm very stubborn and when the door is closed, I come through the window. So in the end I think just to get rid of me, they accepted that Major Avital Leibovitch would give me an interview.

Q: Do you feel you now have a better sense of what happened, something closer to the truth?

A: I don't think [the bulldozer operator] killed her intentionally, if that's your question. Nothing can prove that, and I really don't think he did. What I do think is that in this situation, continuing to destroy houses while there are civilian activists in front of you, somebody was going to be killed. The fact that the orders were to continue no matter what, it was like saying, "If somebody is killed, somebody is killed." Nobody cares.

Q: What have Rachel's parents said about the film?

A: I think they are satisfied with what I did. They helped me with contacts. They never intervened in anything. They never saw one image until they came to Paris to see the film. They are very noble people.

Q: Did you spend much time talking to Rachel's friends in Olympia?

A: The film is not about the life of Rachel Corrie, it's about her death. So I don't have to know what kind of person she was, who she was when she was a child, what did she want to do when she grew up. It's not a biopic; it's about her death.

Q: The images of Rachel's dead body were very powerful. Did you always plan on including them?

A: Yes. We are talking about the death of a young person. This is how it looks, so it's not obscene. And I think that Rachel would have allowed me to use her image. She wanted to be there to protect with her body, and it is this body that we are talking about.

Q: The film shows posters of Rachel all around Gaza. What is it like when you go there now?

A: You can still see her face in the posters. It's very moving, because the posters are very old and there [has been] rain on them and sun and bombing, but still you can get her face here and there.

Q: Do people know her name in Gaza?

A: Maybe they don't remember the name, but if you say, 'Do you remember that there was an American who was killed in Rafah,' they say 'Yes, she was killed for us.' For them, America [represents] the planes who bombed them, the bulldozers who destroyed their houses. It's the No. 1 ally of Israel who occupied them and oppressed them. So the fact that a young American was killed while defending a Palestinian family, it's very strong for them.

I realize that in doing this, Rachel made good to America. It was not her intention — her intention was to make good to the Palestinians. But by the very fact that she existed, the Palestinians have a less-monolithic idea of America.