Docaviv Film Festival will open with the documentary "Time Machine" about the band • Director Gadi Eisen says that he originally intended to make a film about a comeback, but as time went on it became a documentary journey following the band
Rockfor Band
Photo:
Eric Sultan
On Thursday, September 3, the Docaviv Documentary Film Festival will open, which will be held mostly online. The opening film of the festival, which will run until September 12, is the film "Rockfor: The Time Machine," which follows one of the finest bands known to our districts, and tells its story for the first time and in chronological order.
The film begins with the band members' dreams of great success in Holon in 1988, through the breakthrough in Israel in the 1990s, the attempt to conquer America at the beginning of the millennium, the rift between the band members and lead singer Eli Lulai until the 2014 reconciliation and union To this day. Not an easy task, when it comes to a bunch of sensitive musicians who don't really like to be photographed.
It is difficult to say that the docu-music genre is one of the most developed in the country. Despite the meteoric progress of local cinema in recent decades, it is precisely when it comes to documenting the story of musicians and bands that we are left behind. And it's a shame, because the Israeli music industry knew a variety of battle legacies and legends that are just waiting for a work that will tell them properly, frame them in a way that will introduce them to a new audience, provide a rare glimpse into veteran fans, and possibly close a circle in their lives. Such is exactly the film about Roquefort directed by Gadi Eisen, which will also be screened on September 16 on the Yes Docu channel.
"I grew up with drummer Isser Tennenbaum and I've been a fan of Roquefort since the band was formed," says Eisen. "When I heard that a reunion show was planned, I said to him, 'Listen, we have to film this,' and he said they did not like it. I just niggled until he asked the other members of the band. They did not know me, it was a burden for them. Suddenly a photographer came. "To the rehearsal room. At first I was really a fly on the wall, not even drinking coffee with them. The vision was that I would come for a year, documenting only the rehearsal of Eli and the union."
The year turned into six years, with Eisen slowly gaining the trust of the band members, particularly complex souls. "I was apparently another member of the band," he says. "I arrived as a stranger, and over time it was already clear that I was coming with them. Always in the van or in the food they kept a place for me. They themselves would laugh about it. When asked who the photographer was with them, they would reply: 'Make a movie about us, but maybe in a few more Years' ".
The initial idea was a film about a comeback called "Dust Particles" (as the name of their first union song), but gradually the film became a kind of career-wide documentary, including many footage from a hidden film shot by Amikam Schosberger at the time. "B, the ones who finally changed the face of the band.
" I remember sitting with Nurit Geva, the editor, and she said to me, 'You have a time machine here. People who go back and forth. ' We see them at age, 22, 25 and at age 50 it is rare. The film begins with a sentence that says 'Looking back you will see everything'. You can learn a lot about your future by looking at the past. "