"The challenge of a documentary maker is to hunt for fragments of life, freeze them in film and give them eternal life that will reflect to viewers their own lives. Observing the reality of the other can bring about a change of consciousness and thought, and consequently create a new reality."
These were my opening words in a documentary film course in which I taught 15 ultra-Orthodox women two years ago, in the ultra-Orthodox branch of the Ma'aleh National Religious Film School in Jerusalem.
The branch, which opened seven years ago, is a kind of test spacecraft in the world of Israeli cinema.
It brings a new, promising and challenging new color to the Jerusalem street.
The students, aged 50-18, come from all over the country and from the various streams in the ultra-Orthodox community.
Twice a week they gather in a small building called the "Beit Midrash", adjacent to the main building of the school and with a separate entrance, and bring with them to school a glimmer of creative defiance alongside severe halakhic strictness.
Rebecca Partig (25), was one of my students.
Curious, talented and opinionated.
One that checks boundaries.
As a design graduate with a meticulous visual world, she feared the unaesthetic language that characterizes many of the documentaries.
Two semesters later, watching dozens of movies from around the world and endless conversations between us, changed her mind.
At the end of that year, she directed a documentary with an extraordinary visual language called "The Space to You," which tells the story of three ultra-Orthodox artists who face the desire to create alongside halakhic questions.
On the eve of the first closure, Rivka's film was received at the "Opus" festival for cultural and art films in Tel Aviv.
This could have been a small piece of information in the culture section, if it had not been for Rivka, an ultra-Orthodox young woman from Beit Shemesh, who chose for herself the editor of a Muslim woman, 25-year-old from the Sharafat neighborhood of Jerusalem.
The student film was the beginning of a brave friendship, which led to an honest and groundbreaking work.
The two later joined Julia Mann, 25, a secular, Tel Aviv-born Tel Aviv-based artist, and together the three began working on another documentary, in which they placed a camera in central Jerusalem and asked passers-by one not-so-simple question: "What about? Have you changed your mind recently? "
They managed to shoot for three days before the corona burst into our lives, and the world of culture came to a standstill.
• • •
February 2020. I arrive in Jerusalem on a rainy and stormy day.
Three young women, two in jeans and one in a long skirt, are determined to hold the day of filming for their documentary.
They reach the plaza in front of the Jaffa Gate and set up an improvised location: two cameras, a chair to which a wireless microphone is attached, and large signs that read in Hebrew, English and Arabic: "Tell us, what have you changed your mind about in recent years?"
Rebecca stands behind Camera No. 1 that stands on the tripod, Juman stands behind Camera No. 2 that is attached to the tripod - a tripod that allows camera movements, and Julia holds the "boom" pole and wears headphones.
A passerby approaches the makeshift photo set, grabs a plastic glass with a beer.
Rebecca offers to interview him.
He places the glass of beer on the sidewalk and sits down on the interviewees' chair.
"I recently realized something," he shares, "that we cry over anything that fails, and I changed my mind - success does not matter. I have a child who was in the hospital for eight months, connected to a respirator. I myself underwent back surgery, divorce. And I realized, "Everything happens so we can start paying attention to the little things in life. That's what matters."
A guy wearing a casket also stops by the sign and reads the question.
Juman approaches him, he asks her in Hebrew what they are doing.
"Arabik?", Juman, a doubtful questioner, offers, and they move on to conversing in Arabic.
He sits down on the interviewee's chair.
Juman interviews him in Arabic.
At the end, she translates: "He is a doctor. He teaches at a Palestinian university. He thought there would be peace with the help of America, but he changed his mind. Now there will be no peace."
• • •
The connection between them was born by chance.
Rebecca, a native of the United States, immigrated to Israel with her parents when she was six months old, and has lived in Beit Shemesh since the age of four.
"I started filming my brothers on video, and it became my first film. Each video was about four minutes, one take, unedited. I allowed myself to exercise my imagination," she recalls with a smile.
"At 12, I flew with my mom and siblings to visit my grandparents in Baltimore, and on the flight I saw the first movie of my life, 'Hannah Montana.' I felt it was wow. Amazing. A power that can sweep the world.
"Since then I have been watching movies in secret, visiting my grandparents' house. They are also ultra-Orthodox, but in America the ultra-Orthodox are more modern than in Israel, and they had a TV that was only connected to a video device, without cables.
Watching movies was not easy for her.
"I always fought with myself because it was a sin, but I couldn't give up. After visiting America I would stop watching movies, and the year after, on the next visit, see again. I had remorse, but the experience was insane and amazing."
What movies have you seen?
"That was. When there was a kiss on the screen I would turn my head. But mostly it bothered me that people in the movies don't welcome their food."
At the end of her twelfth grade, she went on to study design at an ultra-Orthodox girls' seminary.
I realized that I could make movies without breaking the law.
I was looking for a place to specialize and came to Ma'aleh.
"During my film studies, I faced the question of whether filmmaking does not go against the ultra-Orthodox way of life. I made my film, 'Space to You,' about this conflict. I photographed ultra-Orthodox women engaged in various arts, and I saw that I was not alone."
Towards the end of the school year at Ma'aleh, Rivka was accepted into the JFW program by the JERUSALEM FILM WORKSHOP, during which 24 selected young filmmakers from all over the world meet, and for six weeks make a documentary in Jerusalem.
There she met Julia.
Julia Mann was born in Baltimore, Maryland, to secular Jewish parents.
"I attended Quaker School, a pacifist private school that educates for peace," she says in English.
"At the age of 19, I started general studies at the university, but left after a month. I got bored. I spent the rest of the year on a trip to Vietnam and Thailand, where I heard from travelers about a communication program at Tel Aviv University, intended for students from abroad.
I came to Israel to study in the program, it seemed like an adventure, and then I was recommended JFW.
I thought to myself, 'Another adventure'.
"I met Rebecca on the first day of the show. At first, when I looked at her, I saw only one thing: a long skirt. 'Religious.'
But when Julia needed help with photography, she turned to Rebecca, "who was the most talented photographer on the show," and the professional discourse slowly became personal.
"The way Rebecca talked about her great love for Judaism moved me," Julia marvels.
Rebecca: "I was the only religious person in the program, and I wanted to get to know Julia better. I initiated a Shabbat meal in Julia's apartment, and slowly all the walls between us were broken. By the end of the program, we had already become good friends."
Julia: "We accepted each other as we are. As a basis for friendship. We once walked around the central bus station in Jerusalem. The people on the street dressed in Rebecca's style, and I was in my classic summer clothes: shorts and tank top. When we walked together, people stared at us. "Secular. At that moment, I realized that there is almost no friendship between religious and secular people, and it's a shame. We can both learn so much from each other."
Rebecca, Juman and Julia have cameras in Jerusalem.
"We thought about how we can help people open their heads," Photo Archive: The late Miriam Tzachi
As part of the program, Rivka and Julia went on a tour of the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, where they watched three films, "and one of them was my story stamp, only for Muslim women," says Rivka.
The film that moved Rebecca so much, "When You Grow Up You'll Understand," was created by Juman Dragama.
She was born in Ras al-Amud, an Arab neighborhood in East Jerusalem, and attended the German-German "Schmidt" school.
"My parents, who always wanted a quality education for us, moved to rent in the Jewish Katamon neighborhood, and I started studying at the Yad Beid school, a mixed school for Jewish and Arab children," she says.
She graduated from high school with a major in film, and from there the road to studies in video art at Bezalel was short.
"My film is about a Muslim girl who grew up in a religious place, and checks if there is a God. She believes not, but is afraid that maybe yes. That maybe all the stories she heard as a child are true, that one should pray five times a day, that one should not have physical contact before marriage. "Do what it takes, it's going to hell. It's basically a movie about me, about my personal dilemmas about the existence of God."
After the screening, Rebecca felt she had to meet the director.
"Both of our films open up questions, without giving the answers. The visual symbols we used in the films are similar, as are the filming sites. We filmed at the Dead Sea, in a cave near Teddy Stadium in Jerusalem, all the motifs of freedom, release and imprisonment were similar for both of us. In black cover to obscure the body of the female character, maintain modesty. "
Rebecca approached Juman, and introduced herself and her film.
"Until the meeting with Juman I had never met Arabs in my life," Rebecca smiles.
"I just heard there were terrorist attacks and intifadas. When I was little, I even formed a gang with the neighbors' children, including the boys. We were getting ready to fight in the evenings. Our weapons were ketchup and potions made from ants, which we could spray on."
Juman's film, and the conversation between the two, broke many stigmas.
"We continued the conversation at length over the phone. We talked about our films, and I was just looking for an editor for my final film in 'Upstairs' and I offered Juman the job."
Juman: "I got upstairs, we sat and talked over a cup of tea. It was a little weird, but nice. I didn't really realize I was in a religious school, sometimes I don't notice things that don't matter to me. It seems like a normal place to me. No." Jewish religion '.
"I saw Rebecca's films and I was fascinated by them and the similarities between our films. I loved her cinematic language, and also the story. The confusion of the sacred and the secular world. I felt we were telling the same thing.
"We connected quickly. At first more at work, and then it became real friendships. Through Rebecca I got to know Julia, and the connection between the three of us was natural."
• • •
The initiative for a joint film was by Julia.
"When I lived in New York, I shot an independent film in the same style. I asked people on the street to tell me about their first kiss. It was an exercise I did for myself, my first attempt to make a film. I found that people want to talk, to tell their story.
"So we decided to do something in this format, to ask a topical and personal question, not a political one. When it's political, it closes. Our goal was for people to think about change, because the very act of thinking allows it to open up."
Juman: "We started mainly because we wanted to work together. It was our leap into the water."
Why in Jerusalem?
Rebecca: "Jerusalem as a microcosm."
Julia: "I am a girl from Tel Aviv, which means openness, freedom, secularism. I thought about how we can help people open their heads. After all, people who stopped by the sign kept thinking about the question, and when they got home they realized they had not changed their minds much. Years. "
People in Jerusalem do not change their minds?
Julia: "In Jerusalem we live with a long history and tradition, and that limits our thinking. I think filming the film in other cities was not significant enough. In Jerusalem, people are stuck in their beliefs."
What people answered your question?
Rebecca: "There was someone who said he changed his mind about himself, who judged himself less. There was someone who hated sports but started playing basketball after a friend invited her, and found to her surprise that it was fun. And there was a national-religious teacher who thought Islam was a religion of violence. "The class realized that he was wrong, that Islam is similar to Judaism in many ways. The interview with him was filmed in the Mahane Yehuda market, and the people around us began to get upset when they heard him say that Islam is similar to Judaism."
Julia: "There was also a 75-year-old man who thought only academics were smart, until he started talking to peddlers in the market and saw how much life wisdom and understanding of reality they have."
Will you give your opinion during the filming?
Julia: "Because in my first meeting with Rebecca I only saw a skirt, I thought she did not believe in women's rights. When I spoke to her, I realized that it was completely different. "I realized that religious people are more open than I thought. Not everyone hates women and does not despise women."
Juman: "I'm still confused about my faith. There were sentences people said in the photos that made me think, that maybe I'm wrong. That maybe there is a God after all. It scares me."
Rebecca: "I changed my mind about Arabs and seculars, this process, which began with the acquaintance with Juman and Julia, intensified in me. I realized that not all Arabs come to kill us, and also that seculars are people with good values who are not only interested in sexuality, money and lust. As I was taught. "
Rebecca and Juman at the Jerusalem Cinematheque.
"We connected quickly", Photo: From the private album
• • •
Just before the outbreak of the Corona plague, in late February 2020, Juman and Rebecca were invited to present their films at the Jerusalem Cinematheque to a group of secular Jews who came from the United States to learn about Judaism in a meeting organized by Rebecca's father. Julia came to Pargan. , Provoked a significant discourse.
How do you feel about the female public of each one then being represented in the cinema?
Juman: "Most of the movies that feature Arab women are docu-movies about a grandmother talking about life. There aren't a lot of women. I haven't seen much. Fauda? That's a stereotype."
Rivka: "There is also nothing on the screen that manages to bring out the complexity of a truly ultra-Orthodox woman. Until the film 'Fill the Void' (directed by the ultra-Orthodox director Rama Burstein, HA), there was no representation of ultra-Orthodox women on screen, but it is also a film About Hasidim, who are only part of the ultra-Orthodox sector.
But even though the films are inaccurate, they express something, it's getting better. "
What are the real expectations then in the family? Wedding, children?
Juman: "My parents are traditionalists, but more open to the environment. We are four sisters, I am the third. The little one got married and the older ones do not. They do not stress."
Julia: "My Jewish mother does not want me to get married. She wants me to be independent, to do what I want."
Rebecca giggles.
From the age of 18 she is pressured on the subject of marriage.
"In matchmaking, you have to think marriage-focused. I can not think like that. After a few attempts I realized that I need more time to understand who I am. I stopped for six months, and this week I met again. I was offered an ultra-Orthodox guy studying medicine at the Technion, but he wants to live in America."
Did you tell him about the relationship with Juman?
"Yes, it did not move him. He is studying at the Technion so he also has Arab friends. My mother kills me when I tell her that I have an Arab girlfriend, but I can not live in a fake way."
• • •
September 2021. Rebecca, Juman and Julia went through a year and a half of upheavals.
The Opus Festival was canceled, and the screening of Rebecca's film, "Space to You," was postponed for six months and aired at the online festival.
To her delight, it has been accepted to four more festivals to be held in the coming months around the world;
Juman and Julia went in and out of isolation, one due to exposure to a verified patient and the other following a trip to her family in the US, and Julia even fell ill in Corona.
"It was tough," she recalls.
"Mostly being alone. Rebecca was amazing, and so was her mother."
Rebecca: "Julia was not a member of any HMO, and could not do a corona test, so she was not released from isolation. My mother, who is a nurse by profession, called the whole world and managed to release her. She told me, 'This girl will not be left alone.' She treated Julia like her daughter. "
Between closures they also completed filming days, and even did a short promo sent to several entities to get funding for the film.
This week they met to plan the final days of photography, and to think of more joint projects.
Did you notice anything that changed in the people you interviewed following the corona?
Julia: "The project and the format have not changed, but the answers of the people, and the people themselves, have changed. Almost every person has undergone personal or family change during this period.
"People after isolation or closure, wanted to be part of a community, and conversations with people on the street are now taking on more meaning."
Rebecca: "I also felt that people were more open to change. Everyone understood that the world is falling apart so easily. No matter where you are, change will come. The boom will come. If we do not change, reality will force us to change. And the ultra-Orthodox came to help her, and that helped her change her mind about them. "
Julia: "We photographed someone who moved to Israel from Los Angeles. He wanted to immigrate to Israel a long time ago, and every year it was postponed. Just when he immigrated, the plague started, and he has not left the house since. He said the corona taught him not to wait. That day. "
And what has changed for you personally?
Rebecca: "In the first wave, the pressure to succeed came off me because everything was frozen anyway. I had a hard time with the uncertainty, but now I'm back to work."
Julia: "I am more gentle with myself, learning to take things more easily, realizing that not everything is up to me."
Juman: "I mostly think about what I can do to improve the world, which is difficult anyway."
• • •
Although they planned to keep politics out of bounds, Operation Wall Guard and the riots that followed in the mixed cities threw them back into reality.
"One day everything changed," says Rebecca, "my feed was filled with posts of hatred and death towards Israelis and Jews, and Juman's feed was filled with hatred towards Arabs. We were both shocked by the hatred towards us."
Did it affect your relationship?
Rebecca: "At first each one, naturally, defended her side, her brothers. There was even a bit of hatred between us, and it broke our hearts."
What did you do?
"We talked and talked. We saw how hard it was to really listen and see the other side, and we talked a little more. And we went back to seeing each other human beings. We realized that the tiny connection between us is actually important, that we too allowed hatred and fear to reach us.
"In the end we decided to concentrate on editing our film, and do more joint projects that will connect people. We want to convey the message, that one can disagree with someone but still love and respect him.
"Our big dream is to set up a work area in Jerusalem where we can create videos together, and one day a week we will dedicate to talking about topics that are not necessarily pleasant, and we will not necessarily be unanimous about them. But we will talk and be okay, because our love is more than disagreement."
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