Shalom Toronto On My Flag

FILMMAKER HECHT TAKES ON THE ISRAELI FLAG Doris Strub Epstein “What does the flag of Israel mean to you?” It was a simple question asked by filmmaker Igal Hecht. He traveled the length and breadth of Israel, from the south where Israel borders on Egypt to the north - the Lebanese border and asked this to all and sundry. The responses will upset and startle. They range, he said from the spiritual to the highly critical, from the political to the ridiculous. Titled, My Flag, it is Hecht’s latest documentary, and will be shown this week at the Jewish Film Festival. “I asked two guys on the beach in Tel Aviv,” he said. “They said they could use it as a blanket on the beach because they forgot to bring a towel. They then asked me for a joint.” A man he encountered on the street wanted to burn the flag. His wife had been killed by a quassam rocket and the government did nothing to help. With the flag wrapped around him, Hecht walked the streets of Mea Sharim and got yelled at by some. A Satmar chasid wanted to burn it. But at a folk dancing class on a Kibbutz outside of Hadera, there were only positive responses. Sarale Sharon, Israeli singer spoke for many: “It expresses home to me and – Israel is the greatest place.” “I also wanted to show the beauty of Israel,” said Hecht, “The people, the scenery. I wanted to show how beautiful and amazing this county is under the banner of the flag.” And show it he did, taking us with him, to the countryside, walking the streets, in the cafes, talking to a melange of people. It’s the first time Hecht 31, a tall, bearded man with dark curly long hair and friendly brown eyes, has ever appeared in one of his own movies. “It’s thanks to my Israeli colleague Lior Cohen,” he says. Clearly, Hecht, an Israeli who came here as a 10 year old child, growing up at Bathurst and Steeles, “the heart of the Israeli ghetto”, is in his own words, “obsessed with Israel.” Of the 38 films he has made, 28 have been about Israel. His documentaries about Israel are invariably thought provoking – often disturbing, deeply personal and never locked into a particular ideology. “I don’t have a political stance,” he says. They challenge our assumptions and shed new light to inform us. You can see clips on his web site – www. chutzpaproductions.com.

He is extremely concerned that “Israel is in the greatest danger since it came into existence.” The danger is internal. “It lacks vision and leadership.” “Last year I was in Israel every six weeks. It was a crazy year. I completed eight films, which have all aired on television, and shot 14 which we are working on. This is in addition to his work as senior editor of Fraud Squad TV – “I’m on my 12th TV production” – and

teaching at the Seneca College School of Communication Arts. But the “pinnacle” of his career, he declares, is ‘Shield of Solomon’, which aired at the Montreal film festival last week. Through four refugees from Darfur, who fled from the Sudan by foot to Israel, it tells the story of the 3,000 survivors of Darfur that Israel took in and how they were treated there. It all started when Hecht saw a program on TV about Israel’s treatment of the refugees that was negative and highly distorted. He got so angry, he immediately called Lior Cohen in Israel to say they would do it right. He didn’t even wait for funding but used his own money and ran with it. The result? “It moved people to tears. Best of all, we got the truth out there – that Israel has done more for these refugees than Canada, more than any Western country. Certainly more than the Arab world who couldn’t care less and allows the Sudanese Government to continue their genocide.” ‘My Flag’, can be seen, as part of the Jewish Film Festival at 2:30 p.m. on Friday, April 24th, at the Al Green Theatre, Miles Nadal JCC, 750 Spadina Ave. [email protected]

Shalom Toronto Inc. Publisher: Yossi Arbel, Senior Editor: Liat Arbel, Editor: Jonathan Dahoah Halevi, Graphic Design: Mexley Marketing Inc. Meital Netzer-Israel; Sales and Marketing: Gershon Goldenberg Contributors: Galya Sarner, Galit Yizchak, Orit Alon, David Kahn, Doris Strub Epstein, Yossi Abadi, Jonathan Dahoah Halevi, Photography: Newscom,Vidal Keslassy Shalom Toronto Inc. 61 Alness St. Suite #201, M3J 2H2 Tel: (416) 744-1385; Fax: (416) 744-9068 www.shalomtoronto.ca, www.stnews.ca [email protected]; [email protected] © Copy Right Shalom Toronto inc. All rights reserved.

Gilad is still alive

1033 days in captivity

23.4.2009 • ‫ תשס"ט‬,‫ כט בניסן‬,‫יום חמישי‬

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