It’s not the kind of documentary that you want to see, but it’s one that you have to see. No matter how much you may have read about the October 7 massacre, nothing can penetrate your consciousness more than seeing real-time images.
The raw reality of man’s inhumanity and its effects drive home the realization that atrocity is not just a word used to give weight to a monstrous deed. It hits you in the face and makes your stomach churn. It invades every fiber of your being to make certain that you don’t forget.
It makes you walk away in the knowledge that this is not just another documentary. This is part of your history if you are an Israeli. This is what you must fight to prevent from happening again if you are a human being of any faith or nationality, or even without faith – and it must be seen while there are still hostages in Gaza.
The documentary in question is the award-winning production We Will Dance Again, which tells the story of how Hamas turned the Supernova music festival, representing peace and love, into a bloodbath.
Although it has already been shown in Israel, there are still many people who have not seen it but should.
Nova was initially full of light, love, and joy; for many of the survivors, the nightmare is not yet over. Israel is still at war, and there are still hostages in Gaza. Some survivors spend their days on an emotional roller coaster.
A presidential screening of a gruesome documentary
President Isaac Herzog on Tuesday hosted a screening attended almost entirely by people connected to or involved in the concept and evolution of the documentary.
While it was heart-warming during a surge of global anti-Israel feeling to have an Israeli-made documentary win an Emmy award, it was also important for the film to have an Israeli stamp of approval from the country’s number one citizen.
HOT CEO Tal Granot noted that We Will Dance Again is both a historic document and an important tool for telling Israel’s story to the world. But it also reflects Israeli society, she said, and should be watched in every Israeli household.
Not only did the documentary win an Emmy, she emphasized, but it was also significantly the first Emmy ever won by an Israeli documentary production and has earned kudos from around the world for the reality of its heartrending portrayal of the Nova massacre.
More than that, she added, it carries the message, “We are here not just to exist but to live!”
The production team has dedicated the Emmy to the return of the hostages.
Toward the opening of the film, a young man who survived the massacre recounts how he took cover at the festival and that when he finally got up, he was struck by the realization that he was surrounded by dead bodies. “My life will never be what it was,” he says.
Prior to the official start of Tuesday’s event, a few members of the production team stood on stage and held aloft the Emmy statuette, which is made largely of copper, nickel, and silver dipped in 24-karat gold.
In the course of a panel discussion that was held in conjunction with the screening, Yariv Mozer, the director of the documentary, said that on October 7, when there was still so much panic and confusion, he wanted to help, but he didn’t know what to do.
In consultation with friends and colleagues, he decided to go south and to film whatever was needed to put together a documentary that would make viewers realize the enormity of what had happened.
He called the IDF spokesman, who happened to be a friend, and told him that he needed to get to the South as quickly as possible. It was arranged.
The horrific sights that he encountered were psychologically and emotionally shattering – but he had given himself a mission to disseminate the truth of this outrage.
After he returned home, he showed a colleague what he had managed to assemble, and the colleague excitedly told him that he must get in touch with MGM.
A Zoom meeting was arranged. Mozer explained what he wanted to do, and 24 hours later, he received the green light. Other companies were quick to come on board.
A collaborative effort between Israel’s HOT, SIPUR, and Sloatzky Productions, with MGM, the BBC, and Paramount, has been acclaimed globally for its realism.
Putting together a documentary and editing it takes at least a year, Mozer explained, but it was essential to get it out within the shortest possible time frame, while the massacre was still news – which in many reports had been distorted to the extent that Israel was no longer seen as the victim.
It was imperative that the truth be told. Material was collected from the phone cameras of survivors, some of whom had taken videos, knowing that they would contribute to vital evidence of what had taken place.
Others wanted a final image of a loved one or a friend. Not everyone who took video shots survived, but their legacies were in these cameras. There were also images of scenes captured by rescuers.
Footage from the cameras of both Israelis and terrorists who wore body cameras was integrated into the film with lots of reviewing and editing along the way. There were many partners whose objections and approval had to be taken into account.
There was also a major battle with the BBC, which objected to the use of the word ‘terrorist’ in references to Hamas. But the word could not very well be eliminated if it was used in speech by a survivor who had witnessed the cruelty.
Other members of the panel included Shira Shapira, the mother of Aner Shapira, who, alongside his friend Hersh Goldberg-Polin, had attended Nova and had saved the lives of several people while losing his own.
Goldberg-Polin was taken captive and murdered in Gaza. Aner, who lobbed back grenades at Hamas, is widely known as a hero. To his family, said his mother, he is better known for his values, his friendship, and his love of art and music.
Songs that he composed have already been recorded and released, and more will be released later this month. Aner was much more than a hero, said his family, and they want the person that he was to be a source of inspiration and influence for good.
Also on the panel were Nova survivors Tamir Leshetz, Yuval Siman Tov, and Noam Ben David. Leshetz could not contain his tears, and his voice kept breaking as he spoke.
As a survivor, he said, he had the right to demand who was responsible for the suffering that was inflicted on the communities in the South.
Yuval Siman Tov recalled that initially there was a feeling that this couldn’t be happening. He has relived the experience again and again in numerous interviews in Israel and abroad over the past 22 months, because he too is dedicated to presenting the truth to the world.
The most triumphant moment in this respect was in the US when the whole audience rose and applauded.
Ben David spoke of the difficulties of emotional and psychological rehabilitation. There were times of being enveloped by family, she said, and then being left entirely alone. It was scary, but something she was learning to adjust to.
Herzog, in a reference to the recent horrifying videos of hostages Evyatar David and Rom Braslavski released by Hamas, said that these videos make it clear to Israel and the whole world that the horrendous acts the terror group committed on October 7 are continuing to the present day.
He praised We Will Dance Again saying that it was an initiative of creativity, responsibility, and commitment that will help to bring all the hostages home.
Eliya Cohen, who was released from Hamas captivity in February after 505 days and who had been in the shelter with Aner Shapira, spoke of the hell that he and others had endured.
Cohen appealed to Herzog to do everything possible to bring the remaining hostages home: “We must not forget that we still have brothers who endured this hell and are living what I lived for 505 days.”