Documentary Film

During the winter and spring I am occupied with making a documentary film. The main character of the film, Arthur, is a young Jew who fled together with his family from war in Tajikistan to safety in the USA. Because his family had lived under Soviet Union’s atheistic rule for many years, it resulted in a rather secularized way of life. The film is an investigation of how this young Jew connects with his historical roots and traditions, as he in January this year, traveled to Israel for the very first time in his life. I followed him for this 10-days trip to Israel to document his experiences. The trip was in the Birthright Israel-program or Taglit, which is the Hebrew name for it. The experiences the main character had during this trip profoundly changed his perception of being a Jew, the state of Israel and the concept of Zionism.

For the pre-production i I was twice to New York prior to the trip. I went there a third time after the trip in order to make some conclusive interviews. But most of the material was shot in Israel. In Israel, I was fortunate to be assisted with an Israeli filmmaker, David Moran, a graduate from Sapir College. He also brought his own equipment, so we were able to use two cameras to shoot the film. I had a Sony HVR-Z7 and David used his Sony HVR-V1. Of course, we shot the film in HD-format.

Right now I have finished the transcript of all the interviews that were made during and after the trip. The next step is to make a paper edit. Once that is completed, I will start making a first rough cut using Sony Vegas non-linear editing software. Hopefully, I will have a rough-cut ready in the beginning of March. In order for me to graduate from Regent University, the film has to be completed by the end of March, so there’s not that much of time for fine tuning the project.