Filmed ‘Not During the Sabbath’: The Israeli Haredi Minority through the Camera’s Lens

The Haredi (Jewish Ultra Orthodox) minority in Israel has an increased visibility in Israeli media in recent years. Many of its representations are negative and stereotypical. This article is an analysis of a documentary series about this minority group that the author co-directed also in an attempt to challenge these stereotypes. The article analyses the process of production of the series and the many decisions that had to be taken during it. It explores the difficulties in challenging the key stereotypes, especially in the context of Israeli commercial television

Jewish Revenge: Haredi Action in the Zionist Sphere

This is a pre-copyedited version of an article accepted for publication in (journal title, volume and issue numbers, and year) following peer review. The definitive publisher-authenticated version is available from Wayne State University Press.Jewish ultra-Orthodox (Haredi) cinema in Israel has become increasingly prominent in recent years. Emerging as a highly controversial, secluded, and gender-segregated form of “amateur cinema,” it is currently seeing gradual professionalization. This article discusses Haredi cinema in the context of the Haredi community’s relationship with the Israeli state and the doctrine of Zionism. Appropriating generic conventions of mainstream Hollywood cinema, yet keeping within the secluded Haredi space, this form of minority cinema functions as an alternative (virtual) sphere in which a complex set of negotiations occurs between Jewish ultra-Orthodox ideals and those of the surrounding Israeli society and Zionism. It is reflective of and engaged in the production of recent social and discursive transformations within the Haredi community in Israel. We examine this phenomenon through a focused analysis of the male action genre, specifically the popular series Jewish Revenge (Yehuda Grovais, 2000–2010). As we demonstrate, the mode of representation and the narratives of these films bring models of masculinities and notions of heroism under scrutiny. The Zionist narrative, the national body, and the (imaginary) place of the Haredi within it are being reconfigured through the prism of body politics and fantasies of transgression

Becoming Bulletproof

Becoming Bulletproof is a beautifully made and life-affirming documentary film about a mixed group of people, some with disabilities, some without. They meet for a few days during the summer once a year as part of the inclusive arts project Zeno Mountain Farm (http://zenomountainfarm.com/), in order to make a movie. The documentary follows the group after they decide to make a mini-western in the California desert called Bulletproof. The process of making this film (and the results) as captured by the documentary are unique and refreshing for several reasons