IDENTITY FILMS & PRODUCTIONS
Survived to Tell is a series of VR testimonial documentaries with survivors of the 7 October 2023 Hamas attack on Israel made for the apolitical NGO “Israel Is”. These include: Mazal, who escaped from the Nova music festival only to be tied up by Hamas and to witness her friends being shot dead; Ofir, who was taken from Kibbutz Be’eri and was a hostage in Gaza; Nimrod, who after receiving messages about the Hamas invasion independently headed to Gaza and engaged in combat that helped save the community of Kibbutz Alumim; Remo, an Arab-Muslim Israeli policeman who rescued hundreds of Israelis from the Nova music festival; and Millet, who hid in the bushes for 4 hours and survived the attack on the Nova music festival.
These films were released in 2024.
Jewish mourning comes in stages, one of which is “shloshim”, the first 30 days. This 13 minute VR film immersively takes viewers into the heart of Israeli society in the weeks after October 7. We meet a diverse range of Israelis as we learn of the trauma the country was in, the coping mechanism of volunteering, and see the resilience of the people. Offering a visual array of Israel at this historic time, we’re taken to the pop-up Expo volunteer centre in Tel Aviv, community kitchens, Hostage Square, farms with agricultural volunteers, evacuated towns, hotels with Israeli evacuees, vigils, public memorial sites and funerals.
The film will be released in 2025.
Bibi Vs The People of Israel documents the unprecedented democracy protests that in 2023 went for 40 weeks in a row involving the equivalent of tens of millions of Americans protesting legislation by PM Bibi Netanyahu’s government that critics claimed threatened the independence of the judiciary. These protests only ended with the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel which saw the government flounder and protest NGOs pivot to fill the void. By April 2024 we see the protests resume in an attempt to get Bibi to reach a deal to save the Israeli hostages in Gaza and to hold him to account for the October 7 disaster.
The film is in production.
Identity Films and Productions is making a series of ground breaking virtual reality films for the Melbourne Holocaust Museum. Every year over 20,000 school children visit the Centre where their most impactful experience is meeting a survivor. But soon there will be no Holocaust survivors left to meet. In partnership with the Jewish Holocaust Centre, Identity Films travelled with 87 year old Holocaust survivor Shiya Chaskiel back to the Auschwitz and Buchenwald Nazi camps where he told his story captured in 360 degree filming: immersive, confronting, touching. This is as close to a Holocaust survivor as future generations will be able to get.
To view the film visit the Melbourne Holocaust Museum.