Thursday, February 23, 2006

So as I'm learning how to blog and all, I decided to see if any other blogger ever mentioned me. After all, writing is basically gossipping, either about real or unreal things. All gossippers also care if people are gossipping about them.
So I came across a blog from Texas, nevertheless, and it has a really cool summary of my film.
Here's the link.
Enjoy.

Dan

My Texas link : My tabs on the world...: 'Out For Love ... Be Back Shortly'

Israeli documentary to air at NT
Showing followed by discussion with Director
Lyndsay Knecht/Laura SandiferIntern/Daily Reporter
November 09, 2005
When Israeli filmmaker Dan Katzir was 23 years old, he had done his time as a soldier and was ready to become a lover. But as demonstrations raged and bombs continued to drop while the area struggled to settle in peace, a relationship became nearly impossible to protect in the trenches.
Katzir recorded the private and public battles from his perspective of Israel in the ’90s to make a documentary that is now considered one of the most important in Israel’s modern history.
“Out For Love ... Be Back Shortly” was shown today at 6 p.m. in the Radio, Television, Film and Performing Arts Building, room 184. Katzir led a discussion following the screening, which was co–sponsored by the NT Jewish Studies Program; Department of Radio, Television, and Film; department of history; College of Arts and Sciences; The Consulate General of Israel to the Southwest and the Jewish Federation of Fort Worth and Tarrant County. Admission was free.
Although the documentary is best known for its footage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Katzir said that the film was primarily about love, and he started filming in hopes that he would find a girl.
“I was looking for a girlfriend,” Katzir said. “I wanted to meet women. All artists want to meet women.”
His documentary portrays three subjects: the man, the woman and the country. Katzir, the man, struggles to tell his girlfriend, Iris, that he loves her as emotional obstacles surface in his life due to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
One obstacle is Iris’ draft into the Israeli army. Katzir, who served in the army years before, discovered quickly that he harbored negative feelings toward war and the army life.
“The conflict always interferes with my love story,” Katzir said.
Katzir filmed a memorial held in honor of Yatzhak Rabin, prime minister of Israel until 1995, who was assassinated by a Jewish right-wing extremist to the shock of Israeli citizens.
Although his girlfriend felt comfortable in the militant atmosphere, Katzir expressed unease for his safety, even though a mass of soldiers armed with automatic rifles surrounded him.
“These rifles cannot protect me from guns and bombs,” he said.
A French soundtrack plays throughout the movie, adding to the feeling of romance dictated by the filmmaker.
After the film, Katzir said the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not much different from the conflict between the United States and Iraq.
“You don’t know what should happen to solve the problem, but you know that something should be different,” he said.
A telling study of war’s inherent impact on young lives born of unrest in Israel, the message of “Out For Love ... Be Back Shortly” is one of few political films endorsed by both the right and left of the state‘s political arena. The documentary won 13 international honors and a nomination for the Israeli Academy Award. High schools, universities and the army have adopted Katzir’s story as a channel for educating students and soldiers on the cultural implications of war and peace in Israel.
Beloved by a people desperate for an end to terrorism, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin made celebrated progress toward Arab-Israeli relations. Despite Rabin’s negotiations with the PLO to expand Palestinian self-rule, violence still blisters the canyon between Israelis and Palestinians. Rabin was assassinated by an Israeli law student with ties to right-wing extremist groups just one year after winning the Nobel Peace Prize in 1994.
Katzir’s own political background lends insight to his plight. His great uncle Efraim Katzir was the fifth president of Israel, and he bears relation to Moshe Sharet, Israel’s second prime minister.
Katzir said the peace process is like “making a movie… one step forward, two steps back.”
He said he hopes that someday peace will settle in Israel and the rest of the world. But noting that it has been 10 years since his documentary and Israel still hasn’t seen peace, he believes that it will take time.
“Israel is the only democracy in the middle east,” Katzir said. “Usually, democracies among democracies can find a solution. I don’t think anything will change until our neighbors have democracies by the people, for the people.”

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