'We Will Dance Again' Director on Debates Around Oct. 7 Documentary

We will dance againA Paramount+ documentary about the mass killing and hostage-taking of music festival attendees by Hamas militants in southern Israel, part of a broader attack that sparked the ongoing war in Gaza, debuted Tuesday, just before the first anniversary of the Oct. 7 massacre. Director Yariv Mozer’s immersive approach eschews commentary. Instead, he sticks to the harrowing testimonies of survivors, bolstered by graphically violent video footage shot in real time, including footage recovered from the attackers. “These are events that are happening right before your eyes,” says the film’s producer Susan Zirinsky, a former CBS News editor. “There’s no exaggeration, no embellishment.”

Mozer spoke with The Hollywood Reporter on why he doesn’t see the project as political, when actual violence is too much for viewers, and how international buyers are taking different approaches to the film.

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What is the genesis of the project?

On October 7th I was sitting in my apartment in Tel Aviv. I thought, “What is my responsibility, my duty, as a documentary filmmaker? Where should I be?” It took me two days before I could get to the south, to witness [the Nova festival site] with my eyes. It was truly unlike anything I had ever seen in my life. People were still looking for their belongings. The smell was horrible. This was where it all started.

How did it end up at Paramount+?

It all started as a collaboration with the Israeli documentary channel Hot8. Then MGM joined, through Fulwell 73. Then, when Susan Zirinsky came on board, Paramount+ also signed on. [Zirinsky’s See It Now Studios is part of Paramount Global.]

Are you concerned that the documentary will be viewed through narrowly polarized ideological lenses?

I am worried. The film is not political. It is told through the eyes of the survivors and the eyes of Hamas. There is a truth to what happened.

Were there any potential buyers who had reservations about the film?

I have brought this up to several other US streaming platforms and have been told that they are afraid to address this topic on October 7th due to concerns about the political situation.

What's happening with international distribution?

The film has been sold to Australia, Spain. Hot8 will broadcast it in Israel.

It's interesting. RTL in Germany decided to broadcast it in prime time, on a linear channel with commercial breaks, which I don't think has been done since Schindler's List.

Then, the BBC, the version they will broadcast will not describe Hamas as terrorists. That was a price I was willing to pay for the British public to be able to see these atrocities and decide whether this is a terrorist organisation or not.

The narrative is full of violent footage. How did you decide what to use, how much was enough, what would be engaging, and what would be overwhelming?

It was a continuous discussion [among the creative team]. I was all for showing more. I wanted to preserve as much as possible, to show the magnitude of this attack and the brutality of these atrocities against people who could not defend themselves.

Others were on the side of what viewers would think, or what viewers could tolerate. And that was a good thing, that input. It was a healthy process.

Is this also why so little is said about Hamas militants? sexual violence and sadism against festival-goers?

We talked a lot about what would happen to the film if we had a testimony like this, an audiovisual testimony of the sexual violence that happened. Would we lose viewers on streaming platforms? In the end we thought it would be too much.

We show [festivalgoer] By Shani Lou [dead] body on a Hamas truck in Gaza, and we see the way those people are treating him. I think that [footage]you can't stop thinking about what they've been through. Sometimes you let the viewer think about what those people have been through. Sometimes you don't talk about those things directly.

I was struck by the descriptions of festival-goers about how they hid from Hamas militants in portable toilets, dumpsters, refrigeration units and under the festival stage. It was reminiscent of Jews hiding under floorboards from Nazis.

My family survived the Holocaust. I couldn't stop thinking about the Holocaust. That's why we decided to end the film by saying that October 7 was the deadliest day for the Jewish people since the Holocaust.

Your previous projects have focused on Israel's founding father, David Ben-Gurion; a then-chief of the nation's army; and Adolf Eichmann, a Nazi official who organized the Holocaust. It is We will dance again talking to them?

I'm used to taking viewers into history. This is a story that is still before our eyes. I don't even know if it's history yet. I had to change the ending of the movie just a few weeks ago to update what happened to [Nova festivalgoer] Hersh Goldberg-Polin, murdered after his time in captivity. This film is a never-ending story, unfortunately. The hostages have not been brought home and there is still no ceasefire.

The documentary shows how the festival's victims were mostly secular and progressive, who partied, took drugs and experimented with their identities, while their attackers were conservative religious fundamentalists.

This is the reality. A brutal fundamentalist movement obsessively seeks to destroy the values ​​of Western society. These were young people at a music festival celebrating life, love and peace: very naive, very free. And they faced the most horrible people, who value death.

The attack on the Nova festival has been widely covered in the media. What do you hope viewers will take away from your documentary approach?

I want people to immerse themselves. That's why the film is told in the present, so you feel exactly how it was in each moment. There's no interpretation. You're there. It's intentional.

Tell me how the interviews with the festival participants take place.

We had a psychologist on set to meet with the survivors right after the interviews. They had a session because they were very concerned about recovering from the trauma.

For all of them, it was a necessity to come and tell their story for the sake of their loved ones who are not with them, in memory of those who have gone, and in the hope that the hostages will return. For them, they are not in the aftermath, but are still coping and waiting for the conclusion of this story. It continues.

We will dance again is now streaming on Paramount+.

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