Keeping the Kibbutz

Keeping the Kibbutz Now Streaming Online!

Tessa Moran — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 19:33:46 +0000

Thanks to our wonderful partnership with Garden Thieves Pictures, Keeping the Kibbutz is now available to watch online!

Rent it online through Amazon OR YouTube and soon on other exciting digital platforms!

Keeping the Kibbutz DVD For Sale!

Tessa Moran — Tue, 03 May 2011 16:15:06 +0000

Finally, the long-awaited Keeping the Kibbutz DVD is available for sale online. Celebrate the 100th anniversary of the kibbutz movement by purchasing this DVD for yourself, or your friends and family. The DVD includes the following special features: 3 extra scenes – “Savta in Four Acts,” “Interview with Opher,” and “The Birds” as well as an update on the characters and a full length commentary by the filmmakers. Head over to the store to get your copy today.

Thank you for supporting independent documentary film!

A look back on one fateful shooting day…

Tessa Moran — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 14:16:41 +0000

This is a production journal entry written by Ben Crosbie in June 2007.

By Ben Crosbie, photos by Tessa Moran

High in the Sky

Spinning, spinning, spinning higher and higher into the air, sometimes gaining a few hundred feet of altitude in a second, the glider climbs towards the atmosphere in a dizzying ascent. The small engine-less glider is like a toy airplane, jolting left and then right at the whim of the wind, pitching up and down without any care to the precious cargo it holds inside its hull. The blue sky is a glider’s playground. The craft strives to escape the confines of a patchwork quilt of multicolored fields and hills below.

Today I went gliding with Uzi, and the experience was far less picturesque. All I could think about was 1) how to get some good aerial shots through the canopy of the glider, and 2) how to not get vomit on our expensive XH A1 if I hurled.

Pre-Takeoff

Uzi drove us to the end of the tarmac, where a gathering of men 50 years of age and older (the gliding club) sat beneath a tent. We briefly interviewed Uzi and his fellow pilots, but I was preoccupied with the gliders that were taking flight off the nearby runway.

Shooting down the strip of asphalt while towed behind a small prop plane, the glider swayed back and forth, lifting a bit off the tarmac but then hitting the ground again. “The pilot has to maintain the glider as an extension of the plane until it is airborne, otherwise it could crash,” one of the experienced pilots says to me as I watch the plane and glider take off into the air. Just what I needed to hear before I stepped into my soon to be winged coffin.

As Uzi strapped me into the back seat of the glider, he started to explain to me how to use the different controls in the cockpit (both seats have controls). “If the flight goes well, maybe you can fly” he tells me. Uh… wtf? Then another pilot says something to Uzi in Hebrew that I don’t understand, and they close the canopy and start to roll the glider down the runway to its takeoff position. At this point I am totally feeling 100% confident in my glider flying abilities, and the safety of the venture I am about to take part in. Right…

Takeoff

Sitting in the tiny cockpit sweating, I fiddled with the camera controls and tried to find the best way to position it so that I could get some good aerial shots. I’m glad I had something to occupy my mind, because shortly thereafter, the glider started to roll down the runway. We were strapped to the plane and it was pulling us down the runway towards take-off. I was filming the back of Uzi’s head and the ground rolling by the glider as we picked up speed.

The second we were airborne I felt it in my gut. Sort of like that feeling you get when an elevator goes up quickly. Looking through the viewfinder of the camera, I could see the little prop plane in front of us sway back and forth as the crosswind hit it. The glider shook pretty violently up and down, and I had to be careful not to hit the camera on the canopy.

As we ascended higher, Uzi looked back and asked how I was feeling. I felt fine — a feeling that would be short lived.

The First 10 Minutes

In my limited gliding experience, it seems to me that the flight is pretty simple. The prop plane takes you up, then you spiral around in a thermal to gain altitude (more detail on gliding here) and then you glide down, looking for another thermal to go up again, or head back to land. The first 10 minutes of the flight went pretty much exactly like that.

I tried my best to film out of the small open slot in the canopy that let the wind in, but decided shooting through the dome of the canopy to be my best option. The glider was banked to the opposite side of the slot, so I couldn’t really get any good shots out of it. Nevertheless I think I caught a few good aerial shots of northern Israel. We couldn’t fly over the kibbutz because it was too far north for the weather conditions to take us there, but what I shot is still the same general area (about 30 minutes away by car).

The Last 20 Minutes

About half way through the flight, I started to feel a bit queasy. Uzi again asked me how I was doing. I told him I still felt fine, because I figured I was just having a little difficulty with the sharp banks and sudden jumps in altitude. He continued to spiral upwards through a thermal until we reached its apex, and then we started to descend. At this point I was feeling more and more nauseous, and was just trying to focus on my breathing and allowing the cool wind coming through the slot to hit my face.

Uzi asked me one more time how I was feeling, and this time I told him I felt a little dizzy. He said something, but his words were swallowed by the wind. I returned to my rhythmic breathing, and began praying that the ride would soon be over. I had stopped filming (I shot about 15 minutes of aerial footage) and was just trying to calm myself down and enjoy the rest of the ride.

The Landing

As we descended further, I asked Uzi if we were landing, noting that I was beginning to feel sick. He said we were landing soon, and so I began to focus on the gray cross of the airfield etched into the earth. I kept breathing deeply as we approached the ground, but my nausea wasn’t subsiding. I didn’t want to disturb Uzi with my fears of vomiting — one of the pilots had earlier told me how landing the glider was the most difficult part. I just started to think about what to do when I actually did vomit. Uzi had given me an old cap to wear in the glider, and so I figured that was the closest thing to a sick bag I would find. I still had hope that I wouldn’t vomit before we landed.

Maybe only 100 feet above the ground, my stomach churned in a way that let me know it was too late. In one fluid motion, I pulled my cap off, lifted my precious XH A1 high above my head, and puked my guts out into my borrowed piece of head wear.

By the time the glider came to a stop, Uzi had figured out what was going on behind him, and he quickly opened the canopy and got out. I must have been a sad sight to behold. I jumped out of the glider and finished my business on the runway.

The Aftermath

After getting back into Uzi’s pickup truck to head back down the runway, he told me not to worry. “My daughter’s husband, also named Ben, threw up when he flew… it even happens to pilots” he claimed. I apologized for what had happened, but he didn’t seem to be that surprised.

Uzi later told me that it was an unusually rough ride, and that even he had some trouble during the flight. Apparently people puke all the time while gliding — they even had a puke bag near the seat, but Uzi forgot to tell me before getting in. None of the other pilots seemed to really care about what had happened. Uzi and another pilot deftly cleaned out the cockpit and swapped the seat padding, and the glider was already shooting down the runway again before I had even finished rinsing off my t-shirt.

Was the whole experience worth it? I got a few cool aerial shots and some nice footage of gliders taking off and landing, so I think so. It was a once in a lifetime experience, and aside from getting sick it was pretty awesome. Sometimes you have to go the extra mile to get a certain shot. Hopefully that effort shows through in the final product. How many other low budget docs have aerial footage in them!

The Screenings Begin!

Ben Crosbie — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 12:00:42 +0000

After a few months of relentlessly applying to film festivals, contacting Museums, JCCs and Synagogues, we finally have some screenings lined up. We still have many more film festivals to hear back from throughout the year, so stay tuned, but we are thrilled to begin the process of screening our film around the world. Three years after beginning the film (nearly to the day), it is an amazing feeling knowing that audiences will be able to watch our work and share their thoughts with us. Making documentaries is fun, but what’s the point if no one sees the finished product? While watching your film with an audience can be nerve racking (family members are the worst: talking, going to the bathroom, facebooking), nothing can compare to the experience of seeing others laugh, cry or gasp during all those moments you hoped they would, and many more you never anticipated. We are looking forward to all the people we will meet, the reviews (good and bad) the film will get, as well as visiting some new places as we begin to screen Keeping the Kibbutz. Sign up for our email list to stay up to date on the latest screening dates!

Upcoming Screenings

admin — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 13:00:49 +0000

Tuesday, April 3 2012 at 3pm – WGTE – Ohio PBS

If you are interested in hosting a public screening at your university, community center, museum, indie theater or place of worship, shoot us an email at info@eidolonfilms.com. Thanks to everyone for your support!

Host a Screening

Host a screening of Keeping the Kibbutz! We have been screening the film around the country to engaged audiences, and we’d love to bring the film to your area too. Screening kits generally include:

- Copies of the DVD (or BluRay where available) for screening & library use.

- Posters and postcards for promotion.

- Customizable flyer/press release templates.

- Discussion guide for post screening discussions.

The filmmakers are also available for post screening discussions, and can offer a unique perspective on the film for audiences. If your organization is interested in screening the film, email us at info@eidolonfilms.com, and we will work with you to organize a great community, public or university screening!

Past Screenings

Wednesday, August 11 at 7pm – Flagstaff, AZ – Flagstaff Film Festival – Orpheum Theater 7 pm

Thursday, August 12 at 6pm – Providence, RI – Rhode Island International Film Festival – Brown/RISD HIllel 6pm

Monday, September 20 at 6pm - St. George, Utah – Docutah Int’l Film Festival – Westates Pineview 10

Wednesday, September 29 – College Park, Maryland – University of Maryland - Screening for UMD students only

Sunday, October 3* at 2pm – Wayne, NJ – Wayne JCC. Filmmaker Q&A to follow.

Sunday, October 24 – Park City, UT – Temple Har Shalom

Saturday, October 30* at 7pm – Skokie, IL – Temple Beth Israel. Dinner starts at 6pm, followed by the film screening, followed by dessert and filmmaker Q&A. Screening is free for Members/$7 for Non Members

Sunday, October 31 at 12pm – Greenbelt, Maryland – Greenbelt Municipal Building – Utopia Film Festival – $5 at door

Thursday, November 4 at 3pm - Orlando, Florida – Plaza Cinema Cafe Theater 12 – Orlando Film Festival - FREE!

Tuesday, November 23 at 4pm – Dublin, Ireland – Kibbutz Volunteer Reunion – D4 Berkley Hotel, Ballsbridge Dublin 4 – FREE admission – Contact kibbutz.ireland@gmail.com for details.

Sunday, December 5 at 4:30 pm – Columbus, Ohio – Gateway Film Center – **Columbus Theatrical Premiere** – Tickets $7

Thursday, January 13 at 7:30 pm – Basel, Switzerland – Basel Jewish Community. Contact Helene Loeb-Meyer at loeb@igb.ch for details.

Wednesday, February 16 at 7:00 pm – Albany, New York – University at Albany – UAlbany Standish Room – Tickets FREE!

Friday, February 25 at 5:20 pm – Huntington, West Virginia – Appalachian Film Festival – Keith Albee Theater, 825 Fourth Ave.

Sunday, February 27 at 9:30 am – Amsterdam, Netherlands – Amsterdam Jewish Historical Museum – Come for the screening, brunch and volunteer reunion!

Tuesday, April 12 at 3pm – Boca Raton, FL – Downtown Boca Film Festival – Movies of DelRay

Wednesday, June 15 at 7:30 pm – Glasgow, Scotland – Center for Contemporary Art - Sauchiehall Street. Tickets available here. £4.00

Sunday, September 18 at 3pm PST – KQED Channel 10, San Francisco PBS

Sunday, September 18 at 4:30pm and 10:30pm – KOZKDT, Springfield MO PBS

Thursday, September 22 at 8:00pm – NHPTV, New Hampshire PBS

Friday, September 23 at 12:00 am and 1:00 pm – NHPTV, New Hampshire PBS

Sunday, September 25 at 2:00pm – WGBH 2 – Boston PBS

Sunday, September 25 at 2:30pm -WETA – Washington, DC PBS

Sunday, September 25 at 6pm – SC ETV – South Carolina PBS

Sunday, September 25 at 10pm - WSBE Channel 36 – Rhode Island PBS

Sunday, September 25 at 11pm -MPTV 36.1 – Milwaukee PBS

Monday, September 26 at 1opm – WPRM – Northeast Ohio PBS

Tuesday, September 27 – PBS World – Check this map to see if your local station is one of 53 carrying World.

9AM/8C, 6 AM PST
3PM/2C, 12PM PST
8PM/7C, 5 PM PST
10PM PST

Wednesday, September 28 at 7pm - CPT12 – Colorado PBS

Wednesday, September 28 at 7pm - WLRN – Miami PBS

Thursday, September 29 at 10pm – WHUT – Washington, DC PBS

Sunday, October 2 at 10am - AZPM World- Arizona PBS

Sunday, October 2 at 1pm – WFWA Channel 39 – Fort Wayne, Indiana PBS

Sunday, October 2 at 1pm – WLIW21 – New York PBS

Sunday, October 2 at 3pm – CET Channel 48.1 – Cincinnati, Ohio PBS

Tuesday, October 4 at 10 pm – NJTV – New Jersey PBS

Saturday, October 8 at 7:30pm – KCSM – San Matteo, California PBS

Saturday, October 8 at 8 pm – WHUT – Washington, DC PBS

Sunday, October 9 at 1:30am – KCSM – San Matteo, California PBS

Monday, October 24th @ 9 AM — Houston PBS 8.2

Thursday, December 8 at 12:00pm – Temple Emanuel - Winston-Salem, North Carolina

Sunday, December 18 at 4:30pm – KCET PBS Broadcast – Los Angeles, California

Sunday, December 18 at 7pm – Manchester Jewish Museum – Manchester, UK. Panel discussion to follow screening. Tickets available here.

Sunday, March 4, 2012 at 8:15pm – Washington, DC – AIPAC Policy Conference – For conference attendees only.

A look back at the first shoot

Tessa Moran — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 19:15:55 +0000

One of the best things we did while filming on the kibbutz was keep an online journal of our experiences while producing our first feature documentary. Here’s one entry from June 2007 about our first day of shooting:

Yesterday we joined the “breakfast club” and ate at a table beside the five men who the store owner Kathy calls the “hardcore” members. The “hardcore” group proposed the idea of the breakfast after the dining room closed. They had enjoyed long breakfasts there for years, and wanted to continue their tradition. Kathy obliged, and every morning, at 8:30, a spread of vegetables, eggs, cheese and bread is set for them to feast upon. Other men who have joined the club, arrive later in the morning to eat.

The routine intrigued us, especially as the men each made their version of Israeli salad. Tomato and cucumbers served as the base for all, but some added olive oil and lemon juice, and others added eggs and cottage cheese to the mix. One man’s bare feet were bleeding profusely onto the stone patio as he ate, but he didn’t seem to notice. Another man arrived at the table covered from head to toe in dirt, seemingly unconcerned with the cleanliness of his hands before digging into the shared basket of vegetables and bread.

The men all knew of Ben’s parents — Leah who grew up in the Kibbutz, and Peter who traveled to the Kibbutz from Wales to work as a volunteer. “Can you drink like your father?”, they asked Ben, proceeding to tell stories of the debauchery of their youth. A woman who worked in the market joined in the conversation, saying she remembered wiping Ben’s “bottom” when he was a baby in the Kibbutz.

Babies are cared for in communal houses staffed by kibbutz members. In the past, children of all ages slept in these communal homes overnight. But the policy changed after parents complained about wanting to be closer to their children, especially when bombs were dropping during the Six Day War.

Later in the afternoon we went to the kibbutz museum to sift through old pictures. The museum curator said we could use the pictures in our film free of charge. We were thrilled because most stock footage and photographs come with a hefty licensing fee. We do not yet know how the pictures will be used in the film, but we think they could be helpful in illustrating the changing kibbutz.

In the early evening we took Safta’s electric cart around the kibbutz security road to get some scenic shots of the surrounding area. It’s meant for transporting old people around the kibbutz, but it drives so smoothly that it worked quite well as a makeshift dolly. The hills and fields look beautiful at sunset, so at least we know that our film will have some nice shots in it. We shot some scenes of an old military watch tower, one of many around the kibbutz.

As we were filming, we heard some whinnying coming from outside the kibbutz security fence. We walked toward the noise, found an open gate in the fence and followed it to a small pen with a gorgeous horse in it. It was running around in circles, but would occasionally come up to us and stick its head out to make contact. It seemed frustrated in it’s captivity. In the orange glow of the setting sun the scene was magical, and we promptly captured it on film.

That same night after dinner, we followed Leah (Ben’s mom) through the kibbutz to see an area where some old chicken coops had been remodeled and re-purposed as art galleries. We were just going along for a nice stroll and so we didn’t bring along our camera gear. But as often happens in life, and especially in documentary film-making, we ended up missing some cinematic gold.

Out of the darkness we saw two yellow beams of light and heard a familiar South African accented voice cutting through the night. A club car (souped up golf car) stopped in front of us and out popped Francois “Frankie”, an old friend of Ben’s parents. Wearing a tank top and funky colored swimming trunks that can only be described as hideous, Frankie proclaimed “How do you like my new clothes?” We found out later that Frankie (claims) has never purchased new clothes while living in the kibbutz. He just wears old clothes that he finds left behind in apartments, or that are given to him from his “connections” at the hotel, when guests leave belongings behind.

Frankie was a volunteer in the kibbutz along with Ben’s dad, and also ended up marrying a kibbutznik, but he never left. He works as a general carpenter/Mr. fix-it, repairing and painting apartments. He also built the kibbutz and hotel bar without buying a single new piece of material. He uses wood and objects he finds around the kibbutz, and prides himself on not having to purchase raw materials. He is definitely an artist in his own right.

Frankie was apparently on his way to find us to help fix our broken stove. So we went with him to his “junk pile” to find a new oven. The “junk pile” is a huge collection of old items that Frankie has found all around the kibbutz. Tables, chairs, TV’s, lamps, beds, wood, ovens, and shoes are all stored in a small building that used to be the kibbutz market. Frankie searched through the storage room for a few moments and then pointed out a small table top oven. “It works… last night I put some chicken in it and left it for three hours, and it was done” he said. This was our new stove. Frankie also offered us some new lounge chairs and grabbed a new phone for our apartment, because the kawasaki ninja replica phone he already gave us wasn’t working. On the way out of the room, he pointed to some old flip flops and said “you want those — just came in today!”

If only we had our camera with us. In those few minutes of the twilight zone we would have captured something unique and hilarious about both Frankie and the kibbutz. Even though the moment was lost, we instantly knew we had found a valuable character. That night we went to his house for some coffee and filmed him for about 20 minutes talking about first coming to the kibbutz. The interview was a far cry from the earlier scene, but at least we got a taste of his character, and hopefully we can capture something more interesting when we follow him around one day while he works.

The Festival Lottery

Tessa Moran — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 16:58:35 +0000

Last weekend we put aside celebrations for Valentine’s Day to instead complete Keeping the Kibbutz. And I mean really complete it, as in make it perfect so that we could burn it on a DVD and [comfortably send it along to film festivals without a disclaimer.] Believe it or not, I found the end to be the most difficult part of the process. It’s when you begin to question yourself and the decisions you made. But every filmmaker needs to draw a line at some point, resolving that the film is completed and that everything has been done to make it the best story it can be. And that’s what we did. The DVD is burned, the press kit is completed and ready to go. But to where? Now we begin stage two of the film making process: the festival circuit. The problem is there’s no ideal way to navigate it.

Sure, you could apply to every fest out there (there are thousands), but such a process is cumbersome and expensive. Most filmmakers narrow it down to the top independent and documentary showcases, niche fests, free and international fests or those in their hometown or in places they’ve been itching to travel to. For us, we plan to apply to most of the top US and international documentary fests, most of the Jewish and Middle Eastern film festivals, festivals in and around Washington, DC and our hometowns of RI and Dallas, TX. Add to that, places we’re dying to vacation: San Francisco, Portland, Jerusalem, Amsterdam, Sheffield and Dubai to name a few . Perhaps our honeymoon will be wrapped into one of these trips.

In any case, as we navigate the festival circuit, we are open to ideas! Any thoughts on festivals that might be a good fit for Keeping the Kibbutz?

Eidolon launches Keeping the Kibbutz website, trailer

Ben Crosbie — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 21:36:52 +0000

We’re thrilled to announce that after years of hard work, we are at the finishing stages of Keeping the Kibbutz. The music for the film is nearly all scored and we’ve launched this website where our fans can learn about the film, watch the trailer, leave comments, and be updated on screenings. We hope that this will also serve as a meeting-place for former and present kibbutzniks, visitors and volunteers to share their stories. We see this film as an opportunity to collaborate with universities, schools, community centers, and houses of worship to kickstart conversations about the kibbutz movement during the year of its 100th anniversary.