USA Premiere
Saturday, April 9, 8:30 pm
Filmmaker Present: Elinor Kowarsky
Israel, 2004, 120 minutes,
Hebrew with English subtitles
Director, writer, cinematographer:
Erez Laufer; Producers: Elinor and Edna Kowarsky

This toe-tapping documentary celebrates the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) musical bands organized to entertain the soldiers at the front. Featuring wonderful vintage clips and recent interviews, these first two hours of a proposed four-hour series trace the IDF bands from their origins before WWII, through the War of Independence, the Sinai Campaign of 1956, and the Israel evacuation of the Sinai Peninsula, until the Six Day War. Featuring Chana Meron, Hayim Hefer, Naomi Polani, Gil Aldema, Chaim Topol, Arik Einstein, Yehoram Gaon, Shalom Hanoch and other well-known stars, the film illustrates how, besides transmitting ideological values of defense and settlement, the bands paved the way for stars who later became central figures in the Israeli entertainment industry.

Sponsors:
Jacob and Libby Goodman Institute for the Study of Zionism and Israel,
Brandeis University, CAMERA, New England Friends of IDF