Rocket rockumentary

January 14, 2009 - 3:36 PM by Harry

35-year-old filmmaker Laura Bialis moved from Los Angeles to Sderot just over a year ago. Her latest documentary, Sderot: Rock in the Red Zone, set for distribution in 2009, is currently in post-production, but given the latest developments in the south, we wouldn’t be surprised if some newer footage crept in to the final cut as well. As Bialis puts it on the movie’s website, “This is a story about what its like to live through a never-ending war. Not just to survive, but to keep living.”

Bialis has been blogging since the current Gaza war has begun, with her words lending a personal face to her project’s subject matter, as well as the way the movie is shaping up:

I used to have a crew, but my two usual shooters are afraid to come to Sderot right now. So I’m on my own, except for my husband, who has become my assistant cameraperson because he won’t let me out of his sight. We’ve made a pact to try to stay together as much as possible so we don’t worry about each other….

When I first came to Sderot I didn’t run to the shelter. The threat seemed so random. It seemed almost impossible that you were going to be hurt. The fear of Qassams is something that takes a while. It grows on you. Because now, I know too many people with near misses.

A lover of history, Bialis founded and heads the Foundation for Documentary Projects, which serves as an umbrella for her various projects, which have in the past focused on the Holocaust and Soviet Refusenik culture. Along the way, she has garnered awards from the Vermont International Film Festival and the Anti-Defamation League.

Sderot: Rock in the Red Zone (check out the heart-wrenchingly poignant trailer here) does what it can to convey what life is like in a sleepy development town which has absorbed thousands of terrorist rocket attacks over the past several years, but the movie accomplishes this feat in an unconventional manner, by focusing on Sderot’s status as a musical hotbed.

Acts like Sfatayim, Teapacks and Knessiat Hasechel, all huge Israeli pop bands, all hail from the town, where loads of up-and-comers are enjoying an artistic renaissance, largely through the hub of Sderock, an incubator/rehearsal space that’s also a performance stage – and also an underground bomb shelter. Sderot: Rock in the Red Zone tells the story of life in Sderot through the eyes of the town’s vibrant music scene and that scene’s key players.

For more details on Sderot’s rock scene and full profile of Bialis please read this story at ISRAEL21c.

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