Why We Will Dance Again Shows Graphic Oct. 7 Attack Footage

The Paramount+ documentary “We Will Dance Again” gives viewers with an uncensored, 360-view of Hamas’ Oct. 7 terrorist assaults in Israel that left 405 lifeless, 45 taken hostage and lots of extra injured. The graphic depiction of the day offers a full glimpse into the fear inflicted on harmless Israeli civilians, worldwide guests (together with a number of People), Nova Music Pageant-goers and extra.

Produced by See It Now Studios, the movie debuted on the streamer Tuesday, nearly a 12 months after the atrocities that sparked the continuing warfare between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. Utilizing Hamas’ GoPro movie recordings, social media movies and victims’ recovered cellular phone footage, the documentarian group behind “We Will Dance Again” tried to provide a complete image of what actually occurred. 

Talking at a Los Angeles screening on the Sherry Lansing Theatre on Thursday, the movie’s director Yariv Mozer (“Golda’s War Diaries”) defended the graphic nature of the documentary as being mandatory and impactful. (Emilio Schencker, an Israeli filmmaker and CEO of leisure studio SIPUR, warned forward of the screening that the movie was not a straightforward watch.)

“There was this tension during the whole process, and I think it was a good tension, between me and the producers. I wanted to show more. I wanted to take off all the blurs. I wanted everything to be clear,” Mozer mentioned throughout a post-screening panel. “But it was clear we wanted it to be a commercial film that will address people on mainstream channels.”

In the end, the documentary group determined to blur victims’ faces, however whereas showcasing the atrocities dedicated by Hamas, the footage gathered by Mozer doesn’t shy from displaying the sheer brutality, filming victims usually laying in swimming pools of their very own blood or limp over their vehicles’ steering wheels. Others in the course of the assault are proven hiding in bomb shelters, tanks and fridges — or working for his or her lives by open fields. 

Over two dozen survivors participated within the Paramount+ documentary to focus on not solely their tales however these of their pals, who didn’t survive the day’s occasions. “We Will Dance Again” depends closely on testimonies from the survivors, however the uncooked footage of the assaults turned the movie’s handiest factor.

Susan Zirinsky, the movie’s producer and former president of CBS Information, mentioned there have been a number of “arguments” over how a lot to painting the truest account of the day’s atrocities however nonetheless make it palatable for audiences to view.

“Do we show somebody getting shot? Do we take that gunman going up to the person and then [pull] away, and then go back so that you know that person has been shot?” Zirinsky mentioned in the course of the panel, which additionally featured an Israeli survivor named Eitan.

The movie pushed the envelope, finally deciding that depicting the day in its totality was crucial.

“I felt that you show and you see it, but you have to allow people the opportunity to stay with it, because people can get frightened or squeamish,” Zirinsky mentioned. “I was the hesitant person, but in the end, I was the advocate.” 

“That’s the price. You leave some of the things that you feel that are too much outside of the film, and I must say eventually that I think it’s a good thing,” Mozer added.

Zirinsky additionally revealed that there are totally different variations of the movie: a British model that may air on the BBC, an Israeli model and the Paramount+ model. A German community, RTL, may even air the movie in full with no commercials – the primary movie to take action on the community since “Schindler’s List.” The group behind “We Will Dance Again” determined that premiering on a streamer within the U.S. allowed for a “freedom to expose more” than what is feasible on a community; nonetheless, Zirinsky hinted “never say never” to it airing elsewhere.

“George Cheeks [co-CEO of Paramount Global] felt this was our mission. Shari Redstone [chairwoman of Paramount Global] was there all the way. President of CBS entertainment Amy Reisenbach also in our corner. You cannot lose with that team,” she mentioned of the community executives’ assist of the movie. 

For Mozer, he mentioned he was struck by the youth and innocence of these in attendance on the Nova Music Pageant on Oct. 7. Mozer needed to inform a brand new era’s story and spotlight these “young people, beautiful, innocent who came to celebrate the beautiful values of life, freedom, peace.” He selected to not embody the rescuers, Israeli police or the households of victims or survivors within the movie, quite specializing in the lives misplaced and survivors’ testimonies.

Eitan, whose story featured prominently within the movie, additionally spoke on the L.A. screening. Alongside a gaggle of round 20 others, he hid in a bomb shelter and threw out dwell grenades so as to save himself and others that have been already injured, together with his pal, the late Israeli hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin. 

“Seeing Hersh there, helpless with nothing. He didn’t do anything wrong. He just came to enjoy himself at a party, and he found himself very badly injured, with his best friend killed right next to him, and I had no other choice but to try to save the people that were in there,” Eitan mentioned. 

Goldberg-Polin was taken hostage by the Hamas militants on Oct. 7, one in every of 45 who crossed the border again into Gaza. After his dying was confirmed Sept. 1, Mozer returned to the enhancing room, disheartened: “It’s not what I expected to do.” 

However the filmmaker reiterated that the documentary is “unpolitical.” He was important of the Israeli police for a gradual response time – practically six hours – and acknowledged {that a} group is actively suing Israeli safety over the dearth of urgency.

“We Will Dance Again” premieres Tuesday, Sept. 24, on Paramount+.