I was touched by strong emotion watching the Emmy award-winning documentary We Will Dance Again by Yariv Mozer. I invited him for a second interview to focus solely on this film. We had previously discussed his documentary The Devil’s Confession: The Lost Eichmann Tapes on another episode of Cult Conversations: The Influence Continuum, where we unraveled the illusion that Adolf Eichmann, the Nazi, was “just following orders” when he actually ordered Holocaust executions.
Yariv Mozer is a filmmaker, screenwriter, and director who teaches at the Steve Tisch School of Film at Tel Aviv University. His 2024 documentary captures Hamas terrorists brutally attacking the Nova music festival attendees on October 7th, 2023, and shows the horrifying events that followed, including hostages taking. It is challenging and important to watch. I recommend everyone look at it to understand the Israeli perspective on what occurred that day. Additionally, we need to understand what is still happening with the Israeli hostages not yet released. We must not forget the horror of this attack, nor lose its significance in the discussion of conflicts in the region.
Documenting a Terrorist Attack by Hamas from Multiple Perspectives
“I think that this is a terror attack that you can see for the first time from both perspectives that captured the same moments at the same time. And I think this is the power of this film,” Yariv said as we began discussing We Will Dance Again. Unlike other films documenting a terrorist attack, Yariv was able to create a first-hand perspective from both the point of view of attendees and the attackers, compiled through the abundance of videos from phones and GoPro footage from the terrorists.
Yariv’s advanced investigative journalism and filmmaking allowed for the compilation of footage and stories to accompany the important imagery of what occurred. Yariv said he rushed in just two days after the attack, into a still active conflict zone, to save data from being lost because he understood the significance of what had just happened. He wanted to preserve the evidence, knowing that data would be deleted and lost. This footage and the stories that surround it explain precisely why this human-created disaster so provoked Israelis, and the full extent of the atrocities that had just occurred and were continuing to occur. It details the depth of the brutal crimes committed on predominantly young people in their twenties who were simply out to enjoy a day with music and the international community.
A Reminder that a Majority of Israelis Want Peace
Yariv implored listeners to please remember that most Israelis are for human rights, democratic rule of law, and policies to stop the war between Israel and Palestine. “I think at this point, this war should have ended, the hostages should have been released. I think it’s the responsibility of the state and government of Israel to focus on their release, not killing Hamas and Palestinians controlled by Hamas. Israel should have stopped the war. The casualties of war, the innocent casualties of war, are devastating. And there is a point at which a country needs to understand that war cannot solve everything, and violence cannot solve everything,” Yariv said.
We discussed what psychological warfare is also at play in this attack and the events following. I noted that both the United States and Israel were under extreme right-wing leadership at this time, and this directly impacts ongoing conflicts and continuing harm. “Do not blame every Israeli for every type of policy that our government is conducting,” Yariv noted. I mirrored the same about the United States: “Don’t hate the American people. Most of us are good people, and we don’t like Trump, and we’re appalled by his destruction of the checks and balances of laws, the applications of all the rights that we fought for.”
I also reminded listeners that not everything was black or white in the Israeli and Palestinian conflict, and the history of harm in the region is extensive and complex. “I’m seeing entities of authoritarianism versus people who are pro-democracy and human rights and women’s rights and gay rights and indigenous rights and children’s rights,” I noted. Yariv and I both agreed that the pain being inflicted upon the Palestinian people was unacceptable and not helping any of these regions to heal. I added that I hoped we were able to find peace without further cooking our planet and destroying our environment, as wars are costly in so many ways.
Tikkun Olam: The Jewish Commitment to Repair the Broken World.
We talked about Tikkun Olam, a foundation principle of many Jewish households, by which the individual accepts responsibility for helping to repair the world. Many of the largely twenty-something group at the Nova music festival were raised in a culture believing in this idea. They came together in peace and harmony. “It was an international music festival. People came from all over the world. There were DJs invited from different countries. It was a rave of trance music. They came to party and to have fun, but also with the values of nature preservation and peace and love, and all the good things,” Yariv said.
As we were wrapping up our conversation, Yariv expressed his hope that people would watch the film and empathize with the tragedy of the lives lost. “Hopefully, for me, young people worldwide will watch the film and identify with people they see as themselves,” he said. “It could have been any of you from America, from any other country, in the west or the east, coming to the State of Israel for this music festival that could have taken place in any other country.” He said what brings him hope from this experience is what Nova festival attendees have said about revenge. “They do not want to take revenge. They are in hope to heal themselves. They’re in hope to heal their society. They’re in hope to find love.”
Resources:
The Devil’s Confession: The Lost Eichmann Tapes with Filmmaker Yariv Mozer, interview with Dr. Steven Hassan
WE WILL DANCE AGAIN: SURVIVING OCTOBER 7TH Paramount Channel. It has just won an Emmy for Outstanding Current Affairs Documentary!
Surviving October 7th: We will Dance Again BBC
The Devil’s Confession: The Lost Eichmann Tapes, Amazon Prime
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Mom