Interview with Michael Moshe Dahan - The Culture News

Interview with Michael Moshe Dahan - The Culture News

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ladies and gentlemen, Good afternoon, Welcome of the Culture News.
My name is David Severbro and I have the pleasure
to have today on. iHeart when you're on the Culture
News and many of the platforms are wonderful. Israeli American filmmaker,
artist and scholar who has earned his MF and studio

(00:21):
art with the critical theory emphasis on UC. Irvin is
going to talk to us about all of that. But
he is also the writer, the director, and the producer
of a great film called Two Points Failure, which was
featured in festivals like Rotterdam, This is a Netherland, by

(00:42):
the way, and try Baker in New York, of course.

Speaker 2 (00:45):
And his most ambitious project is called.

Speaker 1 (00:49):
Yes Repeat No You heard it, Yes Repeat No, which
is coming on major platforms and DVD on November twenty five.
I love the DVD because when I have it in
my hands, I know for sure I'm gonna watch it.

Speaker 2 (01:05):
This is this is important DVDs.

Speaker 1 (01:09):
This is a wonderful, wonderful film and we're so glad
to have today.

Speaker 2 (01:14):
Michael Mosshi, Dahn, Michael. How are you today, Good.

Speaker 3 (01:18):
Morning, David, I'm great, Thanks for having me on.

Speaker 2 (01:21):
Well.

Speaker 1 (01:21):
I said, is really really a pleasure. So would you
mind please introducing yourself? I know I did it also,
but can you tell us a little bit about who
are you and what brought you to this industry?

Speaker 3 (01:34):
Well, you know, I'm I mean Israeli by birth.

Speaker 4 (01:38):
I moved to the United States when I was about
nine years old, so I've lived here for quite some time,
and I spent I would say a decade after going
to college to university as a film executive working for
you know, big production companies in Hollywood, Los Angeles, and
then I.

Speaker 3 (01:56):
Went back to school to study fine art.

Speaker 4 (01:59):
And film as a kind of a second career, right,
And this film came out of a lot of that
work that I.

Speaker 1 (02:08):
Was doing, and you know it brought to you. You know,
it was all written in your destiny, definitely, because this
is this is a beautiful, beautiful work that that you're doing.
So now fast forwarding to that great new movie of
yours called Yes, Repeat No. So that is what is

(02:29):
the story and and who is Juriano Giuliano?

Speaker 4 (02:34):
Well, the you know this the story is based on
a real historical figure named Giuliano Meerkamis, who himself was
an actor for some time in Hollywood and also in
Israel in the Middle East. Right, he had some a
lot of parts in films by almost Gaitai, but also you.

Speaker 3 (02:53):
Know, worked in Hollywood fairly regularly.

Speaker 4 (02:57):
And I found out about him because I was working
on actually a doctorate dissertation on artworks that come out
of trauma, and he was mentioned to me because he
is both Palestinian and Jewish.

Speaker 3 (03:15):
His mother was.

Speaker 4 (03:17):
A Jewish activist and his father was a Palestinian Christian,
and so he was a really interesting figure because he
kind of, you know, embodied this divide between these you know,
this very kind of fraught divide that has caused a
lot of historical trauma. So I thought he was a

(03:39):
really fascinating person because of this place that he held.

Speaker 3 (03:45):
And then I found out that he was also an activist.

Speaker 4 (03:47):
He had a theater company in Janine that he still
has called the Freedom Theater, and he was.

Speaker 3 (03:56):
He passed away after he was shot in front of
his theater.

Speaker 4 (04:00):
And the thing that was so kind of fascinating and
tragic about this is that years before that he actually
predicted that something like that would happen. And so as
soon as I saw the video where he actually predicts
this thing happening in his life, and then found out
that he did it. I thought there must be some
kind of film here, right, There's got to be something
very interesting, and I just kind of, you know, went

(04:21):
into a research hall and kind of came out with
an idea that for me, had to do with more
than just this person's biographical existence, but really used Juliano
as a kind of allegorical figure for a larger conflict.

Speaker 1 (04:37):
Indeed, it is beautiful and very inspiring story. And again,
thank you for doing such a story and bringing this
beautiful thing. I want to say, so the way this
film is really revolutionary in a way because I felt,
you know, it was filmed a little bit like a
theater of play, you know, you know, it was very theatrical,

(05:01):
but in the sense of theater really absolutely.

Speaker 4 (05:05):
I mean, I mean, I come from a background as
I started as a theater director when I was in college.
It was always the thing that I really loved, just
because of the amount of work and the amount of
time that you put into working with actors. With a
group of actors, you really kind of live together in
a project in a way where you're rehearsing it and
trying to figure it out as it's happening. And I

(05:26):
think that's something that doesn't necessarily we don't have that
luxury in filmmaking. You show up, you know, you shoot
the scenes. You hope you get it in a few takes.
So the process was, you know, working with these actors
to try to understand the script. But while we're learning
to understand the script, we're also filming that process, and

(05:47):
then we're kind of rewriting the script in rehearsal as
we're learning what it's about. And so the entirety of
everything was was filmed the rehearsals, the parts where we're
performing it, and really there were times we knew that
where there were times where we'd get into discussions and
some arguments, right because obviously this topic people have a

(06:09):
lot of different opinions, and so one of my mandates
to the camera crew was like, if I call cut,
we're not cutting, right, you keep shooting because we're going
to be arguing about things and that becomes part of
the film itself.

Speaker 2 (06:22):
Well, I love that, and also I'm going to say
that the acting itself from the actor was very also theatrical.
You know, again, you know that the actors were free.
They had that freedom that we find usually on stage,
which you know, usually in a film. As you say,
they arrive in the morning and they have to wait

(06:43):
four hours that you know, the cameras get set up
and all of that. So then after you know, they
kind of lose the energy and all of that. But
you know, here we see that they are really free.

Speaker 1 (06:53):
They have so much energy to give, whether it's in
the projection of their voices that they re le project
their intention and you also as the director, you're projecting everything.

Speaker 2 (07:05):
For the audience. So it's a really really well done work.

Speaker 1 (07:09):
Uh So, I would like to ask you, so this
film was produced by a collaborative team of Palestinians, Israel's
and Americans and during the pandemic. So what challenges and
breakthrough did this unique collaboration create.

Speaker 4 (07:27):
Well, you know, we had an amazing team, a creative team.
You know, my producer Sarah Salovitz, who you know did
a master's work at the London School of Economics on
the Oslo Accords, so she really had a you know,
a real knowledge base to come at this project with
some expertise. And Braxton Pope, who was a phenomenal contributor

(07:51):
contributor to this because he really kind of set us
up with some amazing talent, uh. You know, cinematographers, casting directors,
people that I think were so essential in making things work.
But this cast that I had was really an international
cast and represented many sides of the conflict in a

(08:14):
biographical way.

Speaker 3 (08:15):
You know.

Speaker 4 (08:15):
I had an Israeli actor who was playing public Giuliano
named Adam Ear, an incredible Palestinian actor named Musa Kraish
who also introduced us to Karim Sale who is a
Lebanese actor who ended up playing the Israeli Giuliano.

Speaker 3 (08:36):
Right, So we have a Lebanese.

Speaker 4 (08:38):
Christian playing an Israeli character, we have the Palestinian actor
who's playing the Palestinian, we have the Israeli actor who's
playing kind of a hybrid composite of Giuliano's kind of
public personas. And then we had a director character played
by a British Iranian. So it was really important that
the people who worked on this film had some bio

(09:00):
graphical experience with this narrative so that when we would
stop to have conversations, the conversations we were having were
from us as human beings, not as characters or actors.
So so that was kind of an incredible piece of
this and of course we did not always agree. So
the challenges, you know, were about trying to navigate these

(09:23):
kind of arguments but create a safe space where all
of us as creative people, could feel comfortable having these
very complicated conversations, because, as you know, there's no conversation
about Palestine and Israel that is ever without complexity and
without you know, differing opinions. So that part of it,
I think would have was an incredible challenge, but we

(09:46):
overcame it, and we we created this space that was
really safe for everybody to participate.

Speaker 2 (09:53):
So thank you so much.

Speaker 1 (09:54):
So what do you hope that audiences will take from
these beautiful dialogue, from this beautiful film that they would
take away.

Speaker 2 (10:10):
For them?

Speaker 4 (10:10):
I should say, well, you know, our goal in making
this film was to present the complexity and contradictory nature
of the situation, which is to say that I am
Israeli by birth.

Speaker 3 (10:28):
You know, I have an emotional attachment to Israel.

Speaker 4 (10:31):
It's where I was born. You know, I love Israel,
but I'm also concerned and I find a lot of
the kind of political history somewhat problematic. So I'm living
in this kind of complex, contradictory experience. And so what
we set out to do was not solve a problem

(10:52):
or give an answer, right. We just wanted to present
the contradictory, complex, dificult nature of this for an audience
that may or may not know everything about this fully right,
to just kind of leave it in the audience's hand
to come to their own conclusions and experience how difficult

(11:14):
this is. Because for me, this is about being honest,
and the honest experience I have is an experience of
love and also you know, difficulty. It's very difficult for
me to watch what's happening while I also am attached
emotionally to this place.

Speaker 1 (11:33):
And we definitely do not blame you for that, and
this is again beautiful work that you have done.

Speaker 2 (11:42):
And we congratulate you for that.

Speaker 1 (11:44):
So before we say goodbye to each other and we
start again to encourage everyone to go to get right away, Yes, repeat, no,
the great, great, great new film of you. Mister Michael
moshe Dahn, who is a filmmaker, autist and scholar. He

(12:08):
has done the first film called Two Points of Failure,
which was a great success in important film festivals and
right now we have Yes Repeat Notes is coming on
major platforms and DVD on November eleventh, twenty twenty five
of this year. So what are your next projects and

(12:29):
also is there anything you would like to add regarding
the film?

Speaker 4 (12:33):
You know, I'm currently working on a few different things,
none of which I'm ready to speak about.

Speaker 3 (12:38):
But I think that for me, the most important thing.

Speaker 4 (12:42):
About this film is that people go into it with
an open mind and willing to be introduced to ideas
that they may not be comfortable with, right And I
think that the discomfort is something that we're very eager
for people to experience because I think that is an
honest portrayal of a very difficult situation.

Speaker 3 (13:07):
So I encourage people to see it.

Speaker 1 (13:08):
That way and definitely and that's the right way, and
we hope we would be there would be more and
more stories of yours like this, because they are really beautiful.
There is also a website called Yes Repeat No Film
that come Yes Repeat No Film dot com. You have

(13:29):
many information and encourage also everyone to watch the trainer
we want to sell. So thank you to Amy Prener
who introduced us to the film. And this is really
again a beautiful, beautiful film which we encourage everyone to watch,
to purchase, to stream. It comes out November eleventh. Ladies

(13:51):
and gentlemen, My name is David so we Row. I
had the pleasure to have today on the Culture News
on IHOUT Radio many other platforms. The wonderful filmmaker artist schuler,
mister Michael Moshe Nahani has released this great new film
called Yes Repeat No, coming on major platforms MDVD on November.

Speaker 2 (14:14):
Eleventh, twenty twenty five. Right now some music coming up.
Stay tuned with us and have a great weekend.