Little did I know that my experiences at ROI '09 would set me on a path toward making a feature film about Jerusalemite movers-and-shakers and fill my life with people that would help make the project possible! That fateful conversation with Avner was just the beginning. Another ROI ’09 participant, Ofer Berkovitch, became one of the film’s protagonists due to his standing as Jerusalem’s youngest City Council member and founder of the youth political movement, Awakening.

Two of the film’s other characters, secular activist Esti and ultra-Orthodox reformer Itamar, were suggested to me by Ziv Maor, an Israeli ROIer whom I met in the Arts & Culture track. Ziv ultimately became one of the film’s advisors, along with ROIer Harry Rubenstein, who has provided both cultural and technical advice for the project.  Harry’s wife and fellow ROIer, Ziva Rubenstein, not only introduced me to another one of our protagonists, the photographer and gallerist Einat, but also helped me navigate a permissions situation to allow me to film at the Israel Museum.

It was an ROI Seed Grant that enabled me to get back to Israel from Brooklyn last summer and start researching on the ground and filming the trailer. Aside from the fact that the trip kicked off with my participation in ROI ’10, my ROI Community helped in numerous ways once I actually began filming.

ROIer Gal Mor helped me and my camera man get around to famous sites for filming b-roll, in exchange for using the footage on the website of his awesome new venture, Abraham Hostels. Ziv Maor came along as translator on one of our shoots, and ROI ’10 presenter Flo Low guided us around tourist sites and watched our precariously parked car while we shot footage. I also stayed in “Beit ROI” during the entire shooting period, and benefitted from the advice and support of my roomie Esther Kustanowitz and the rest of the wonderful staff in the ROI office.

I guess it goes without saying at this point that ROI has been critical to getting my project off the ground. I am grateful to these and so many other ROIers who aren’t even named here who have helped by donating a few shekels, providing a listening ear, re-posting my links, or giving advice.  I am now using the trailer above to continue fundraising with the goal of coming back to Israel this summer to complete the film’s principal photography. It's a long process but, thanks to ROI, I know that I always have a community to lean on.