‘Hollywood has no spine’: The Jewish director fighting antisemitism through film

“When over 30 Harvard student groups issued that statement blaming Israel for the massacre, just one day after [it], I immediately understood that the pro-Palestinians had taken control of the narrative and that the messages being conveyed in universities are actually Hamas messages.

"Within less than two weeks, it was already clear to me that I was going to make a film about this."

October 8, the documentary Sachs directed to try to reclaim control of the narrative, was screened on Sunday at the Jerusalem Film Festival.

According to her, the film seeks to explain "how we got to where we got," and it's intended for an international and not necessarily Jewish audience.

But from watching it, it's hard not to feel that Sachs also created it for her brothers and sisters in the United States, and that it documents in real time a process of awakening.

"In the past year, I've been screening the film around the world to non-Jewish audiences," Sachs said. "People cry and react to it very emotionally, because they see phenomena similar to those happening on American campuses also happening where they are – in places like Amsterdam, Sydney, Mexico City and more.

“It was important for me to show that the issue is much bigger than what's happening in Israel...

"Within that, the film is definitely also dedicated to all my Jewish friends who didn't believe that all this was really happening, who lived in their bubble and didn't understand that there's so much antisemitism in America.

“This film provides them with the feeling that they're seen and understood, and also provides them with tools to cope and respond. On October 8, American Jewry woke up. I saw it happen with my own eyes."

Asked about the response of other high profile Jewish figures to the massacre, Sachs went on: “We discovered that Hollywood has no spine. We saw that people have no courage.

"So many famous Jews: Producers, directors, writers, actors, comedians. People who built their careers by telling Jewish stories.

"My acquaintances, my friends—suddenly they're silent.”

“There were confrontations,” she added. “But it's a very complex issue. I saw how people were cancelled as a result of their support for Israel, I saw how careers were damaged.”

Indeed, Sachs said that even Debra Messing, one of the actors who helped produce the documentary, was warned she would be damaging her career by doing so.

She went on: “But I'm not famous. I won't say I have nothing to lose, but my calculation is different. I was so determined to make this film and get it out before the first anniversary of the massacre.

"I developed an obsession with telling this story, and I felt I had to tell it properly, because I knew they would put the film under a microscope. This became the project of my life.”