Shadya interview page 3 (cont.)
Tell me about your background and your journey in making this film. Why did you make this film?
DH: I originally made the film to show how children from areas in conflict can become friends through a sport and philosophy as karate.
I was born in Australia and lived most of my life there. My parents are Jewish and were born in Egypt. My father's families are from Safed a small spiritual town in Israel and my mother's family originally from Odessa. Being educated in multi-cultural Australia I made many friends from different nationalities and religions and I represented Australia in many karate competitions with many migrant Australians. This enabled me to believe in the possibility of people living in harmony and led me to go to Israel to make the film.
UK: I am a film producer who deals with social and politics issues through documentaries. My main concern is to tell stories that the average viewer can't get any access to. These stories should provoke the viewer to think about reality, about life, about the world he/she is living in. I think TV today is shallow, and encourages escapism, values of selfishness and materialism. I'm not having any delusions that I can beat the majority of regular programming. But I hope that if the viewer for once in a while can be exposed to a good eye-opening documentary--it can have some good effect on him and on society.
I'm investing many efforts on the film’s form, style, the script, the music--everything that can make the film attractive. I can’t tolerate "important boring films." TV today is very competitive. Even the documentary should be attractive for viewing. I believe merging all those principles has helped me successfully survive in this tough and demanding zone of documentary production for more then 10 years.
How did you meet Shadya?
DH: In 2002 I attended classes at Tel Aviv University to receive a national certificate for Karate teaching in Israel. This is a certificate that all Israeli karate teachers must have. And I had to do it ...even though I had taught Karate for over 25 years in many countries...and lived in Japan for many years....Anyway, in this class I met Shadya and as my Hebrew language skills were poor at the time, Shadya helped me with my Hebrew and in exchange I coached her in karate.
UK: Danny is Shadya’s karate coach. He introduced me to her and the opportunity to make a documentary about her.
