The Campaign makes its debut

Our documentary, The Campaign, has really only been seen once before - privately, with friends and family, a few weeks ago in Toronto. It was well-received. But it was friends and family.

Getting invited to show it at the Tev Aviv International Documentary Festival, as we were this afternoon, was something else entirely. As I sat there in the back row, watching people leave while it was still underway, it occurred to me that The Campaign was always going to be received differently in Israel.

Twenty-one. That's how many people slipped out while it was still underway. I counted. I was so struck by that, I mentioned it during the Q and A. When that part was over, I stood by the front and people came up to ask questions or offer comments or whatever.

One woman shook my hand and said that she was from kibbutz Be'eri. I've been there. It's located a few kilometres from the border with Gaza. On October 7, more than 100 people were murdered at Be'eri, and more than 30 were abducted.

She was one of them.

I didn't know what to say. The documentary contains many, many disturbing images - including Hamas footage of some of the atrocities that took place at Be'eri, her home. I didn't know what to say to her, so I apologized.

She told me I didn't need to apologize. Instead, she thanked me for making the documentary.

She told me that after she was released, she was filled with anger and despair, and she wanted to understand how Hamas and Gazans - alleged humans - could do what they did. She looked at the Hamas Charter, she said, the first one. We did likewise in the documentary, just as I did in The Hidden Hand. In it, you quickly see that Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood haven't ever obscured what they want to do to Jews and non-Jews alike. They want to kill us all.

I mentioned to her how many people had slipped out before the documentary had finished. She said it is hard for many Israelis to again experience the terrible events of that day - and the cruel things that have happened around the world in the days since. So she closed her eyes during the difficult parts, she said. And then she thanked me again.

I will conclude with this: I don't ever give a damn about comments, good or bad. I just don't. If you start caring about the former, you'll start caring about the latter. So I don't care.

But when something I've been part of affects a person like that - a person who has been through something that you and I can never even imagine?

Well, that matters. That makes it all worthwhile.

One more showing tomorrow, then back to Canada. Night from Israel. Hug your loved ones.