What is it like living in a state of perpetual war and terror? This is the question that filmmaker Joshua Faudem and his colleagues attempt to answer about the life of Israelis in the 2005 release Blues by the Beach.

The documentary is set at Mike’s Place, a popular live music bar on the Tel Aviv beachfront. The bar was chosen because it could be a blues bar anywhere in the world; people laugh, dance and sing just like at a bar in Canada. This is a face of Israel that is unknown to most of the world, and therefore such a place was ideal to show how Israelis live beyond the blood and violence shown on TV.

Faudem worked at Mike’s Place in 2003 and he and his girlfriend from the time, Pavla Fleischer, were hired on as camera crew by American documentary producer and investigative journalist, Jack Baxter, to tell the story of present-day Israel.

The team worked together, filming the bar patrons, wait-staff and the general life of Mike’s Place. The viewer becomes familiar with the personalities at the bar.

In the middle of production, on April 30, 2003, shortly after midnight, a suicide bomber set himself off at Mike’s Place killing three people, including Dominique Hass, a recent French émigré waitress, familiar to the filmmakers.

Baxter was severely injured and hospitalized, leaving Faudem and Fleischer in the forefront for the remainder of the film. They show the trauma experienced by those touched by the piguah (terrorist bomb) and capture the sentiments of Israelis that life must go on.

Today, Faudem presents Blues by the Beach at film festivals and lectures. Most recently, he was approached by Hillel to present the film to students on campuses across Canada. This is Faudem’s second tour to campuses this year, and although overall he is pleased with students’ reactions, he feels that his film would be better served if viewed by a broader audience.

\"My intention was to show it to non-Jewish students, and that hasn’t really happened unfortunately,\" says Faudem. \"Yes, Israelis love it, yes Jews identify with it. . . but it can have such a stronger impact if I show it at churches; if I show it at campuses but not necessarily to students or Jewish students.\"

Faudem says that the aim of the film is not to be political at all, and if he could use a word to describe the intention, it would be \"awareness.\"

\"When I go to film festivals, I’m appealing to people who are not Jewish who have mostly not been to Israel, and that’s when I’m hitting my target audience,\" says Faudem. \"I fully feel the fruits of showing the message, when people walk up to me saying: ‘oh I had no idea that’s how life is in Israel. I had no idea I could actually go to Israel. I had no idea that I actually want to take my kids to Israel.’\"

Faudem has received criticisms on the film, but he stands by the documentary in its entirety.

\"Either you see the film and there’s a character that you can identify with because of something that happened to you, or you completely miss the point,\" he says.

One particular criticism sticks out for Faudem, where at a film festival a journalist was livid with him for not showing the Palestinian side. Such a response makes Faudem feel as though he has failed in relaying the message because, \"if he had paid attention, he would have realized that this can happen on either side.\"

\"This is not journalism; this is a documentary and I am telling the story from the Israeli side,\" says Faudem.

The biggest kick, says Faudem, is to show the film and then ask questions immediately afterward; to have them critique, ask their own questions and to debate.

\"If it’s been successful or not, I think it could always be better with the turnouts. It’s a shame to bring someone and pay them money and get ten people.\"

Faudem is currently working on several new films dealing with Israeli subject matter such as a four part mini-series on the four quarters of the Old City in Jerusalem, the first gay pride parade in Jerusalem, and a comedy about Israeli Defence Force soldiers in Gaza when Rabin was assassinated.

\"Israel for me as a documentary filmmaker is the biggest source of inspiration,\" says Faudem. \"I’m totally inspired by walking down the streets, by meeting people, by talking to people, by hearing their stories. . . it inspires me, it feeds me.\"

For those who missed the screenings for Blues by the Beach, Faudem hopes they will get the chance to see it and to share it with others. He says he will most likely be back in Canada in a few months so students should keep their ears open about his next tour.