The New York Times Op-Docs have acquired Rona Segal’s famous short documentary “Mission: Hebron” for distribution and will debut on nytimes.com and the New York Times YouTube page on November 16.
In Israel, national military service is compulsory at the age of 18. In “Mission: Hebron”, six ex-soldiers appear on camera to commemorate their recent term.
Segal said: “When I was 18, I joined the army – the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF). Recruitment is mandatory in Israel and we are trained to never doubt its necessity. I wanted to become a director, so I pulled every string I could to get to the IDF Film Unit. Strange as it may sound, the army was where I learned to make films. “Mission: Hebron allows me to go back to those years in the army, but this time with a critical perspective – a perspective that 18-year-olds simply do not have.”
“Mission: Hebron” was nominated by the Israeli Film Academy for the Ophir Award for Best Short Film, was a finalist for the European Short Film Awards and won Best Short Documentary at the 2020 I Film Festival. at AFI Fest.
Christine Kecher, Senior Editor-in-Chief for Op-Docs, said: “When our team saw ‘Mission: Hebron’ during its US premiere at AFI Docs, we knew we wanted to work with filmmakers to bring this film to a larger audience. “Rona’s fearless cinematography and personal experience serving in the IDF, as well as the candid and painful first-person narratives of the ex-soldiers she interviewed, provide a powerful and unprecedented view of life on the ground in the occupied West Bank.”
“Mission: Hebron” is produced by Idit Kliger of Kliger Films and executive production of Kobi Mizrahi by KM Productions.
Op-Docs is the New York Times publishing channel for short documentaries produced by independent filmmakers. It hosts many Oscar-nominated and Emmy-winning short documentaries and has won the International Documentary Association Award for Best Short Series.
Earlier this month, a new study reported by the Washington Post, based on the testimony of soldiers in Breaking the Silence, an organization of veteran soldiers who have served in the Israeli army, found widespread Israeli military surveillance efforts using face recognition to track West Bank, including the city of Hebron.
Watch the trailer of “Mission: Hebron” here:
