Fear and danger are never far for residents of the development town, Sderot, where missiles rain down on civilians routinely from Hamas and other Islamist forces in the nearby Gaza Strip. Despite the almost daily trauma, a community of young artists—Greater Sephardi Jews of mainly Moroccan, Kurdish, and Persian descent—have found an artistic outlet for their anger and hope, creating world-infused music every single day.
Laura Bialis
Laura Bialis is an American-Israeli filmmaker. She grew up in Los Angeles and Santa Barbara, California and is a graduate of San Marcos High School (Santa Barbara, California) and Stanford University. She holds an MFA from the University of Southern California USC School of Cinematic Arts in Film Production.
Her documentaries include: Tak for Alt – Survival of a Human Spirit, about Holocaust survivor turned civil rights activist Judith Meisel, which Bialis produced and co-directed with Broderick Fox and Sarah Levy, View from the Bridge: Stories from Kosovo, co-directed with John Ealer, and Refusenik.
In 2003, Bialis founded the Foundation for Documentary Projects, a non-profit organization with the mission of creating documentaries and accompanying curricula about important historical and social issues. In 2007 Bialis left California and emigrated to Israel, where she lives in the town of Sderot. She is making a film that “follows the situation there through the eyes of young musicians who are living under the daily threat of Qassams.”