New documentary highlights the tragedy and resilience of families affected by Oct. 7
‘October 7th: Voices of Pain, Hope and Heroism’ contains never-before-seen footage of the massacre; will be released by Aish on Tisha B’Av, the Jewish day of mourning, next week
Across from the Western Wall, a new documentary film, “October 7th: Voices of Pain, Hope and Heroism,” was prescreened on Thursday to an emotional audience of several dozen to bear witness to the testimony of five families who were gravely impacted by the October 7 massacre.
“In my eyes, this is a very important project, because it is very important to tell the truth about what happened on October 7 and since,” Maj. Gen. (ret.) Noam Tibon, who sprang into action to save his son and his family on that fateful day and took part in the film, told The Times of Israel.
“All the Jewish people in the world must understand what happened here on October 7, they must understand about the real face of Hamas, they must understand about the hostages, about the bravery,” Tibon said.
The film, which contains never-before-seen footage of the October 7 atrocities from the families’ personal achieves, will be released online on Tisha B’Av, a fast day considered the saddest day on the Jewish calendar, and which this year runs from the evening of Monday, August 12, to the evening of Tuesday, August 13.
The day marks some of the most disastrous moments in Jewish history, including the destruction of the First Temple in 586 BCE and the Second Temple in 70 CE. This year, it also comes amid threats by Iran and the Hezbollah terror group to attack Israel in retaliation for the killings of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran and senior Hezbollah military commander Fuad Shukr in Beirut. (Only the latter has been claimed by Israel.)
“We’ve seen throughout the generations that the Jewish people have undergone a lot of persecution and suffering and tragedy in their life, and Tisha B’Av, which is coming up, really commemorates those events,” said film co-host Rabbi Dov Ber Cohen.
“But we’ve also seen throughout the generations, that’s why we’ve never really… played the victim, we’ve always got up, got stronger. So we decided that this year, especially, after what happened on October 7, that we wanted to take this day, Tisha B’Av, to show that we take our pain and rebuild.”
The film was hosted by Aish, a Jewish educational organization known for its religious outreach. The film’s early premiere was held at the Gindi Auditorium and Kirk Douglas Theater at the Dan Family Aish World Center in Jerusalem.
Aish has made five previous films to coincide with the holiday, but nothing of this scope, said Daniel Rose, production executive of the film.
“We knew that these would be stories that people would want to hear, that people would appreciate,” he said. “We wanted to create something special. There’s a lot of difficult news and a lot of video footage that’s just horrific, and there’s not enough hopeful and uplifting content, so we wanted to come in and put something in that space.”
The documentary features the stories of Jen Airley, mother of slain soldier Binyamin Airley; Iris Haim, mother of the accidentally killed hostage Yotam Haim; Maj. Gen. (Ret.) Noam Tibon, father of Amir Tibon; Julie Kuperstein, mother of hostage Bar Kupershtein; and Alon and Sheerie Mesika, parents of Addir Mesika, who was murdered at the Supernova festival while heroically trying to save his friends.
Filmed in documentary style interspersed with commentary on Jewish values from Cohen, the film shows how each of the families had their lives irrevocably altered by the horrors of October 7 but managed to find the strength to overcome the seemingly insurmountable odds to turn their personal tragedies into stories of resilience.
“Coming from shooting on the streets of Times Square or the red carpets of the Oscars or the Emmys, from London and LA, and everything in between, this is the most meaningful and rewarding project I’ve had the privilege to be a part of,” said Jamie Geller, chief media and marketing officer at Aish, a former producer at HBO and CNN and co-host of the film.
