When aspiring film maker Michal Weits entered famed Jerusalem Sam Spiegel Film School in 2007 she never dreamed of becoming an historian. Nor did she expect her first-year assignment to write a film proposal would result in a 14-year odyssey culminating in achievement of finalist for the 2021 Ofir Award (Israel’s Academy Awards) for best full-length documentary. In a recent conversation Ms. Weits related how a film proposal that began as a loving look at her great grandfather’s seminal role in the Zionist enterprise resulted in a film that documents both the acquisition of land for a Jewish State and activities that ensured displaced Arab/Palestinians would not have homes to which to return after 1948. JNF forests were planned, planted and thrived where Palestinian villages had once stood, by design of Grandpa Weitz, according to Michal Weits’ research presented in her new film, Blue Box.
The film titled in recognition of the ubiquitous Jewish National Fund (JNF) created blue and white metalic pushke found in nearly every Jewish Diaspora home for decades has a history dating back to pre-state Israel. Michal Weits’ film Blue Box is also titled in tribute to her great grandfather Joseph Weitz, the family patriarch and hero of the vastly successful Jewish National Fund campaign to plant forests of trees, acquire land for settlements to “reclaim the Land of Israel” fulfilling the Zionist vision of establishing a Jewish State in the ancient homeland of the Jewish people. As Michal narrates early in the film, she carried tremendous pride in being a descendent of the man whose achievements were marked and celebrated throughout Israel most especially on the Jewish holiday of Tu Bishvat (New Year of Trees).
Through her research Weits found original JNF marketing films targeting international Jewish audiences to motivate them to feel an emotional stake in the success of the new Jewish State. The film features speeches by JNF fundraisers who use the concrete uplifting natural symbol of new forests for contributors who although not planning to move to Israel themselves felt they must make a special effort to ensure its success as a place refugees from the Holocaust would feel at home.
In crafting her first-year film school proposal Michal knew that Grandpa Joseph had also left behind a number of handwritten journals, diaries of his activities and thoughts written contemporaneously with his work and responsibilities as director of JNF’s Department of Afforestation and Land Acquisition. Though she had never read the journals Michal assumed it would be great source material for a documentary on the historic role Joseph Weitz played in the creation of the State of Israel, but it was the discovery of an internet posting that truly piqued her interest, she found a picture of her great grandfather alongside founding father David Ben Gurion, in the article Joseph Weitz was identified as ‘the father of the transfer’ and a ‘war criminal’.
“I had to check it out, there’s no way I could stay cool, I was angry and I must find out why expert historians were calling my great grandfather ‘the architect of transfer’” recalls Michal, referring to uprooting the pre-existing Arab-Palestinian inhabitants of pre-state Israel villages who became refugees that today number in the millions forming the core of aggrieved Palestinian population of refugee camps and Gaza.
“It was the first time I heard this term, I was completely clueless, I had to go to his diaries they were kept in my home, I went to 1948”, Michal Weits said recently, “I began seeing the word ‘transfer’ repeating itself in the diary,” and thus the passion required for a 14-year journey to make an award-winning documentary film had its inception.
During the research process Michal discovered the truth that was “never talked about within my family.” Deploying the funds raised internationally by JNF “to plant trees” was her great grandfather’s responsibility, who was charged by Israel’s young government not only to acquire land but plant forests where thriving Arab/Palestinian villages had stood prior to 1948 War of Independence. For the Arab/Palestinian refugees who found themselves in refugee camps, these JNF activities became known as the “transfer”, Weits’ great grandfather Joseph Weitz was “the father of the transfer”. As Weits documents in the film Israel’s first Prime Minister David Ben Gurion led an effort to transfer land from the State to the JNF ensuring it became private land outside the authority of international law or United Nations resolutions on refugee resettlement. Within Israel this became known as “the million dunam deal” putting these lands under authority of JNF and Joseph Weitz to determine their future.
By 2017 Weits had a tight 15-page screenplay and script outline to present as she recruited a team to help turn her project it into a feature documentary. Seasoned producer Assaf Amir came onboard and eventually added editor Erez Laufer to the team. Amir became a valued friend and collaborator playing a critical role encouraging Weits to bring her voice to the film.
Over the next two years Weits’ team spent many hours in the editing room taking Michal’s work, archival footage, research materials, words from Grandpa Weitz’s diary into a cohesive story, but Amir still felt something was missing, an emotional core.
“Shepherding is what I do,” said Amir in a recent interview, Michal and I discussed everything all the elements that would appear on the screen, but one of the most important things I thought was the dialogue between Michal and her great grandfather, we needed Michal to appear in the film and we also needed someone to voice the words in Grandpa Weitz’s diary.”
After numerous auditions they settled on seasoned Israeli stage actor Dror Keren to give life to the diaries of Joseph Weitz written many decades ago. Film viewers hear the mixed feelings and deep concern Joseph Weitz carried about the work JNF and Israel’s leadership charged him to carry out including his predictions of the price Israel would eventually come to pay for displacing the population to fulfill the Zionist dream.
Amir also encouraged Weits to include her family in the film which meant on-camera interviews with her uncles, cousins and eventually her father Rami Weits a very well-known Israeli sports television broadcaster. Without any preparatory meetings or briefings Michal invited her family members to one-on-one interviews to capture their genuine instinctual responses to penetrating questions about the heroic family patriarch Grandpa Joseph.
“I kept my research to myself,” said Michal, “maybe I was a bit afraid of what my father might say, I really had to do the research and understand everything before I began to talk with my family,” says Michal.
Despite his on-camera misgivings about participating in his daughter’s project Rami Weits now says, “the film is solid proof my daughter Michal did the right thing, in the right way,” he said recently.
“My daughter’s narration was well done, but she put her hand near the fire,” yet Rami Weits says, “I am proud of her, I am proud of my grandfather and proud of myself for my role in raising such an amazing daughter.”
“In reading the diary I felt I’m reading something very special written by a very special man -Grandpa Joseph- the pride of the family,” reflects Michal.
Michal Weits dedicated Blue Box to her one-year-old daughter Lily recognizing that a new generation has responsibility to understand the past, “we don’t have the luxury to not ask questions especially for the next generation.”
“I hope the film starts a discussion and debate among the Jewish people everywhere,” says Weits in summing up her creation.
Blue Box made its Israeli debut at this summer’s DocAviv festival winning the award for best editing, it has also been recognized at the Vancouver Film Festival winning the Impact Award. It continues to show around Israel, on YES Documentary streaming channel and at Jewish film festivals worldwide.