From Film School Drop-out to Academy Award Short List
Funny the impact a college professor can have on a student with aspirations. Mor Loushy a native Tel Avivian entered the Jerusalem Sam Spiegel Film School more than 15 years ago planning to learn the craft of filmmaking carrying an idea for her first film; an inside look at the Birthright Israel Experience program. Her professor, Loushy related in a recent interview, was less than enthusiastic of her topic, questioning her intention, instead suggesting she make a film on “something I knew, something about love.”
“I wanted to make my film,” says Loushy, “so I took my tuition money bought a camera and went on the Birthright bus, and never looked back” with the support and encouragement of her then boyfriend Daniel Sivan who offered to help produce her film. The result was Loushy’s first documentary film a revealing behind-the-scenes look at the Birthright program coming out in 2009 entitled “Israel Ltd.” Described in promotional materials as, “The marketing of Israel as such, juxtaposed against the reality, reveals our need as a society to not confront our flaws.” A statement which best sums up both a career and partnership launched with Sivan that continues to live up to the central thesis raising revealing questions which Loushy and Sivan hope Israel and her supporters will confront.
Over the past decade and a half Loushy and Sivan have been more than prolific and successful producing and directing a number of quality well-known documentary film projects; Oslo Diaries, The Devil Next Door, Dirty Tricks and 2021’s Camp Confidential: America’s Secret Nazis short-listed for nomination for Best Documentary (Short Subject) by Hollywood’s Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Film industry recognition of the quality of their work have earned Loushy and Sivan backing and distribution by top film distributors such as Netflix (Camp Confidential), Showtime (Dirty Tricks), HBO (Oslo Diaries) and backing of YES Documentary in Israel among other international sponsors. Their films have also won numerous accolades from renowned American film festivals including Telluride and Sundance Film Festivals.
The Loushy-Sivan story is deeply rooted in their Israeliness, says Loushy, “this is our life here. I mean, politics and the essence. I’ve always considered myself someone who loves Israel, for years, I did film after film, after film about politics.”
In 2020 Loushy directed with Sivan as co-writer, debuted the first inside look at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) Kings of Capitol Hill, finding several former senior level AIPAC professionals who went on camera for the first time revealing the Israel lobby’s innerworkings over the past several decades.
“It’s always a fascinating relationship, I don’t think that Israel would have survived without the support of U.S. Jewry or world Jewry, it’s massive. It’s a relationship. It’s a partnership. But I don’t think Israelis understand it or, they don’t care, For me, it was always fascinating like my first film I did about Birthright, the behind the scenes politics who’s pulling the strings and at the end of the day, what are the consequences to us (Israelis) as citizens? I actually live here and go to the army, and I think and we are living constantly under threat of wars here, which is crazy and not healthy and not the future I want for my kids.”
Due to the timing of its release as COVID was beginning to explode and alter lifestyles, distribution of Kings of Capitol Hill suffered finding only very limited audience exposure. Explains Sivan, “We were really hoping for every Jewish community and every JCC across the nation to have a debate about it because it really is about what is wrong with American Jewry’s relationship with Israel. And raise the question; what can we do in order not to lose this connection?”
Kings of Capitol Hill covers the Netanyahu years when Israel and American supporters were increasingly seen to favor one American political party. “Suddenly, if you are an American Jew who doesn’t support Netanyahu,” says Sivan, “you’re considered a non-Zionist.” Unfortunately the then current AIPAC officials declined repeated invitations from Loushy and Sivan to participate or even offer a statement on the film.
Loushy and Sivan both lost family members in the Holocaust growing up with household survivor stories, but the making of Camp Confidential was an idea brought to them by Austrian Jewish film producers Benji and Jono Bergmann. The Bergmann brothers had discovered US National Park Service audio interviews of former Jewish Army veterans who had been assigned to staff a top secret Northern Virgina prison camp code named P.O. Box 1142. In 1946 after World War II had ended, the camp was bulldozed and all records of its existence and mission were destroyed. As the site was under supervision of the US National Park Service, 15 unclassified surviving photographs from the camp prompted enterprising employees to see if any former US Army officials were still alive and willing to share their personal experiences.
The Bergmanns found a handful of audio-taped interviews made by the Park Service in 2006 of those still living survivors, who had sat for interviews of their recollections which comprised a truly astounding story of historical significance. They contacted Loushy and Sivan with their find who although exhausted from the making of Kings of Capitol Hill couldn’t resist the opportunity to make a documentary of the astounding story, which of course revealed moral questions; did the ends justify the means.
In addition to the subject matter and historical significance, what makes Camp Confidential notable is the use of animation in several scenes as archival footage or still pictures did not exist. Loushy and Sivan added the talented Canadian Little Blackstone Studios to their team effectively and creatively deploying animation at key segments of the short film. Much has already been written about Camp Confidential, deservedly so, and no need to tell the story here to avoid spoiling the viewing experience. Yet a story of Jewish refugees of Germany inducted into the US Army ending up supervising and gathering intelligence from Nazi prisons of war, including the famous Wernher Von Braun is a story worth watching.
Loushy and Sivan have now been working together for twenty years and are the proud parents of two children still making their home in Tel Aviv. They have produced a body of work that any film school professor would be proud to have inspired, even if by prompting a student to follow their dreams instead of a professor’s advice. This year’s Academy Awards will be announced on March 27th in Hollywood, hopefully Mor Loushy and Daniel Sivan will be able to attend in person.
Camp Confidential is available to stream on Netflix.