Sharon Yaish, 48, married, mother of three children. Itai, 17, Yael, 12, Naomi, 10, has lived in Tel Aviv for 28 years. Documentary creator, editor and director of films and documentary series, winner of the Ophir Award for the film “Whore Like Me”. These days in cinemas you can watch “Los Angeles South,” the third full-length film she has made, along with Golan Reese.
When did you realize you wanted to create in the documentary field?
“The question of ‘when did you realize you want to be’ never indicates a point in the timeline that you stop and decide. I started with cable, I was in the promo department and I moved to Keshet. I worked there for 10 years, I was a creative director and promo director. Aspiration to keep looking for the exact place. When with me, my son, was two years old, it was very demanding and I barely saw him and the phones kept going after four. That was the moment I decided to be a freelancer. It was clear I was continuing to edit because that was my favorite. “I edited films and a lot of series. In 2018 I met Golan Reese with whom I now created ‘Los Angeles South’ and created ‘Whore Like Me’ with Yael Shachar. These are people who insisted that I leave the editing room and said ‘let’s do something.'”
The courage to say “I have something to say”. Sharon Yaish (Photo: Shlomi Yosef)
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And what happened when you left the editing room?
“For me the editing room is a very protective thing. It suits my character very well. When I went out something happened. Something activist was born that I am very bastardized by. And a little courage to say ‘I have something to say’.”
What are the gross differences between directing and editing as you experience it?
“Editing is really an extraordinary profession where you recreate the whole world and somewhat correct it in the editing room. As editors, at our core we hear life, people who say the wrong thing, we know how to bring it out. We try to find essence. When I went out I realized “That life needs a look at the weak, at those who need you.”
What does it mean to be a docu-activist creator?
“It’s not a matter of pre-decision. You’re not saying ‘I’m going to be an activist.’ She was looking for and wanted to be recognized as a trade victim, and let her stay in the country after she was abducted from Hungary. The journey did not end at the end of the film, we continued to fight for her and you see things happen. “Moreover, and female solidarity has become very strong. Today, Chile has succeeded on its own, it sits on a committee that decides who is harmed by trade on behalf of the Ministry of Justice.”
A genre we have not found like it. Sharon Yaish (Photo: Shlomi Yosef)
How is this essence expressed in “Los Angeles South”?
“It’s to see a watchmaker sitting there fixing watches and you recognize that as soon as the camera arrives, he also sees the potential of the camera himself. He wants something to happen to him, and suddenly he says maybe I’ll run for mayor.
So the plot of the film is created while filming it, without knowing where it is going?
“Not always. You start a journey with a hero and he sometimes takes a right or left. It’s not a pre-determined script but slowly things start to happen.”
And how did that happen to Yosef Khoury from “Los Angeles South”?
“Apart from the musical everything is docu. He was stolen about it. Even before he decided to run for election, he spoke in terms of ‘my people’. In the editing room we realized that there was music in the filming.
The concept of a documentary musical is something you gave birth to now. What is it in your definition?
“There is no such thing by definition, it’s a genre we have not found like it, neither in Israel nor in the world. There is a musical docu on singers and ensembles. There are many musicals of people singing. We also saw a docu on a prison in England that the people themselves sang. It’s something we started to explore and you can open it up more and more and do magic. “
We are all connected and can not leave. Sharon Yaish (Photo: Shlomi Yosef)
The film talks about wild dreams in the face of harsh realities. Can you tell us about this dissonance?
“The dissonance of what is happening in Kiryat Malachi is happening to each of us. This is an argument I had this week with the mayor of Kiryat Malachi. He said I made a film about the city, and I think I did not make a film only about the city. I made a film about a city within a country, and about a man within A city and a girl in front of her father and a man in front of his father. In Holon. “
Very relevant to the current difficulties in the country.
“Like terrible shit here but we are not leaving this country. And another second there is another election here and we are not leaving. There is something in Tel Aviv that for me it is either being here or abroad. It is the dissonance we tried to talk about. Above all, it is hard to be angry at the parent Yours and your country’s. ”
The film’s protagonist’s election slogan is – “Yosef Khoury will fix the city.” What things do you strive to correct in your works?
“To see those who do not see them. It sounds like a cliché – to see the transparent people. But it’s not just them. It’s also to see non-conformist people. We’re terribly complex people and it interests me. Both and also, not just binary, not or man or I’m interested in men who are connected to their feminine side, I’m interested in Chile which says in an amazing perspective ‘I rape myself as a prostitute’. I’m interested in people daring to say what other people do not dare. Mental first aid, for this place and all its volunteers. “You hear the underground of the State of Israel on the phone at Aran Shalom, you hear the real things happening. It makes everyone normal in the end.”
Let someone stop the madness. Sharon Yaish (Photo: Shlomi Yosef)
How do you not get sucked into the creations and the emotion and the complexity?
“Sucking. Living and crying. I cry full, every day. Sucking and it’s part of being alive. It’s both awful and great.”
And another moment regarding the repairs, what do you think requires a repair in Tel Aviv?
“What’s happening here right now with the construction is really abuse and abuse that is hard and blatant and saddening the residents. Homes are being demolished at the same time on the street where I live, and every time you call, you are sent to Nata. Also the hard fact that the city is getting richer day by day and throws people of mediocre socio-economic status or people who want to live in this city and make it cool and bring all its colorfulness. What will be left here? Only the rich from high-tech? This will not be a cool city. I would like someone to stop this construction and the madness. ”
What is most Tel Aviv in your eyes?
“Two things. That the city is always alive and in motion. Speaking of Kiryat Malachi, Tel Aviv is constantly moving. Even if you are lonely, you are lonely in the midst of a lot of movement around. And also, that there is a variety here that I would very much like to stay, “Adults and young people. And we live relatively in harmony.”
>> “Los Angeles South”A film by Sharon Yaish and Golan Reese, will be screened tomorrow (25.6) At the Tel Aviv Cinematheque, next week as part of the White Night events on the frequency (29.6), At the Jaffa Cinema (30.6), At a festival in Samaria (4.7) And at the Holon Cinematheque (6.7)