Master Class with Samuel Maoz

During Samuel Maoz's (Lebanon, Foxtrot) master class at the Roxy Cinema Tribeca, Maoz spoke about his decision to film Lebanon and the way he decided to film it, and his background as it pertains to the film, giving a few filmmaking tips along the way.

He wanted to shoot Lebanon because he wanted to share his experience of the war he partook in, in Lebanon, with everyone.  However he wasn't able to shoot it directly after his involvement in the war due to his PTSD.  It was only after years of distancing himself from his war experiences that he was able to touch this subject again, and when he did, it was therapeutic.

I've learned that it's natural that filmmakers may want to film something that draws from their past experiences, especially if it has had a deep enough impact on them that they want to share it with others.  But as Maoz pointed out, in order to do such a thing, you have to look at that experience from both an objective and personal point of view, never entangling the two.  He made it a point not to get too emotionally involved in the film because if you do, you risk letting unbridled emotions destroy the cinematic strategic structure of your film.

Also, he filmed the whole movie from inside a tank because he wanted to convey the same claustrophobic sense he felt in war, which I think is a good/creative idea for my future films -- to shoot in a way where the movie is not only visual and audio, but experiential.  On a side note, this also proved economical, an important consideration to take in my future endeavors.

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