Official Selection
East Bay International Jewish Film Festival
Jersey Shore Film Festival
Toronto Jewish Film Festival
Silicon Valley Jewish Film Festival
Boca Raton Jewish Film Festival
Denver Jewish Film Festival
Tampa Bay Jewish Film Festival

Synopsis

Nancy Zeitlin is fearless, although she did get some early help from her horse to adapt to a new country, to face societal restrictions head-on, to break stereotypes, and walk through the restricted territory. She did all this after learning how and whom to trust from working with horses. Nancy Zeitlin, born an American Jew, moves to Israel as a child. As she rises to become an Olympic-level equestrian, the upheaval in her family – and in her adopted country – sees her do the unthinkable: become a trainer to Palestinians in the West Bank. Then, as Israel is rocked by internal strife and the Second Intifada, Nancy puts her own life at risk to keep hope alive for her Palestinian team. Her many-layered story rides parallel with the growth of the State of Israel, its wars, changing borders, and internal conflicts. A moving tale of embracing “the Other” in a quest for mutual understanding made possible through a shared affection for horses.

Director

Marcia Rock is a documentary filmmaker, professor, and Director of News and Documentary at NYU Journalism. Her documentaries cover international dilemmas women’s issues and personal perspectives. Her newest documentary is a feature and short series called Family Treasures Lost and Found, about breaking the silence that muffles family history so those lost become more than names. She produced, directed, and edited three films on veteran issues and two with Patricia Lee Stotter. Soldiers Period debunks myths about PMS and SERVICE: When Women Come Marching Home follows women transitioning from active duty to civilian life and won a NY Emmy. Warriors Return focuses on Navajo veterans. She’s covered Irish American and Northern Irish history producing Daughters of the Troubles: Belfast Stories (1997) that won many awards and McSorley’s New York, that chronicles the history of the NY Irish through the bar and won a NY Emmy. Her personal documentary, Dancing with My Father, reflects on how adult love is shaped by what a child learns at home. It also includes a history of the Jews of Cleveland. Surrender Tango explores how Tango can be a metaphor for relationships. Early work includes Village Writers: the Bohemian Legacy (1990), Reynolds Price: a Writer’s Inheritance (1989), and The Singing Angels to China in 1982 which won a Cleveland Emmy (1983). A seminal moment in her career was working with Marlene Sanders on the book, Waiting for Primetime: The Women of Television News. A pioneer for women in broadcast journalism, Sanders was the first woman to anchor a newscast.

Naomi Guttman-Bass has been making documentaries and short dramatic films for over 25 years. Human rights, tolerance, and understanding of the other are some of her major themes. She has a special interest in animals and spent many years getting to know the large carnivores at the Jerusalem Biblical Zoo through her film work. ‘Unreined’ combines these interests. She is a volunteer filmmaker active in community television in Israel. Her current project follows Israeli and Palestinian teens in a program where they work and learn together for four years. She has participated in numerous video projects broadcast on the Israel community television channel. Her films include ‘Third Side of the Checkpoint’ (46’), produced with Carmela Bass, that followed Machsom Watch women observing Israeli-Palestinian checkpoints for human rights violations, and Audience Favorite at the 2004 Human Rights in Film International Film Festival, Warsaw, Poland. ‘Half Here, Half There’ (10’), is about the effect of the separation wall between Israel and the Palestinian territories on a shopkeeper whose grocery store was located next to the new barrier, won best director at the 2008 Jerusalem Community Television ‘Oscars’. She directed ‘Horse Power and a Woman’ (7’), about a female dressage champion who built a horse stable near Gaza and whose family is in constant threat of terrorist attacks. It won first place in the 2019 Other Voices competition in Sderot, Israel. Apart from her film work, Naomi has a background in biology, with a PhD from MIT and years of research at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Yale University.