Award-winning documentary filmmaker Karin Kainer is a Documentary Film Lecturer at H.I.T., The Holon Institute of Technology, in Israel, and the director of “Skate of Mind,” and “South Wind on Hilton Beach.”
“Kosher Beach” will premiere at the 2019 DOC NYC film festival on November 13.
W&H: Describe the film for us in your own words.
KK: Kosher Beach is a separate, secluded beach that divides women and men; it coexists with the colorful gay beach in Tel Aviv. Its seems like a ghetto to an outsider but actually is a kind of hidden paradise for ultra-orthodox women who live in a world full of boundaries and strict rules. The movie tells their story, and of their fight for freedom.
W&H: What drew you to this story?
KK: When you come to the beach from the hill — known as Mount Sinai among the orthodox — you can see the whole bay, and actually you can see that all of the bay is one beach that contains all the paradoxes of Israel, and the world today, in a nutshell.
Religion [exists beside] the secular on the beach, where all of us are actually “naked,” and without our daily masks. The minute I stood on top of the hill breathing the air of the sea, and saw all these brave women going down to their private sanctuary, I felt like one of them, and [realized that] actually they are like me: looking for a place to breathe and feel free.
W&H: What do you want people to think about when they are leaving the theater?
KK: I want them to leave with a smile and the belief that you can find feminism and girl power even in a conservative, closed world.
W&H: What was the biggest challenge in making the film?
KK: To convince ultra-orthodox women to be filmed, especially at an open beach by the sea, and leave their barriers aside.
W&H: How did you get your film funded? Share some insights into how you got the film made.
KK: The film was funded with a production budget from Channel 8, the Israeli documentary channel, from the Israel Film Fund, and a grant from the Hartley Film Foundation.
W&H: What inspired you to become a filmmaker?
KK: Actually I got it from my father; he has an obsession with documenting our family but always through a rose-colored lens, as we would like the world to be. I found this moving but at the same time it upset me because the world needs to hear the truth. So I started with my father’s video camera, asking tough questions that no one wants to answer.
W&H: What’s the best and worst advice you’ve received?
KK: The worst advice someone gave me was from my former agent who told me to trust him — it turned out he was a bit of hustler.
The best advice my husband actually gave me last year, when I was having the worst time of my life. I couldn’t get pregnant, and a co-worker tried to steal a TV series I was working on — my former agent actually helped them. My husband told me: “You’ve got to start trusting your instincts; they are the best. Don’t listen to [the others].” A year and a half later I’m here with my movie at DOC NYC, and I have a five-month-old baby girl at home after three and a half years of waiting for her.
W&H: What advice do you have for other female directors?
KK: Trust yourself, listen to yourself. Women’s instincts are the best.
W&H: Name your favorite woman-directed film and why.
KK: [Films by] Laura Poitras, Greta Gerwig and Sofia Coppola. Laura for her courage to go after a good story and never give up, Greta because she took me back to my childhood and my first love, and Sofia for her distinguished way of telling a good story with style and beauty — when you see one of her creations, you know it’s hers.
W&H: What differences have you noticed in the industry since the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements launched?
KK: I can see that our voices are being heard and women, even little girls, aren’t afraid any more to speak up. Even in my movie you can see the changes in the ultra-orthodox society, and the women in it. They’re not afraid to fight, and to say what they want.
