Eyes Wide Open

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• 2008
• 1 hr 0 mins
• Documentary

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• Watchlist

Eyes Wide Open is a personal film that vividly conveys the nuances, complexities and ironies of the human connection between American Jews and Israel. Capturing the intimate encounter between travelers and Israel, it is primarily a film about people...their candid, spontaneous reactions and thoughts. Directed by veteran filmmaker Paula Weiman-Kelman, written by award-winning journalist Stuart Schoffman and produced by Jonathan Lopatin, it reflects a broad range of opinions and emotions within the American Jewish community. Provocative and frank, the film follows a variety of American Jewish tourists as they travel in Israel. Included in the film are interviews with a range of American Jews. Traditional, Haredi and secular, male and female, young and old, right and left-wing, supportive and critical of Israeli policy, the interviews illuminate the very diversity of opinions and feelings that American Jews have towards Israel. What emerges is the recognition that, in the words of one of the film's main characters: "you can love Israel profoundly, while at the same time knowing what the difficulties and the realities are".