Why we had to make Pita with Vegemite

I met Idan late last year when he was travelling in his van through small-town NSW. His band had a gig in Nambucca Heads and I thought it was best to provide some local support, just in case they were met with any anti-Israel sentiment. He had the room singing in Hebrew and I became an instant groupie.

Shai is the man behind the infamous Zorba festival in Mullumbimby, where locals have been packed out the Middle Eastern musical experience for 14 years. The music is a tool for bringing people together.

I came across Michal’s cool event space LOEV in Melbourne, when I was looking for contacts for Idan. LOEV is love, but different. They met, he played, it was amazing.

Pita with Vegemite – An Israeli Australian Story captures the perspectives of some of the Israelis I have met since coming to live in Australia just under four years ago. Making it went from a passion project to a more pressing need as the sense of increasing demonisation since October 7 took over public spaces, especially visual and storytelling spaces.

Despite so many competing life demands, three Israeli-Australians Shahar Burla, Mihaal Danziger and I, embarked on a mission to capture and reflect Israeli experiences at a time when Australians were talking about us, but not to us.

The film interviews nine Israelis living different lifestyles in Melbourne, Sydney and Mullumbimby, and a strong theme and commonality emerges. Israeli Australians share ground both with Jewish communities and other migrant communities in Australia. Sometimes more the latter than the former. Their experience is both unique and universal.

I call it a film made by accident, because we did not set out to make a film but to capture experiences on film.  We each had a personal connection to the story that emerged from the interviews, and the film 'made itself' with the exceptional editing eye of Mihaal.