If I were making documentaries about this war, as an Israeli, these are the stories I would want the world to see.

I’ve lived through this war surrounded by people whose courage, grief, and sacrifice deserve to be understood far beyond our borders.

These are the interviews I would conduct:

1. The stories of the people who got into their cars on October 7th and drove towards the danger to save people. Parents, friends, strangers. I would want to know why they grabbed their keys in the middle of the holiday, jumped in their cars, what they saw and experienced, and how their lives have been changed since.

2. The families of the hostages- the people who had to fight for the most basic thing imaginable- to bring their loved ones home from a literal nightmare brought to life. Parenting, working, advocating, fighting, for days, months, years. How they had the strength to hold on.

3. The pilots who fought against Iran and protect us from the air. What it means to take off on those missions, knowing that your own family and the entire nation are depending on you.

4. The story of Hostage Square. The families, volunteers, the people who kept showing up, and why. How a public space became sacred, a place to pour out grief and hope.

5. A focus on the miluim families. Mothers and fathers who served on the front lines, their spouses left to hold down the home front. Growing up while your parent is serving in a dangerous place, never knowing if they will come home.

6. The soldiers who saved hostages from Gaza. Who sacrificed their safety or their lives to bring their fellow citizens home to Israel.

7. The wounded soldiers learning to live in changed bodies. The work of rehabilitation, the friendships formed there. The love found there. The frustration and humor- what life looks like long after the hospital.

8. The communities trying to come home. Life in evacuated communities, living in hotels, trying to survive the war away from home.

9. The doctors, nurses, paramedics, therapists who treated our victims and hostages. What they saw. How it affected them. How they rededicated themselves to healing time and time again.

10. The volunteers who built enormous operations with WhatsApp. Bringing in supplies from abroad. Meals for soldiers and miluim families. Meals, laundry, childcare, rides. From the person who asked who can help, all the way to the people that showed up. Volunteerism in Israel was massive in a post Oct 7th landscape.

11. The people who returned from Gaza- on their own terms. What they want us to know about what it was like in captivity. How they survived. What meaning they made from the experience. What does post hostage life look like now? What are their hopes and dreams, now?

12. The lives of Nova survivors today. There are already important documentaries about what happened that morning. (We Will Dance Again, Nova, Supernova) I would want to follow what comes afterward. Friendships, work, relationships, grief. What support they still need. What they want for their futures, and what they wish we understood.

13. The stories of the soldiers who were killed protecting Israel. Told by the people who knew and loved them. Their childhoods, their friendships, their terrible jokes. Why they served, what they dreamed of doing afterward. I would want the world to understand who we lost, and what their absence means every day to the people waiting for a future with them that will never come.

14. The battle to stop October 7th from becoming an even greater catastrophe. The soldiers, police officers, and civilians who fought to stop the invasion. What stood between the terrorists and the next town, the next family, the next home. The decisions that saved lives while so much was still unknown.

15. An entire country mobilizing to bring its people home. The intelligence work, the military operations, the negotiations, the public pressure. The families who refused to let the world move on. What it means to build a society around the conviction that every single person matters and what it takes to uphold that promise.

***** I’m thinking about NAZA, and the audiences who stood to applaud a film condemning Israel with glee. The longest applause ever at the film festival.

Would they give that same attention to the Israelis who risked everything to save a life?

To our survivors, our bereaved families, our wounded soldiers?

Do they care about what happened to us? About our civilians? Our children?

Would they listen to the people in these fifteen films, and allow what they hear to challenge what they believe?

Our history, our morals, our humanity?

Do they want to understand this country, or have their worst beliefs about us confirmed?

These are fifteen stories I would put on that screen. There are so many more.

Whose story from this war do you believe the world needs to hear?