Hopeful entertainment field back in the doldrums
The government’s announcement on Monday that it was postponing the reopening of theaters and other culture venues due to concerns about new cases of the novel coronavirus has plunged Israel’s entertainment industry into disarray and despair.
In May, with the loosening of coronavirus restrictions, it was announced that theaters could reopen, with some restrictions such as empty seats between groups of patrons, on June 14. For movie theaters, this was pushed back until July 2. But Monday’s announcement, which came in the wake of a spike in new cases of the virus, has postponed the planned reopening indefinitely for all theaters and cultural organizations.
But these facts don’t tell the whole story of the uncertainty since the closure, as industry professionals scrambled to figure out not just whether they could reopen, but how they would manage the logistics of the reopening, both financially and in terms of having films, plays, concerts and exhibits to present.
One example that illustrates the chaos of the last few weeks is the fact that hours before the decision was handed down on Monday, a press release was sent out trumpeting the first movie release in Israel since the pandemic began. The first movie to grace screens was to have been a French romantic comedy, Nobody’s Perfect! with Gerard Depardieu and Catherine Deneuve, which would have been shown at the Tel Aviv Cinematheque and Kochav Cinema in Ramat Hasharon starting on June 15. But on Tuesday morning, a second press release was sent, saying that the opening of Nobody’s Perfect! had been canceled and expressing “great disappointment” over the decision.
While the government-subsidized cultural institutions such as Habima have received some financial aid, commercial chains like Lev Cinemas have been left out in the cold, as have independent contractors such as concert promoters.
The arts and entertainment industries employ more than 150,000.
Guy Shani, the CEO of the Lev Cinemas chain, said, “We were shut by the Health Ministry in mid-March, but even before that, the number of people we could have in was limited and we lost business because people were afraid because of the virus. And we haven’t gotten any help from the government at all, or from anyone else. We’ve suffered heavy losses. We have movies to release, foreign movies from festivals around the world and Israeli movies, but we don’t know what’s going to happen.”
Many industry professionals have had to put their dreams on hold until the crisis passes, such as Niv Nissim, a 27-yearold actor who thought 2020 was the year he would be getting his big break. But instead of doing publicity for Sublet, the Eytan Fox film in which he stars opposite American actor John Benjamin Hickey or for his first play, Passing the Love of Women, an adaptation of an
Isaac Bashevis Singer story at the Beit Lessin Theater, he’s putting on a helmet every day and getting on his bike to make deliveries for the food service, Wolt, in Tel Aviv.
“We were onstage in the premiere of the play just as [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu went on the news and announced the closure,” he said. “I got a little bit of the taste of the power of doing a play. And my family got to see me on stage. And then the next day, we were in quarantine.”
Still, he has tried to remain positive. “I had to hold onto something, so I thought about the opening of the movie, in Tribeca. I thought in April, I’ll be getting on a plane and going to the world premiere in New York.” That didn’t happen of course, but the festival was held online, so Nissim was vying for the Best Actor award.
“I was picking up a food delivery at La Taqueria when I got the news that a Mexican actor won Best Actor. So I was holding Mexican food and he won,” he said with a laugh.
Hillel Wachs, a music promoter who runs 2b Vibes with Carmi Wurtman, said, “They’re clipping the wings of the industry, and there is no end game.” No concerts with performers from abroad will take place in Israel in 2020 and any plans for the future are “all tentative.” He said that although the industry employs 150,000 people, “it seems as if we don’t have enough of a lobby in the Knesset,” compared to other industries that have gotten financial help.
A small silver lining, Wachs noted, is that “Israel will be one of the first places to reopen and so for logistical and not political reasons, we may get a lot of performers coming here.”
But for those Israelis who work in these industries, “We were the first to close and we’ll be the last to open.”