L ifestyle /C ulture
‘The Viewing Booth’ Encourages Media Skepticism
FI L M
SASHA ROGELBERG | JE STAFF
RA’ANAN ALEXANDROWICZ
claims he was not conducting
an experiment while filming
“The Viewing Booth.”
The Israeli writer and
director is known for his critical
views of Israel, with his portfolio
containing several documen-
taries depicting Palestinian
strife in Israel and Gaza. At
the beginning of “The Viewing
Booth,” Alexandrowicz’s inten-
tions seem no different.

Alexandrowicz, a graduate
student at Temple University
during the film’s production,
invites a handful of Jewish-
American Temple students and
alumni to sit in a dark room in
the university’s video lab. As
the subjects watch video clips of
the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
from various media sources,
Alexandrowicz observes from
the adjacent room, asking them
afterward if the videos shaped
or changed their beliefs about
Israel. The film, now streaming on
BBC Reel, spotlights one subject:
Maia Levy, a Temple graduate
who studied archeology. Her
parents are Israeli and she is
a stalwart supporter of Israel.

Throughout the documen-
tary, Alexandrowicz becomes
less concerned with changing
someone’s else’s opinion about
Israel and more interested in
just how opinions are shaped
in the current climate of polar-
izing media and subjective
truths. In this way, the documen-
tary becomes a very real
experiment, or at least places
media consumers — in the film
and everywhere — under a
microscope. Levy is reflective and obser-
vant, the perfect prism through
which to explore this project.

As she begins watching one
of 40 available video clips, Levy
is skeptical of what she sees.

She shakes her head a bit, rolls
her eyes, but watches each clip
intently nonetheless, brows
knitted in concentration.

The clips Alexandrowicz
shows are disorienting. For an
ignorant American ear who
can’t tell the difference between
Arabic and Hebrew when
spoken muffled through masks
and shouting, it’s challenging to
tell who, Israeli or Palestinian,
is the victim and aggressor in
each clip.

Levy encounters the same
issue. In one video, some
Israeli boys are throwing rocks
and shouting obscenities at a
window of someone filming,
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likely an Israeli Arab. Levy
leans into the screen a little
closer, squints her eyes and
pauses the video.

“These are Arab kids,” she
repeats, first as a question, then
as a statement with conviction.

As she watches the video,
however, she realizes that, in
this instance, the young Israeli
boys are the aggressors. Levy
is dismayed and disturbed,
but cynical.

“Then again, you have no
idea what just happened before
this,” she says.

Levy says this about a lot
of the clips she watches, many
of which are from B’Tselem,
a resource center and video
database that describes itself
as “striving to end Israel’s
occupation.” The media source is clearly
biased, cunningly using violent
imagery and emotionally
evocative sounds (sirens, babies
crying) to elicit a response from
its audience.

Yet Levy admits that she’s
biased, too. Six months after her
initial time in the viewing booth,
she returns, this time watching
her own reactions to video clips
from half a year prior.

Alexandrowicz points out
that the viewer has control over
what they view. They make the
choice to sometimes see only
what will confirm their own
opinions. “I love Israel. This is personal
... Of course, I’m making active
choices,” Levy says.

Even with her acute
self-awareness, Levy
is unswayed by the video clips she
watches. At the end of the second
viewing session, Alexandrowicz
asks Levy through the intercom
if she’s changed her mind, her
beliefs, about Israel.

No, Levy answers.

Though Alexandrowicz
perhaps set out to create a film
to make a political statement
about Israel, “The Viewing
Booth” is not only a film about
the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

For many American Jews, who
are deeply, personally invested
in Israeli politics, the conflict is
a microcosm of an individual’s
relationship with the media and
how they wade through politics.

Since filming the documen-
tary in spring 2018 and after the
escalation of the Israel-Hamas
conflict in May, Levy’s views of
Israel remain unshaken, despite
her many conversations with
Alexandrowicz. “I don’t think that we’ve
particularly changed other’s
minds; I think we’ve opened
each other’s minds,” Levy said.

After her experience in “The
Viewing Booth,” Levy is wary
of media sources, recognizing
how the media sensationalizes
information, convoluting the
truth. “I definitely think media
is really becoming entertain-
ment,” she said.

“The Viewing Booth”
exemplifies this:
Rather than filming Levy directly,
Alexandrowicz chooses to
show her through a window
or a computer screen at times.

Instead of showing the clips
Levy watches directly on the
screen, a camera points at a
computer monitor that is
playing the clips. Even the
audience incurs degrees of
separation from what we’re
watching. In the face of the shortcom-
ings of contemporary media,
Levy offers a solution of moving
through the world with careful
curiosity. She encourages others
to hold difficult conversations
with those who have different
perspectives, but also says to
make up one’s own mind of
what is factual beyond what is
seen on a screen.

“It’s really important to
remember what the goal is,” she
said. “I don’t think the goal is
particularly for one side or the
other side to be right. The goal
is to explore.” l
srogelberg@jewishexponent.com; 215-832-0741
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