Apr 24, 202110 min read

Spotlight on Film Maker Itai Guberman

David Black interviews film maker Itai Guberman for The Australian Short Film Network

Today I have the pleasure of talking to a man who I’ve come to consider as an old friend – Itai Guberman. I first discovered Itai due to his work as CEO and Founder of MyIndie Productions Pty Ltd. MyIndie Productions has been tireless in promoting many local talents instead of simply just self-promoting their own films. Itai has covered so many of my own projects that it was long past time for me to reciprocate by interviewing him for The Australian Short Film Network Journal.

DB – Hi Itai. Thanks for making the time to chat to me today. I’d like to start off with finding out what you were doing before you started MyIndie Productions. What did you do that lead you to this filmmaking path and what are your motivations?

IG – Hi David. Firstly, thank you for this opportunity and for showing interest in my work. Much appreciated!

Well, I was born in Israel in 1974. I became a huge fan of film at a very young age. I loved films so much that I’d watch anything I could get my hands and eyes on. I went to the cinema several times a week, rented a borderline unhealthy amount of videos (yes, VHS) every week, and watched TV so many hours, that as most of the content was in English with Hebrew subtitles, I actually (unknowingly) taught myself English at the age of seven, long before learning it at school or anywhere else at that stage.

I was (and still am) a big fan of U.S and European cinema mostly, but watched films from all over the world (and still do today, whenever I can). Early on, I never seriously thought of pursuing filmmaking as a career. Only in the mid 2000s, in my early 30’s, I made my first short film and even then, I treated it mostly as a hobby. It was followed by a failed attempt at making a feature (ran out of funds) and I left filmmaking behind for other, more “grown up” pursuits which helped pay the bills.

In 2010, shortly after moving back to Israel for a few years, did I finally decide to take on filmmaking seriously. I went to Tel-Aviv University and completed a Master’s Degree in Film and Television (my Bachelor’s Degree is in Business from La Trobe University, which I completed 15 years prior). I graduated film school in 2014 and have been making films ever since.

At a young age it was consistently brought to my attention that a life in the Arts is a terrible choice, which resulted in my deciding to study Business and move away from the Arts. Earlier on I stayed away from a career in film or in writing. I worked as a personal fitness trainer, I ran my own internet sales business, and worked in areas which were far removed from the Arts. I think the need to create eventually caught up with me. Ultimately, I don’t believe I had a choice. Once I was involved with writing one script, then directing it, I could not stop. The ideas just keep coming and I have to provide them with an outlet, otherwise I just might lose my sanity. I guess that’s what people describe as a “calling”.

My main motivation now, is to turn this calling into a career which I can actually earn a living from, in order to be able to continue doing it without having to constantly worry about money.

DB – Wow, that is amazing! I want to find out more about MyIndie Productions? Many filmmakers concentrate only on their own films and only a rare few actually give back to the community as you have been doing. Can you tell us about MyIndie Productions?

IG – MyIndie Productions is based out of Melbourne, Australia, though most of my work thus far took place in Israel due to various production-related decisions. The website for MyIndie Productions doubles as the production company website AND an Independent Artists Community, through which we showcase and promote indie artists of various disciplines in the hope of helping them get further with their art.

I try to help other filmmakers by promoting their work and getting it seen by more people, in the hope that eventually it will help them get somewhere. One of the biggest challenges for artists is getting their work seen by a loyal and constant audience. As I was doing this for my own work and saw steady improvement early on, I decided to try to help others achieve the same. I have been doing it ever since. I also mentor and encourage a select few and try to help them improve their skills and unlock their potential. It is extremely gratifying work, however it is also very time consuming and can be a financial drain at times, making life somewhat difficult. I hope to eventually find a balance where I can earn enough revenue from film related ventures and be able to keep doing what I’m doing without it impacting me negatively in an economic sense. Therein lies the challenge.

DB – You are also a filmmaker Itai. Your IMDB credits go back to 2007 with the very first few being The Collector, Depressions Child and On Death’s Door. Can you tell me a bit about your early days?

IG – Well, my start in filmmaking is a bittersweet memory these days. Back in 2005, my dear friend and business partner in various ventures, Peter Angel, and I decided to try our hand at making films. We had no prior experience, aside from both being cinephiles. We felt that our cinema and TV watching hobbies may have been enough of a lesson to potentially give us the skills to do it ourselves. We wrote The Collector, a 10-minute crime comedy and via online forums, found our cast and small crew. We shot the film within a day and took a few weeks to edit and complete it. The result was a short that at the time, was considered of a fairly high standard, especially for a couple of guys with zero experience in filmmaking.

We continued from there with Depression’s Child and On Death’s Door, but those were more Peter’s projects that I simply helped on as producer. We tried making a feature film, but ended up running out of funds and shelving the project, mainly due to the financial issues, but also as Peter and his wife became pregnant with their first child and he could no longer commit to the project. We agreed to give filmmaking a break and step away from it for a while. My return to the world of film was a few years later when I moved back to Israel and went to study film.

The reason some of these early memories are bittersweet is because Peter recently passed away at the young age of 54. Thinking back to those projects makes me wish we had more time.

Peter Angel

DB – Moving along the IMDB, “The Bruised Spring’s Teens” stands out to me because I first heard about your work as that was wrapping up. This was a series, as opposed to the short films that you had been making previously. Did you find this very different to your previous work? Was it a turning point?

IG – The Bruised Spring’s Teens actually came after my business partner at the time, Asaf Angel (no relation to Peter) and I completed a short film called Third Temple (a near half hour long political thriller). The shoot for Third Temple was quite grueling, so after we got through it and continued on to post production, we needed some well earned rest. That rest lasted about a week before we got the itch to get back on set. As all available funds went into Third Temple, we needed to make something that is extremely low budget. Eventually I came up with the idea to make an ultra low budget wacky comedy web series about a couple of guys who were trying to make a web series. Revolutionary, I know. Lol.

I wrote the script as a five episode first season, with largely only the two characters. We held auditions and quickly found our actors, Zach Cohen and the late Tomer Shechori, and scheduled the shoots for weekends only (as everyone had day jobs), over a six-week stretch. As we had hardly any money to spend, the crew consisted on a two-man team, being Asaf and I. I wrote and directed, Asaf helmed as cinematographer. Between the two of us, we performed all other tasks, from sound and lighting to makeup and catering. Glamorous, right? Somehow, this was the most fun, laugh-filled set I’ve ever worked on. Zach and Tomer were great fun to work with and the four of us enjoyed great chemistry.

Sadly, Tomer passed away a few years ago. These days we are almost done with post-production on a feature film version of the series, simply titled “The Bruised Spring’s Teens: The Movie?”, which should be out within the next few months. I hope the film gets seen by more people, thus contributing to Tomer’s legacy. He loved laughing and making people laugh.

DB - Next on the list are Dolphin and Ivy. I noticed that the poster for IVY is just covered with laurels! I’m dying to hear about these two.

IG – Dolphin is actually an interesting story as it was actually shot in 2011. Asaf and I co-wrote the script, based on a story of mine, for a university class assignment and co-produced it. We initially intended to co-direct, but when casting the main male role, we realised that the perfect actor to perform it would be Asaf, so he stepped into the role opposite the awesome Inbal Eizenberg, while I directed. Upon completion of the short revenge thriller, we had issues over the rights to some of the music we used and the film ended up on the shelf.

In 2016, I got the idea to resurrect what I felt was a fairly strong short, so we re-edited it and followed with a fairly restricted festival release. The film ended up winning seven awards at festivals all around the world, the last of which was earlier this year!

The following year, in 2017, I started writing a feature-length post-apocalyptic horror film, titled Revelation. The concept was to be divided into four segments and I wrote the first, titled Ivy, very quickly. I decided to shoot it first and send it out to festivals to “test the water” and see how/if the material would be accepted by audiences. We shot the 15-minute segment and released it as a short to festivals in late 2017. Ivy did extremely well in festivals, receiving 35 official selections and collecting 12 awards in festivals worldwide, despite only being sent to approximately 50 festivals, mainly as we could not afford to send it to more.

We shot the second segment for Revelation in 2018 and were preparing to continue and complete the feature in 2019, but unfortunately, my father passed away and I had to shut down production and fly to Australia to be with my family. Long story short, I spent seven months in Australia and lost the funding which was promised for the rest of the production. In late 2019, a few months after returning to Israel, I secured funding for the continuation of the shoot. We already had half the film “in the can” and planned on restarting production in May of 2020. I moved back to Australia in January 2020, planning to fly back to Israel for the May shoot and… the Covid pandemic broke out, shutting down any chances of the production taking place in 2020. I lost the funding yet again due to the uncertainty caused by the Corona Virus, and could not fly back to Israel or justify risking a large investment into a production that could be shut down at any point. That is roughly where I am today. Revelation is now postponed indefinitely, but I am hopeful things will become clearer in the near future and we’ll be able to get back to it.

DB – There are a few more on your IMDB after that. Some are in filming. Can I ask you about those and what your future plans are?

IG - One of those is Revelation, which I discussed above. Another is MyIndie Review Vlog, a review show which reviews indie films only. The show was hosted by Asaf Angel and co-written/produced/directed by Asaf and I. It went on for two seasons and 72 episodes, but with my move back to Australia and Asaf being in Israel, we decided to go on a long, possibly indefinite, hiatus with the show. MyIndie Review Vlog, or MIRV as we fondly call it, was a lot of fun to make and we helped promote many films by indie filmmakers, which was very gratifying.

Other projects listed include Attack of the Unknown from the Mahal Brothers’ Mahal Empire, run by Michael and Sonny Mahal, which was recently released to great success and Shawn Burkett’s horror sequel Don’t Fuck in the Woods 2, which was recently picked up for distribution and is soon to be released, but I am only Associate Producer on those and was not very involved with the productions themselves.

Justine, however, is an extreme horror feature by promising young talent, Mexican indie filmmaker, Alejandro Hernandez, who is also a featured artist on MyIndie. I am also Associate Producer on this film, but am a bit more involved with its promotion and behind the production. The film is made in association with MyIndie Productions, but involved Alejandro’s production company, as well as another MyIndie featured artist, Domiziano Cristopharo’s TetroVideo Distribution. I have great hopes for this film, as it is the follow-up to Alejandro’s fantastic feature release, Blood For Flesh, which was distributed by TetroVideo and AngerMan Distribution, among others.

DB – Is there anything that I’ve missed out in the questions that you want to discuss?

IG – As far as film production, I believe we covered almost everything, aside for some smaller, earlier projects. I am currently working on a script for a low budget horror feature which I hope to shoot in Australia in the near future, but not much to tell on that one as yet.

Another project recently launched is The Best and Worst Podcast, a new podcast hosted by Peter Angel and myself. We started working on it earlier this year and recently launched it. Unfortunately, shortly after airing the second episode, Peter suddenly passed away. As a result, the podcast is now on a break but will return soon. There are approximately another five episodes Peter and I pre-recorded, which I hope to edit and release so that people will get to know more of him. I also hope to do a tribute episode for Peter in the near future. After those air, I will likely continue the podcast on my own. Time will tell. At the moment, I am taking the time to grieve and re-assess and plan the next moves, which will be strange without Peter. I miss him dearly.

DB – Where can we see your movies Itai?

IG – Third Temple and Dolphin can be seen on AngerMan Distribution, where they were released a Double Feature: https://vimeo.com/ondemand/284304

The Bruised Spring’s Teens series is also with AngerMan Distribution, but will likely be taken down soon, making way for the soon-to-be-released feature film version: https://vimeo.com/ondemand/154100

Due to the delays with Revelation, Ivy will now be released to VOD via AngerMan Distribution on May 1st, so stay tuned for the release. AngerMan website: http://angermandistribution.com/

Any other releases and all things related to MyIndie Productions, can be found on our website: https://myindieproductions.com/

The Best and Worst Podcast: https://myindieproductions.com/the-best-worst-podcast/