On October 7, Dede Bandaid and Nitzan Mintz, Israeli artists in New York City for a residency program, never imagined they would spark a guerrilla public art war.
Overwhelmed by the news from home about the mounting number of dead and kidnapped, they just wanted to channel their anguish into throwing a spotlight on the plight of the hostages. With the help of two graphic designers back home, they created “KIDNAPPED” posters with the images, names and ages of the hostages and began plastering them across the city, even asking random people to put them up in their neighborhoods.
Suddenly, the posters were everywhere: on lamp posts, subway entrances, abandoned buildings.
Just as suddenly, they were torn down, shredded or defaced, the word “KIDNAPPED” on one poster bearing thean image of an 8-year-old girl replaced by the word “OCCUPIER.” The posters are anti-Islamic propaganda, the defilers insisted. Pro-war agitprop.
“When people tear down a piece of paper, they think . . . they are tearing down Israel,” Mintz said. “That is absolutely not the case. [T]hey are ripping away faces.”
The new documentary film Torn delves into this proxy for a war thousands of miles away—, into the intense clashes between pro-Israel and pro-Palestine activists who turned New York City’s streets into battlegrounds of ideology and emotion.
Join us for a screening of the film and then a conversation with:
- Nitzan Mintz and Dede Bandaid, Street artists and KIDNAPPED Campaign designers
- Nina Mogilnik, Writer, Torn
- Nim Shapira, Writer, Director, Producer, Torn
- Alana Zeitchik, Hostage family member, Executive Director, The Narrow Bridge Project
Moderated by Yuna Leibzon, US correspondent for Channel 12 News Israel.