- il y a 2 jours
TOVAH! : Q&A with film director David Serero at the JCC TAMPA Jewish Film Festival (2026).
Film about Tovah Feldshuh.
Film about Tovah Feldshuh.
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Court métrageTranscription
00:00What was your primary goal in directing this documentary?
00:05And why did you choose to make Tova at this particular point in her career?
00:10Absolutely. First of all, thank you for being here.
00:15Well, you know, I always felt that there was some sort of a destiny
00:19when the right people come at the right time.
00:22And usually when they want to tell their story,
00:25they feel like, okay, now it's the right time for me to tell my story, you know?
00:31And for a lot of these giants, COVID was a big wake-up call.
00:36They were like, okay, we can leave at any time,
00:40so I want my story to be told.
00:42And what was the question?
00:45I'm Sephardi Jew, folks. I forget.
00:48No, but basically what you want to show is that that movie is informative,
00:53so we can learn things, you can receive data, but also entertaining, you know?
00:59Because I do the editing myself of all the movie, and I get bored very quickly.
01:04So, because I spent so many hours on it, imagine all of you,
01:08you're watching every day the same movie 10 times in a row.
01:14That's what it is when you are editing the movie.
01:17So you get at support, you don't really see what you're saying, you know?
01:22You're completely, you don't know where you are anymore.
01:24So you really go to the essentials.
01:27So I want it to be entertaining because she's very funny.
01:30She has a lot of jokes.
01:31She does many faces and everything.
01:34So you have to be there all the time to capture the thing that when she does the push-ups,
01:39I have no idea she was going to do it.
01:41So you have to be, you know, many times she was doing stuff,
01:44and I just look at my iPhone and started to film her.
01:48So informative and entertaining and also inspiring, you know,
01:54that each movie has a message, you know?
01:58So do you feel like, but did she, was she into it?
02:03Like, she wanted this film made.
02:05Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
02:06Because I make it very clear that, I mean, I kind of specialize now
02:10doing this kind of film, some specific characters, especially Jewish characters,
02:15that I tell them, look, I'm going to dedicate two years of my life to you.
02:19So, you know.
02:21You're going to like them.
02:23You know, no, but it's like one year of filming,
02:26and then after you go to all the film festivals, you go to,
02:30by the way, this is a great film festival.
02:33Even though this is a series, what Brandy is doing,
02:37what all the team, it's extraordinary.
02:39Honestly, and I want to thank the sponsors also,
02:42my wife, Sue Heyman, Marvin, Linda Feldman.
02:45That sounds like names that, you know, they have a great credit score.
02:49You know what I mean?
02:51That's right, it sounds like a good.
02:52Feldman, you know, I want a lawyer than Feldman.
02:56So, and no, so that, that was, they want to tell it, of course,
03:01and even sometimes, no, no, no, of course,
03:05even sometimes when they are very scared of having a movie about them,
03:10and especially the people who are the two-third of their career,
03:15they're like, yeah, but I want it to feel that it's the end of my life.
03:20You know, no, I say, oh, that's the other way around.
03:24It's a start.
03:25It's you want to show what you've done before.
03:27For the new audience who doesn't know you, they can rediscover you.
03:32Especially now, we're in a new age of formatting, of videos.
03:37It has to go quick.
03:38So that's why all my movies, they really go to the essential.
03:41And so all the old stuff, they kind of age really not so well.
03:49So the new generation, they know Tova from Nobody Wants This.
03:53Exactly.
03:54So I wanted to show all the things that she has done before.
03:58So this brings me to the next question.
04:02How did you balance her legendary past, you know, in Broadway status,
04:10and her human story, her personal story of who she really is?
04:14Absolutely.
04:15Well, you know, for this kind of artist, their personal life and professional lives are both connected, really.
04:24You know, you cannot play Golda Meir the way she plays it if she was not Jewish,
04:29and if she was not pro-Israel, if there was such a thing, right?
04:33Like, can you be against?
04:35I mean, it's not a debate.
04:36You'd be surprised.
04:37You know, and so it is connected, for sure.
04:45And her personality really comes out in all of her characters,
04:50and even her personality of being very detail-oriented, very into specificities.
04:59So that translates into her work.
05:02So it's very rare.
05:06I had the case on one film where there was nothing going on in the personal life.
05:12Like, zero.
05:14Nothing.
05:14But the work is extraordinary.
05:17Like, they've done, the person did, like, it's like the Barnum-Brandeau of Franks, you know,
05:23all the biggest movies, all the biggest things.
05:25But personally, just wakes up, goes to work, comes back home to sleep.
05:29He treats it like a nine-to-five, you know.
05:31And you have people that really, their lives have been, professional life and their work
05:37has been really guided by what happened to them on the personal life.
05:42They had a breakup, their wife passed away, they had a car accident that took half of their
05:49body away.
05:50That makes the way you perform very different, you know.
05:54So, you know, both are very connected.
05:57Yeah.
05:58Which scene or moment was the most challenging or rewarding to capture with her?
06:06Like, with all, you know, what she did in the past and the future and, you know, what for you?
06:12Well, you know, the good thing is that the way I film is I tried, when I said to do
06:19documentaries,
06:20I was like, let me film it.
06:22Let me do a mix of two things.
06:25Nothing that it's a documentary, but like it's quote-unquote a real movie.
06:29Like, I really wanted to film people with the same cinematic cameras that we use for what
06:36you guys would call the real movie, you know.
06:38So you really watch, not just like a documentary or a TV report piece, but really like a real movie.
06:47And I will articulate the story the same way that you are plunged into the story.
06:53And that goes also with the music, which I also do, you know, to really plunge the audience
06:58member into the story.
07:00So in the story, you have turning points that really makes you, oh, that happened, that happened.
07:06You walk in the street, someone gives you a bag and say, get out with it.
07:11And people start to shoot fire.
07:13So you run.
07:14So now the audience wants to know what is in that bag, you know.
07:17And these are turning points.
07:18What happened before the person gives you the bag?
07:21That's so interesting.
07:22So I really go to the essentials.
07:25So to insert your questions, I really choose the moments that were pivoted to her career.
07:31Golda Meir.
07:32Sorry, go ahead.
07:33Now, what surprised you?
07:34Oh, what surprised me?
07:36That she renews herself constantly.
07:42But yet, she takes Jewish characters and makes them very mainstream.
07:47You know, like Golda or even Bina, the character, nobody wants this.
07:54Who watches here and nobody wants this?
07:56Do you like it?
07:57Yeah, it's nice.
07:58And it's a Jewish character, but she makes it so funny for everyone with the prosciutto scene.
08:07It's hilarious.
08:09It's so hilarious.
08:12How did you capture her, like, extraordinary talent and dedication with all the running and push-ups and all that?
08:20How, how, why did you, like?
08:22Well, that's the thing with me is that in order to get, like, only the, the best of the best,
08:29like the A, not the B, not the C, not the D, is you need a lot of material.
08:34You know, because otherwise, if you film someone three hours, then you're going to get, you know, maybe one good
08:42hour.
08:42But for me, I get, for three hours, maybe I get just 10 minutes.
08:46Like, you see, the first interview that you see when she's on her sofa, that's an interview I filmed her
08:52in early, actually, January 1st, 2024.
09:00You know, and that interview lasts three hours.
09:03And all these interviews, I was able to keep only 20 minutes because all the rest of the interview, she
09:10spoke about October 7th.
09:12That happened just a few months before.
09:14And it was October, you know, how the world is going to go, how, no, no, no.
09:18And it was only about that.
09:20So after I said, listen, I have to re-interview you to re-film you because it was too dark
09:26in a way.
09:26So I wanted to show that.
09:30So after I said, let's go to the places where you grew up, you know, and then you see something
09:36else.
09:36And that's why, you know, I'm not afraid to say sometimes I have the iPhone, like I'm holding, you know,
09:41an iPhone like that.
09:43And I have the big cinematic cameras.
09:45But the iPhone, you know, can just be boom, be here, you know.
09:48So sometimes she's just talking about something and she does push-ups like this, you know.
09:54And I'm so glad that she did that push-ups.
09:56And after I was able to come to the camera right in front of her, and you can really see
10:01what she meant about the blood circulating on the face.
10:05And they're like, yes, showing up to the scene.
10:08Yeah, no, yeah, I do botox, you know, to get it.
10:12But what was your reaction of her sharing all the, what we saw in the second half of the film,
10:20after October 7, about her experiences?
10:25You did put some of it in the film, eventually.
10:29Why did you decide that?
10:30Well, because, well, you know, it's, you need to have a lot of balance in the movie.
10:36You know, if it's too much about her life, too much about her family, too much about her talking about
10:43the technique of the acting.
10:45Because that's also what I wanted to show.
10:47Because we have to listen to our geniuses.
10:50She is a genius.
10:51We have to question them and to appraise them.
10:54But being an activist is also part of who she is.
10:59And in a way, when she plays her roles, I'm just realizing as I'm talking to you, she's also an
11:04activist.
11:05You know, when she's playing Golda, she's showing what it is to be a woman in politics.
11:11She's showing what it is to be an Israeli character on Broadway.
11:17You know?
11:18By the way, I, there's no way someone will play Golda Mayer on Broadway today.
11:23No.
11:24Right?
11:24I don't think so.
11:25Scary, right?
11:25No.
11:29How were the reactions of the people you interviewed about her?
11:34Were they, like, did they want to participate immediately?
11:38Did it take convincing?
11:40Absolutely.
11:41Because you have a bunch of really...
11:43Your iPhone.
11:44Yeah.
11:44You don't have insurance.
11:45I do, actually.
11:46And it's new.
11:47I just got it yesterday.
11:53No, no, but actually, you know, it's why you said that, because when you interview all
11:57these guys, you know, they always, oh, you have to go through 50 lawyers.
12:03They send you their own people to do the lighting.
12:06They send you their own makeup bodies.
12:08So, at the end, the cost of it is, you know, unrealistic, you know.
12:14But, no, these people, they were like, yeah, yeah, sure, call me on my cell phone, and let's
12:19figure it out.
12:19Oh, you want to come tomorrow at the house?
12:21Come out, you know.
12:22So, it was very easy going.
12:26And I think that tells a lot about who Tova is, that she leaves a great impression on her
12:32colleagues.
12:33And, except, you know, Dustin Hoffman wanted to do it, but that day was a little bit sick.
12:39So, he preferred that we do it on Zoom, and, you know, his team was like, maybe we can
12:48reschedule a physical, but I didn't want to take a chance on that.
12:52I said, no, let's do Zoom, and we'll see later if we can do it.
12:55But, at the end, what I got on the Zoom, it happened only once.
12:59That's why I love about documentary, is that you cannot do two tapes of it.
13:03Yeah.
13:05Last question before we head up for your questions.
13:09How did she describe her wish to be remembered, particularly regarding her goal to be a mensch?
13:19Do you feel like you made it happen?
13:21Yeah, I mean, she's very happy about the movie, so that I'm very happy.
13:25But, I think the movie really resembles who she is, you know.
13:31And, yeah, she's a mensch, like, she has reached this level of wisdom, where she doesn't have
13:40to prove anything, but she still maintains very high standards of how she performs, and
13:46what she says, and...
13:48Her artistry.
13:49Yeah.
13:50She's very...
13:50Her artistry is still excellent, and she's sharper than ever.
13:55And, and also, she taught me that it's not about just succeeding your career, that you can also
14:02succeed your life, you know.
14:04That'd be a great mom, daughter, also a great daughter, and a great friend.
14:12And, she teaches you, she taught me that, like, you see, when I filmed the horse, I didn't know
14:16she would film the horse.
14:17That thing happened when we were filming in the school, and she told me, you want to
14:22show you where I used to hide, ride horses?
14:24So, we went there, there was nothing really interesting about her showing me where she
14:29used to ride horses.
14:30But, on the way back, she saw a horse, she said, oh, you're beautiful.
14:34And, she started to do like this.
14:36And, then, after when we, I spoke with the husband, and she walked by, and she gave him
14:41a kiss, and she used to come back, come back, you know.
14:43So, that's also what I love, is these moments, you know.
14:47And, she comes, and she says, you know, today I paid a horse, and da, da, da, da, da, da.
14:52So, thank God, you know.
14:53But, and actually, at the end, I say, Texas starring at the Jewish horse, you know.
15:00But, but, but I, but I, I removed Jewish, I was afraid some people won't.
15:05We'll be afraid.
15:06I'm thinking, right?
15:08Does anybody have questions?
15:10Yes, ma'am.
15:12Did she happen to mention why, or when, when, or why she changed her name?
15:16Yes, she had a boyfriend, named Michael something, who told her, I think, that her name was not
15:25enough Jewish, you know, and she turned it as Tova, you know.
15:30By the way, she wrote a book called Lillisville, which is a memoir, it's a wonderful book.
15:36If you can get it on Amazon, it really tells about the Jewish childhood that was back in
15:43the days, very, very interesting.
15:47Lillisville, but you put a Tova's memoir, or Tova's book, you know, Tova Fertius' book,
15:53it's really a great, great book, book this big, but very interesting.
15:58You know, so that, that was a boyfriend, and then after she changed it, and she legalized
16:03it, like now on passports, but then Tova failed, too.
16:06The music in the film is very powerful.
16:08What's your process?
16:10If you're doing all the music, how did you do that?
16:13Absolutely.
16:13Well, thank you so much.
16:15I sing the music in my head.
16:17Like, when I have the dialogues, by example, that are happening, because I don't treat
16:23them like, okay, it's a person who is talking, I treat it as it's a movie character who is
16:29talking.
16:30You see, if you look, I don't know, Star Wars, by example, when Darth Vader talks, you don't
16:37have the same music under that if Luke Skywalker talks.
16:41You know what I mean?
16:43So, it's, it's two different things.
16:45So, but if Luke Skywalker is thinking about Darth Vader, the music is different than if
16:52Luke Skywalker is alone.
16:54You know what I mean?
16:55So, when I do that, I imagine, I sing it, and then I go here.
17:00But I also wanted to break, you know, by example, for Tova, I'm sure people would have
17:08put the piano, cello, you know, regular documentary world, you know.
17:14Me, I put hip-hop when she talks.
17:17Because none of you went to party with her in a nightclub.
17:21I did.
17:22And I have the video where we were dancing and everything.
17:25So, I would say, oh, here I would love a music, you know, I would love something like
17:32that.
17:32And then I would just do it.
17:33Sometimes I'm wrong.
17:34So, I believe that we do.
17:37Sometimes I'm like, you know what, after all, there's no need for music here.
17:41It's good the way it is, you know.
17:43But, yeah, it's also where the story is going, you know.
17:47When she talks, by example, about Dreyfus, I hear a violin, a Yiddish violin that can take
17:53me to that end.
17:55But I think, for sure, I wanted something that is melodic and dramatic, but also joyful, which
18:02is very Jewish, you know.
18:04It's minor, but happy, you know.
18:07Sad, but happy, you know.
18:09So, that's why that music, you know, at the beginning, this nostalgia, but then after happiness,
18:19which, of course, I didn't write.
18:20But it's, you know.
18:22But the accordion that would go so like that, it was beautiful, you know.
18:27I just want to tell you that you're very, very talented.
18:32Oh, thank you, Anna.
18:33And I'm so happy I'm here.
18:36And you remind me...
18:38I will pay you as promised.
18:40I promise you, you know.
18:41I have your check.
18:43We said we have...
18:44And I remember about maybe 75 years ago, when I was sitting with my mother, and I said,
18:54and she said, because I have to have Sephardic and my Ashkenazi.
19:00I'm so sorry to hear that.
19:02Did you start the treatment for the Ashkenazi part?
19:06Any Sephardic here?
19:08Yes.
19:09I...
19:09Where?
19:10Lebanon.
19:11Lebanon?
19:12Where?
19:13My father.
19:14Oh, Lebanon.
19:15Lebanon.
19:16Ah, Lebanon.
19:17Oh, wow.
19:17The first thing, I think, is how people will see it in film festivals.
19:24Because if I do movies, it's really for film festivals.
19:27That's why, you know, I'm coming here, you know, to meet the audience.
19:33And sometimes I go to movie theaters.
19:35When I first started to stream my movie...
19:37I mean, I prefer to come to an audience of five people, which is not the case tonight,
19:43you know, but five people in a movie theater than do two million views on YouTube.
19:48Honestly.
19:50And to meet you guys, because we're the only community, the Jewish community, who still
19:56shows up when there are things done about us, you know?
20:01And I think that's so wonderful, you know?
20:04And again, I'm very sorry for the Ashkenazi.
20:08But how do you work that out, you know?
20:10Half Ashkenazi, one day you're crying, one day you're laughing.
20:13How do you balance all of that, you know?
20:16You know?
20:17I'm trying to show you all the books.
20:18It's not the entertainment industry that it's taking now.
20:20No, no, absolutely.
20:21Well, you're saying something interesting is that the film industry has changed a lot
20:25these last few years, especially since COVID.
20:29Like, a lot of people now that realize that's why when people are coming, I'm like, thank
20:34you for coming.
20:36And people are there, people are showing up.
20:38I'm coming.
20:39How come, like, the director, you're not even coming?
20:42We don't know you.
20:44We don't know that movie.
20:45And we're coming.
20:46And you're the director.
20:47You're not coming out there.
20:49I will show up everywhere, of course, if it's physically possible for me to come, you
20:54know?
20:54I sell fine and sell my films.
20:57So that means I can move on quickly on when I want to make the movie.
21:02We had a friend come and we met and we think and also, you know, I don't really chase
21:08in a way because I always believe, first of all, God.
21:12God, you know, makes it happy.
21:14If it's meant to be, it's meant to be.
21:15But also, I also believe that the people who say yes, they have the right reasons to
21:19do it.
21:20People who tell you no, they also have the right reasons.
21:23And you always brought me luck.
21:24Like, when someone was, like, quite hesitant and I'm like, a year later, I'm like, thank
21:29God I didn't do that movie with that person, you know?
21:32But here, I self-finance all my films.
21:36I have, so it depends on the movie, but some movies, they go to movie theaters that I do
21:41and that became kind of my signature of taking documentary mixed with quote-unquote real films.
21:49And, like, for example, I have movies where there is a car chase pursuit, you know, like a movie
21:55about a gangster.
21:56So there's the FBI and all that.
21:58So it's very cinematic, you know?
22:00But still, that one, I keep a cinematic flair into it.
22:05So it goes to movie theater and also film festivals.
22:08And for me, film festivals is my priority, you know?
22:11And it's really when I squeeze all the film festival circuit that usually it goes to network,
22:18hopefully televisions, and then platforms, VOD, Video On Demand.
22:25And a special, you know, I believe today, you know, people, they want to go out.
22:31You need to bring an event with it, you know, especially if you go to cities like Paris, London, New
22:36York,
22:37you need, like, an event for people to come.
22:41So I kind of create a special event around it.
22:44By example, in Itahari, I was doing a fashion show after the screening, you know, or before.
22:50Or I mix it after with an after party, you know, and the cocktail and the DJ comes, etc.
22:57So this is also how you can bring the movie plus something.
23:01You know, you guys don't know, but after we're all going to dance.
23:04It's a party.
23:06I thought we were going to do push-ups.
23:08We're going to do push-ups.
23:08Yeah.
23:10You know, one movie pays for the rest.
23:13And it's why when people say, oh, you made profit, it should be re-shared.
23:17I say, okay, what about the films that didn't work before, you know?
23:21You know, so the talent is always to come back and to learn from the others and to catch the
23:28momentum.
23:28Because the reason why that movie is also successful is because people have sympathy for all the legacy that Tova
23:37has created, but also the sympathy of her character, you know?
23:41And she's changing the game, by the way, because now a lot of studios, they're writing parts for women in
23:48their 70s, you know, which was not the case before, you know?
23:52For lead roles, I'm talking, because they realize that even the girls in their 20s, they're like, oh, I like
23:59that character.
24:00She's funny, you know?
24:01Yeah, so Toda Rabba means in Hebrew, thank you very much.
24:04And I did a joke, Toda Rabba, you know, that was the joke.
24:10But you see the thing with Versailles, that was her sending me videos all the time, saying, I'm in Versailles,
24:16look at me, you know?
24:17So she would say, I wouldn't mind living in Versailles, I can live, I can adjust, you know?
24:22Yeah, live in Versailles, why not, you know?
24:25So a ton of these videos that, you know, so when we found the address where she was living, and
24:31I'm following her with the camera, saying, Toda, don't walk so fast.
24:34You know, it was really like, I was, Toda, wait, wait, Toda, Toda, where are you going?
24:41Where, where, where?
24:42And she goes, come on, come on.
24:44She's walking like this.
24:47And she's full of humor, but really, I invite each and every one of you to read her book, and
24:53to watch the new season of Nobody Wants This, and of course to follow her in all the things.
25:01We can call you the dance.
25:03Thank you so much.
25:06You, my dear, thank you so much.
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