A friend wanted me to write a script for him.
I found an agent in Israel to rep me on the deal, and much to my amazement, the agent was trying the entire time to piss me off, and explain to me why it shouldn't happen, and why I shouldn't be the writer of the film.
People like him, are the reason I decided to leave Israel for awhile and clean my anger in the US.
One of the things that broke my heart in Israel was that even thought I made a highly succesful film- that affected an entire generation- I was looked down on by my peers.
Moreover, for two years after completing the film, I couldn't find work anywhere in the industry.
I was unhireable for some reason.
People explained to me in all the production companies I went to interview for, why my filmmaking style is wrong and doesn't truly work.
It's very hard to see that on the one hand people around the globe love your film, and on the other hand, that film couldn't even get me a low paying job working for TV making tiny segments for any shitty news program.

So I'm still fighting to keep my dream alive, of getting my voice heard, the independent way- and from time to time, when my energy runs out- facing the constant battles of life, I google myself, hoping to see something new about me that I haven't seen before.
I know. A little vain, but still, I assume I'm no different from any artist who hopes his work will be seen or recorgnized somewhere.
So I discovered that two weeks ago, there was a big conference in Missisipi about Israeli culture, and there was a lecture by a professor I didn't know about my film.
The name blew my mind out :
Lea Fima from McGill University lecture was titled:
"The Impact of Dan Katzir’s Film Out for Love…Back Shortly on Students in the Diaspora"
Here's the link.
http://naph.umn.edu/program/session8.html

It's 2006.
OUT FOR LOVE... came out in 1997.
So 9 years after, the film is still influencing new generations of people not just in my country, but also around the world.

Still, how sad it is that with all my success - it translated to so little in terms of the Israeli art "gate keepers" who time and again did everything not to allow me to work in my own homeland.

I cannot complain about my life in LA. Still, for my own record I must admit that there are many a days inwhich I feel like an EXILE.
Some one who was forced out of his homeland, not because of his political beliefs, but because of his very unique artistic point of view.
Long live those who are not afraid to be different.

XOX

Dan