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What is a historical narrative? Who gets to shape it and who decides how we remember a particular event, especially when it comes to a pivotal moment like October 7?
Talya Tibbon is an award-winning documentary filmmaker who divides her time between London and New York. Her films have been featured on Netflix, Amazon, National Geographic and other major platforms. She transitioned to documentary filmmaking after a decade of working at CNN.
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Talya Tibbon: 'We are touching on places that are almost sacred'
(Photo: Leslie Ordeman)
Not an interviewer, but a listener
Throughout her career, she has filmed on four continents—from the halls of the White House and the Pentagon to brothels in Mexico and remote villages in Laos, Nigeria, and Lapland. She has had the opportunity to meet and interview war refugees, drug dealers, trafficked women, senior CIA officials, and Native American tribal elders.
All of this likely prepared her for what she has been doing for the past year as a volunteer with the Edut (Hebrew for testimony) 710 project, where she is part of the organization’s leadership and coordinates the research and English translation teams.
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The testimony of captivity survivor Hannah Peri from Nirim. Her son Roi was murdered by terrorists who invaded their home. Her other son, Nadav Poppelwell, was taken hostage into Gaza and murdered in captivity
(Photo: Gil Levin, Edut 710)
"I'm also learning new things because this is a different form of documentation than what I'm familiar with," she says. "The philosophy of Edut 710 essentially states that all the power lies with the witness, the interviewee. The interviewer is there as a Listener. The witness chooses what to focus on, what to talk about, and what not to talk about. We never push for more, never ask for additional information, and never direct the conversation. We are there only to listen.”
"There are three or four initial questions to start the conversation, and from there, all the power lies with the witness, including the decision whether to publish their testimony, given the highly sensitive nature of the situation."
The approach is based on the work of Professor Dori Laub, a psychiatrist who was the first to document on camera the testimonies of Holocaust survivors. Laub's therapeutic approach empowers the witness, allowing them to reclaim the narrative.
"Imagine a state of helplessness when uncontrollable things are happening around you," Tibbon explains. "You’re hiding behind a bush in the Nova festival or locked up in a safe room. When you talk about the experience, you’re reclaiming the story. You are no longer helpless; you’re building your narrative and your resilience.”
What does it do to you as a listener?
“I find this fascinating. When people are allowed to lead the story, their thoughts surface, their emotions surface, and as a listener you receive a deeply personal account of the event: what the person felt, what they were afraid of, what the fear aroused in them.
"This openness, during which I just listen, brings about the realization that we are touching on places that are almost sacred. It’s a privilege to be there and to listen to these stories.”
'This testimony broke me'
In the interview with Tibbon, she recounts filming the testimony of an American pathologist who volunteered to come to Israel and assist in identifying bodies. As someone who worked at some of the most severe murder scenes in Philadelphia and had identified 9/11 victims, she thought she had seen it all. But the extreme sights (of October 7 attack victims) she was exposed to at the National Institute of Forensic Medicine, led her to call the institute’s director and make it clear that these were unequivocally war crimes.
'They brought her a lump of coal and she had to figure out what it was, and then she realized it was an adult and a child together. It was very important for her to give her testimony, and it wasn't easy, nor was it easy for me as a listener. These are things that are incredibly difficult to hear'
"She identified a case of someone who had been tied up with their hands behind their back and shot in the back of the head at close range. That's a war crime. That's an execution. She was the first to identify it, and being able to think in such a way in that situation is incredible.”
"They brought her a lump of coal and she had to figure out what it was, and then she realized it was an adult and a child together,” she adds. "It was very important for her to give her testimony, and it wasn't easy, nor was it easy for me as a listener. These are things that are incredibly difficult to hear, which is why our testimonies come with a trigger warning.”
Was there a testimony that particularly moved you?
There are many. I choose to share the testimony of Amos Epstein from Kibbutz Kfar Aza, who lost his wife, his son-in-law and two grandchildren on October 7. He’s well into his 80s, one of the founders of the Western Negev communities. He gave his testimony with a choked voice in the face of the general and personal devastation, and while speaking, he relived the murder of his wife and family. That testimony broke me.”
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I can hear that it's still difficult for you.
I'm in a profession where I’ve learned to both feel and protect myself emotionally, but confronting the stories of October 7 was difficult, because even though I haven’t lived in Israel for many years, I am Israeli, and anyone who was hurt could have been my friend or a member of my family.
"Day-to-day it's strange for me to be abroad. Now, for instance ( we’re speaking in December) when everyone on the street is busy with Christmas, and I'm collecting testimonies. We're making an effort to reach as many witnesses as possible, and to build a digital archive that will document the event from every possible angle. For example, we're currently documenting, in the context of October 7, the medical staff at Soroka Medical Center, the Bedouin community, new immigrants, and Holocaust survivors who experienced the attacks.”
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Archaeologists searching for remains in the western Negev following October 7
(Photo: Assaf Peretz, Israel Antiquities Authority)
Why is it important to divide testimonies into sub-groups?
“To hear perspectives from a wide variety of angles, including those that haven’t yet been part of the narrative. For example, we documented a group of medics, who shared experiences we hadn’t heard before, as well as joint testimonies from members of the local civilian emergency response teams. While many of those we’ve been collecting testimony from recount what they experienced inside their homes, their safe rooms, these are two groups that operated outside, in the line of fire, and the idea is to hear all the different narratives without judgment or a hierarchy of testimonies.”
What is the difference between a testimony of a native-born Israeli and that of an immigrant?
In the testimony of someone who grew up in the Western Negev, there’s an inherent understanding that they live in an amazing place, and that there is this terrible threat in the background. On the other hand, in the testimony of a new immigrant couple who fell in love with the Negev and brought their children there, we heard how living under these conditions and developing trauma is not a decision they take for granted at all. They are grappling with the question of how to build a future for their children within this reality, that they may feel deeply connected to, but for them, moving their family to this area wasn’t an obvious decision.
"The testimonies of Holocaust survivors are also fascinating because for those who survived the atrocities of World War II at the age of six or seven, and then experienced October 7, we can only guess what it had evoked in them. So the idea is to get as many perspectives as possible to preserve a memory that is as broad and inclusive as possible.”