“To cut or not to cut?” is the question Danae Elon faces in this charming, heartfelt and highly personal documentary. Elon travels from her home in New York to Washington, DC, Israel, Turkey, Italy and back again in search of guidance, as she and her husband address the question of whether to circumcise their sons. Along the way, she consults rabbis, priests, doctors, psychoanalysts, parents, activists and Buster, a slightly cracked anti-circumcisionist on horseback, whose behavior sends Elon, her husband and Buster to jail. From her attendance at an anti-circumcision rally in front of the US Capitol to her bedside discussions with her doctor, Elon displays an open vulnerability that endears her to us and makes her worries our own. Though Elon is quite serious in her exploration of the subject, and worries that circumcision may be traumatic, she approaches the topic with a gentle humor that helps put some of the extreme characters she encounters in perspective. For example, Elon’s consultation with a psychoanalyst leads to a hilarious exchange between Elon and her father, with her father declaring it “psychoanalytic shit” even as the very pregnant Elon draws the conclusion from the analyst that not circumcising her baby would make him love her more. Through it all, Elon’s husband, Philip, remains a calming—if not quite calm— presence and serves as a surprising advocate for traditionalism. While Elon’s search uncovers more questions than answers, her examination of this common American surgical procedure will likely give most of us pause—if only to ask why we never paused before.

Filmmaker Q&A

Introduce yourself:
Danae Elon is an award-winning documentary producer, director and cinematographer. She graduated from NYU film school in 1995. Her first documentary film NEVER AGAIN FOREVER, released in 1996, showcased in over 25 international film festivals and received a Golden Spire award from the San Francisco International Film Festival as well as an achievement award from the Chicago International Film Festival. Soon after she returned to Jerusalem, her hometown, to complete two additional films: WILD MINT, which she directed and produced, and CUT, which she photographed and co-produced.

In 2001, Danae returned to the US and began work on her film ANOTHER ROAD HOME, which received a Sundance grant in 2003 and was praised as one of the most honest and sensitive films ever made about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The film premiered at the 2004 Tribeca Film Festival and showcased in over 20 international film festivals, including IDFA, LAFF, Jerusalem Film Festival, Hot Docs, Encounters South Africa, Gotenburg, and many more. ANOTHER ROAD HOME was theatrically released it 2005 and was shown in over twenty US cities. It was broadcast on Sundance Channel, BBC, Finnish, Belgian, New Zealand, Swedish, Al Jazeera and Israeli television. She won two awards for ANOTHER ROAD HOME: a bronze medal from the Warsaw International Film Festival, and best documentary from Tursak Film Festival in Istanbul.  She was recently named a 2009 recipient (in the Film category) of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship to Assist Research and Artistic Creation.

Her second feature documentary, PARTLY PRIVATE, is a comedy on male circumcision. The film premiered at the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival and won the Best NY Documentary award. Danae Is currently working on her third feature documentary THE EVIL TONGUE, which received a 2009 Sundance production grant.

What inspired this film?   How did you find your subjects?
 It all began when Philip, my partner, told me about a story his father had told him:  “In Algeria,” he said, “there is a tradition of putting the foreskin in the couscous dish after the ceremony,” “In the couscous dish?????” We never really spoke about what we would we do if we had a boy… It was only when I became pregnant with my first child that I realized that other people’s dilemmas were now my own. My husband humbly came to me one day and said  “Danae, we will do it, … right?” I realized that my response was both completely simplistic: “No! Are you insane?” and yet contained a bizarre atavistic reaction that would inevitably bring me to agree with him, one that was laced with ancient historical baggage. I decided that this would make the perfect dramatic setting for a documentary on circumcision. I wanted the film to be most of all witty and humorous and not a dogmatic report on the issue.  I realized that it was a way to expose something about our nature as human beings rather than make a statement about whether circumcision is right or wrong. 


What were some of the biggest challenges/surprises?
Making the film and mostly writing and editing it held within it immense potholes; I knew I was going to be walking a very thin line of between taste and balance. It was my intention to portray everyone taking sides on this issue as equally crazy. Using my personal story was a mechanism of touching upon intimate truths that regard us all, a prism through which to look at relationships and sacrifices that go into making a family.

I knew that taking sides in this story would be its downfall. It is a highly controversial subject that easily becomes banal and redundant. Avoiding this redundancy was the most difficult part of making the film. It was also a challenge to find humor within my search and not include graphic materials. Making a personal film is always very tricky. You do not want to cross the line where the film becomes “too personal” and therefore not universal. My editor, M. Watanabe Milmore, was always the key to making me feel comfortable with the personal materials. She was able to make me “watch” my own family through the correct lens.  

Who are some of your favorite filmmakers?
Heddy Honigman
Woody Allen
Akira Kurosawa
John Cassavetes
 

What is your all time favorite documentary?
NIGHT AND FOG

What other projects are in the pipeline?
I am working on a project called THE EVIL TONGUE that will be completed next year. It is based on the Jewish tradition of guarding one’s tongue, speaking no evil about anyone. I am placing this custom in a particular scandal of child sexual abuse in Baltimore.  

Why did you become a filmmaker?
My father is a well-known Israeli author. I was a terrible student, and barely made it through the regular school system. Eventually I was officially kicked out and saved by a one-of-a-kind arts school that initiated a film department to employ all the non-working filmmakers in Israel at the time. This was a time of no budgets… so my teachers where frustrated incredible filmmakers who later became the leading voices in the Israeli industry. The school saved my life, and we got a wonderful education in the history of cinema. Every Friday, we got to see a different classic. When one day we saw SEVEN SAMURAI, I came out saying to myself this is what I want to do, but with it came the daunting thought, “How will I ever manage?”.

What are some of your creative influences?
My father’s books and my mother’s cooking, reading, growing up in Jerusalem, my cinematographer Andrew Dunn: pretty much most of what surrounds me when I am in a good mood.  

Did you go to film school?
NYU  

What do you shoot on?
DVCAM  

What has been the most unexpected thing to happen since taking the film on the festival circuit?
Winning Best NY documentary at the Tribeca Film Festival.

Why did you want to screen your film at SILVERDOCS?
I pitched the film at Sunny Side that took place at SILVERDOCS, it was the last film to be drawn out of a hat for a pitch after no filmmakers where left. It turned out to be the highlight of the forum and received funding and a life after this stroke of luck.