He arrived in Tel Aviv thinking that he was going to make a documentary about Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouti, who was on trial for his involvement in the organized killings of more than 20 Israelis. When Jack Baxter found another filmmaker already covering the trial, he came across another story to document: Mike's Place. Jack wanted to portray Tel Aviv's normal side, separate from the preconceived war-torn reputation of the area. He collaborated with filmmaker Joshua Faudem on the project.
The "Blues by the Beach" movie depicts vignettes of normal people. When the suicide bomber attacked the bar on April 30, 2003, the movie then captured normal people in an extraordinary circumstance.
Even though Jack was seriously injured, the filming continued – with a new objective: to display the tragedy and its impact.
The vignettes included various people from different walks of life. Jack Baxter wanted to capture their voices, to display an untapped version of Israel that he, himself, hadn't known existed. One of the featured voices was that of Dominique Hass, the attractive French waitress who brightly offered her story for the cameras.
The Blues by the Beach movie demonstrates the unfairness of the terrorist acts in the Middle East. People trying to live ordinary lives are thrown into a war zone; the survivors' lives are forever changed.
No matter the viewer's background – Jewish or not Jewish, whether he or she is immersed in or is virtually unfamiliar with the conflict overseas – this movie can shed a new perspective and understanding to this "other" side of Israel.
