A feature documentary about a 90-year-old Holocaust survivor with half a million social media followers and a whole lot of hope.
In partnership with the
It gives me tremendous pleasure to congratulate you on my personal behalf and on behalf of the State of Israel... on the completion of a feature documentary about your life. ‘Follow Me’ charts the course of your extraordinary life with wisdom and charm... because it is you, Gidon, who are its main character... through whom a much broader human story is echoed and touched.
Isaac Herzog, President of the State of Israel
The Team Behind the Film
Director
Yaniv Rokah
Yaniv Rokah’s directorial debut, Queen Mimi, with appearances by Zach Galifianakis and Academy Award winner Renee Zellwegger, won Best Documentary at the Manhattan Film Festival, Hot Springs Film Festival, Chagrin Falls Film Festival, and the St. Tropez International Film Festival. The film landed a global distribution deal through Netflix. Rokah’s narrative short film, Black Hat, about a conflicted member of the Orthodox Jewish community, won several film festival awards in 2019, including the prestigious Iris Prize, and Best Film at the American Pavilion at Cannes Film Festival and Jury Award at The San Francisco Jewish Film Festival. Black Hat was an official selection at the Tribeca Film Festival and landed a distribution deal with HBO Europe.
Executive Producer
Elliot Kotek
Elliot Kotek is the producer of Netlix Original Little Miss Sumo and the NBC Peacock Original Black Boys. A recognized leader in the power of purposeful content, Elliot is a member of the Television Academy and the Producers Guild of America, and his innovative branded documentaries for the likes of AARP, Accenture, Aflac, Campbell's, Hyundai & the UNDP, LEGO, New Balance, Whirlpool & Habitat for Humanity have racked up several billion media impressions and earned 7 Emmy nominations, 5 Cannes Lions, 4 SxSW Innovation Awards, 2 Clios, 2 Anthem Awards, multiple Webby honors, archiving at MoMA as well as recognition from the U.S. Congress and House of Representatives.
Executive Producer
Danny Cohen
Executive producer of the Academy Award-winning film Zone of Interest, Danny Cohen is the president of Access Entertainment, a division of Access Industries focused on investments across film, television, live entertainment, the creator economy, the visual arts, and gaming. Access Entertainment finances and produces films with leading actors and directors and Danny Cohen serves as Executive Producer on each of the films. Prior to joining Access in May 2016, Danny was director of BBC Television where he led the BBC's Television Networks and BBC Productions - Europe's largest television production group with a staff of 3,000. His role encompassed the greenlighting and production of all the BBC's comedy, drama, entertainment and unscripted programs. Danny also oversaw the BBC's film label, BBC Films and provided editorial leadership for the BBC's digital platform, the iPlayer. He was a BBC Board member.
Writer/Producer
Julie Gray
Julie Gray co-authored The True Adventures of Gidon Lev and Let's Make Things Better. (Hachette/Pan MacMillan.) Her writing has appeared in the Times of Israel, the Huffpo, the Jewish Journal, Moment Magazine, the NY Post, Sanskrit Literary Journal and Moviemaker Magazine. Julie produced and narrated The True Adventures of Gidon Lev podcast series. She also writes and creates content about Holocaust education, with 465K followers on TikTok and 85K followers on Instagram. She has spoken about narrative and storytelling at the European Jewish Association, Hebrew University, and Warner Bros. Entertainment. Repped by C&W/UTA, Julie is proud to be the writer and producer of Follow Me.
Composer
Inbal Segev
Inbal Segev is “a cellist with something to say” (Gramophone). Combining rich tone and technical mastery with rare dedication and intelligence, she has appeared with orchestras including the Berlin Philharmonic, London Philharmonic, Israel Philharmonic, Baltimore Symphony, St. Louis Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony, Bamberg Symphony and Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra Katowice (NOSPR), collaborating with such prominent conductors as Marin Alsop, Stéphane Denève, Lorin Maazel, Cristian Măcelaru, Zubin Mehta and Edward Gardner. Committed to reinvigorating the cello repertoire, she has commissioned and premiered new cello concertos from Timo Andres, Anna Clyne, Avner Dorman, Fernando Otero, Dan Visconti and Victoria Poleva, whose concerto Segev looks forward to premiering with the Dallas Symphony and London Philharmonic orchestras in the 2023-24 season. Recorded with Alsop and the London Philharmonic for Avie Records, Segev’s 2020 premiere recording of Clyne’s new cello concerto, DANCE, was an instant success, topping the Amazon Classical Concertos chart; its opening movement was chosen as one of NPR Music’s “Favorite Songs of 2020,” receiving nine million listens on Spotify, and Segev has continued to tour extensively with the piece. At the start of the pandemic, she launched “20 for 2020,” a commissioning, recording and video project for 20 cutting-edge composers, including John Luther Adams, Viet Cuong, Angélica Negrón and others who she asked to create works in response to the unprecedented worldwide crisis and encourage creative recovery. Her previous discography includes acclaimed recordings of the Elgar Cello Concerto, Romantic cello works and Bach’s Cello Suites, while her popular YouTube masterclass series, Musings with Inbal Segev, has inspired a generation of cellists. A native of Israel, at 16 Segev was invited by Isaac Stern to continue her cello studies in the U.S., where she earned degrees from Yale University and the Juilliard School, before co-founding the Amerigo Trio with former New York Philharmonic concertmaster Glenn Dicterow and violist Karen Dreyfus. Segev started composing during the pandemic: her cello quartet, Behold, can be heard on her album 20 for 2020; her cello octet, B Natural, premiered at Yale in 2023; and her forthcoming string trio is scheduled to premiere in the 2025-26 season. Her cello was made by Francesco Ruggieri in 1673.
Project Overview
In many ways, Gidon Lev is like a little boy who never quite grew up. He was in the Theresienstadt concentration camp in the former Czechoslovakia from the ages of 6 to 10. Gidon lost 26 family members in the Holocaust, including his beloved father and grandparents. Gidon's liberation on May 5th, 1945, was the beginning of a whole new life; one that has spanned nine decades, two marriages, six children, working on a dairy, deliverying flowers and going on viral on social media at the age of 86. With special appearances by Sharon Stone and Bravo's Andy Cohen, Follow Me is the touching story of one rascal and the many lives he has touched.
Project Status
The film is fully shot and in post-production. We are now seeking $200,000 in finishing funds for final editing, fx/graphics, sound design, color correction, and marketing.
We are open to private donors or production partners.
All contributions will be handled transparently and with full credit given. Tax-deductible donation options are available upon request.
To learn more about being a part of our team and to receive a detailed proposal, please contact us here.