When photographs of Israelis abducted during the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attack appeared on the streets of New York, they soon became the center of a heated public controversy. As some New Yorkers put up posters to raise awareness of the hostages, others began tearing them down, sparking confrontations that exposed deep political and social divisions.

For Israeli-American filmmaker Nimrod (Nim) Shapira, a graduate of Tel Aviv University’s Steve Tisch School of Film and Television who has called New York home since 2013, the controversy was both personal and impossible to ignore.

His 75-minute documentary, TORN: The Israel-Palestine Poster War on NYC Streets, follows ten New Yorkers, including artists, activists, and hostage families, to explore the motivations of those putting up and removing the posters. Through their experiences, the film examines questions of identity, freedom of expression, and empathy in an increasingly polarized society.

The film earned Shapira a New York Emmy Award in the Documentary – Cultural category.

Following his Emmy win, we spoke with Shapira about the personal experience that led him to make TORN, the unexpected impact of its screenings, and the lessons he carries from his years at Tel Aviv University.

Courtesy of the TORN

“I Didn’t Want to Make This Film, but I Had To”

Shapira was visiting family in Israel on October 7, 2023, when news began emerging of people being killed and kidnapped. Among them were loved ones of family friends and people in his wider circle.

While still in Tel Aviv, he watched videos of hostage posters being torn down in New York. He recognized the streets and corners where the incidents were taking place. They were part of the neighborhood he knew as home.

When he returned to New York several weeks later, he encountered a wall covered with hostage posters on Sixth Avenue and 10th Street. Seeing them made him feel that the suffering he had witnessed in Israel was being acknowledged. Yet he was also hearing people he had known for years question whether the hostages were real.

As the posters became increasingly controversial, Shapira began to see them as symbols of something much larger: a struggle over whose grief could be publicly recognized.

“So I decided to point a camera at my own city. I had never made work about my identity before – I didn’t want to make this film, but I had to.”

He wanted to document what was happening before the posters disappeared from the city’s walls and the moment passed.

“I kept asking myself why so many people with no skin in the game, almost 6,000 miles from the war, started their own war, one with glue and paper.”

Courtesy of the TORN

A Film About More Than Posters

Although TORN begins with the posters, Shapira says the film’s central questions concern the society in which the controversy unfolded.

“TORN isn’t really a film about posters. It’s a film about America, not the Middle East – about freedom of expression, polarization, the echo chambers we’ve built around ourselves, and what happens when a society would rather silence people than listen to them.”

That perspective also shaped how he approached the people featured in the documentary.

“I didn’t want to tell audiences what to think. I wanted to ask questions, and to challenge viewers to look beyond their own convictions and recognize the humanity of people they might fundamentally disagree with.”

Shapira does not justify removing the posters, but he believes understanding the motivations behind people’s actions is essential. He describes those who removed them as individuals with very different experiences and beliefs, including people who had lost relatives in Gaza, people who had not read the posters, and others who acted without fully considering their meaning.

“I don’t expect anyone to change their political beliefs after watching the film. But I hope they leave with a little more curiosity, a little less certainty, and the ability to hold more than one truth at once. We should be able to disagree passionately without dehumanizing one another. In the end, I believe the only way forward is coexistence.”

When the Film Ends, the Conversations Begin

Since its release, TORN has reached more than 150 screenings and events at universities, museums, synagogues, and community institutions across the United States.

Shapira has personally led discussions at nearly 100 of them, including events at Columbia University, Harvard, Stanford, NYU, and Yeshiva University.

The screenings have brought together audiences with sharply different perspectives, including students who participated in pro-Palestinian campus encampments, Jewish students who experienced antisemitism, Israeli-Americans, and Palestinian-Americans.

For Shapira, some of the most surprising moments have happened after the credits rolled.

At one screening, a Trump voter from San Francisco and a Palestinian-American woman from Berkeley spoke about how rarely they had heard people with opposing views express themselves beyond short clips in the news. Neither necessarily changed their mind, but they listened.

At another screening, which Shapira could not attend, the audience continued discussing the film until an usher asked them to leave the theater.

“I’ve come to realize that the conversations happening after the screenings are as much a part of TORN as the film itself.”

These experiences have also shaped how Shapira understands the role of documentary filmmaking in an age dominated by social media. Unlike the rapid exchanges of online platforms, he believes documentaries offer audiences the opportunity to spend time with difficult subjects and consider perspectives they might otherwise overlook.

“I believe empathy is not a limited resource, and documentary is one of the best tools we have to prove it.”

Courtesy of the TORN

The TAU Experience That Shaped His Filmmaking

Shapira’s belief that a camera can open conversations rather than close them began taking shape long before TORN, during his studies at Tel Aviv University’s Steve Tisch School of Film and Television. He studied at the University from 2007 to 2011 and earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts.

One of his formative experiences was making his thesis film, Sassi Keshet Never Eats Falafel, a short fiction film that went on to screen at the Shanghai International Film Festival in 2013, HollyShorts in Los Angeles, and student film festivals in Tel Aviv.

While making the film taught him how to develop an idea and bring it to audiences, Shapira says his most important lessons at TAU went beyond filmmaking techniques.

“What I took from those years was more than the craft of filmmaking. It was a way of looking at the world: understanding that a camera can be a tool for asking questions, not just delivering answers, and that every camera angle and placement is a political choice.”

He also remembers the people he met at the University, including classmates who remain close friends. Among them is Shay Mizracy, who studied a year below Shapira and later became the editor and co-writer of TORN.

“That’s part of what the school gives you: amazing people who stay with you.”

After graduating, Shapira moved to New York in 2013 and built a career combining storytelling, technology, and advertising. As a creative director, he worked on projects for brands including Nike, Coca-Cola, Walmart, and IKEA, while continuing to develop independent work in virtual reality, immersive storytelling, and documentary filmmaking.

He also became a research fellow at MIT’s Open Documentary Lab.

Throughout this varied career, his interest in documentary filmmaking has remained closely connected to discovery.

“Sometimes the most interesting story is the one you didn’t know you were looking for.”

An Emmy for a Story Rooted in New York

Shapira began making TORN without a studio, a broadcaster’s commission, or major financial backing. What he had was a sense of urgency and a story he felt needed to be documented.

Since then, the film has been broadcast on PBS in New York and on television internationally, reached audiences across the United States, and been featured in a filmmaker conversation on the Academy’s Oscars channel.

Winning a New York Emmy was particularly meaningful because of the city’s central role in the documentary.

“New York isn’t just where this film was made. New York is the subject of the film, and in many ways, its central character.”

The award also reinforced his belief in telling difficult stories without reducing them to simple answers.

“At a time when even acknowledging the humanity of people on different sides can feel controversial, the recognition meant a great deal to me. It reaffirmed my belief that there is value in telling difficult stories without simplifying them.”

He emphasizes that the achievement belongs to the team behind TORN and the people who trusted the filmmakers with their experiences.

Courtesy of the TORN

His Advice to Future Filmmakers: Start With a Question

From his first student film at Tel Aviv University to an Emmy-winning documentary, Shapira’s journey has been shaped by the questions he chose to pursue. For students hoping to tell stories of their own, his advice begins with that same curiosity.

“Start with something you can’t stop thinking about. And start smaller than you think you need to.”

He recalls disliking the familiar advice to “write what you know” when he was a film student. At the time, it seemed to discourage experimentation. Today, he understands it differently.

For Shapira, knowing a subject does not mean limiting yourself to your own biography. It means recognizing the questions, experiences, and perspectives that give you a particular way into a story.

He also encourages students to explore fields beyond filmmaking. His experience in creative direction, technology, production, and audience development all contributed to his ability to make and distribute TORN. In an industry increasingly shaped by artificial intelligence, he believes a broad range of skills and interests is an advantage.

“You don’t need permission to start making something. You don’t need the perfect equipment or a perfect plan. You need curiosity, persistence, and the willingness to keep going even when nobody is waiting for your film.”

And perhaps the most important lesson he hopes to pass on is the same one that shaped TORN: remain open to people, especially those whose views challenge your own.

“As filmmakers, our job isn’t necessarily to have all the answers. Sometimes the most powerful thing we can do is ask a better question.”

Watch TORN: The Israel-Palestine Poster War on NYC Streets

The documentary is available to watch on Apple TV and Amazon Prime Video.

Watch on Apple TV | Watch on Amazon Prime Video

Watch the trailer: