A mockumentary series exploring Gen-Zs, religion, and sex in the Holy Land. CONCEPT Film student and leftist activist Sadie is initially reluctant to join her three girlfriends on Birthright, believing it to be pure IDF propaganda. But when tasked with shooting her thesis film, she comes to the realization that she could make an expository documentary, sure to win Sundance and every other major film festival in the country, and agrees to join her friends on the trip on the condition that they let her film the whole thing. Instead of uncovering right-wing ideologies, Sadie uncovers a more universal truth: sex runs deeper than politics.
MAIN CHARACTERS
STORYLINES & ARCS Throughout the season, as we travel across Israel with 36 other Jewish-Americans, we follow the four friends as they interact with their fellow Shaglit members, explore Israel, party, meet soldiers, take in the nature, and hook up. Although Sadie is determined to find anti-Palestine propaganda, all she ends up finding is more and more people having sex. In her quest for the ultimate story, Sadie starts spying on everyone and ends up crossing serious boundaries to get her shots. As the intense circumstances of the trip bring the friends closer together, they each go through a journey of their own. Sarah, forever battling with her weight and body image issues, will find that her voice is so much more powerful than her need to be skinny. Adina discovers that if she keeps putting her wishes aside for everyone else’s needs, she’ll end up living with regrets, and finally lets loose. Danielle, who has long decided that using her looks was the best way to get ahead in life, realizes she can be smart and sexy. And Sadie, who almost loses her best friends, realizes there’s a fine line between making art and exploitation.
EPISODE BREAKDOWNS
01 – Sadie’s in a frenzy. After months of preparing to present her idea for her thesis film – an experimental hybrid, in which a houseless youth re-enacts her life story - the girl she’s been working with suddenly gets discovered by a modelling agency and drops out of the project. She has 24 hours to come up with a new idea. Frustrated and at a loss, she goes home and starts smoking copious amounts of weed, looking for inspiration. She’s interrupted by her roommate Sarah, who wants to know why Sadie won’t join her and their friends on their Birthright to Israel. In between tokes Sadie has a stroke of genius and decides to make a documentary about Birthright exposing it for the pro-IDF anti-Palestine propaganda she believes it to be. She convinces her friends to let her film the whole trip. Adina and Danielle are beyond excited that Sadie is coming with them and even agree to let her film them getting ready, a decision they'll soon come to regret. Sarah, Sadie, Adina, and Danielle arrive at LAX and meet the staff and some of the other Birthrighters. They land in Ben Gurion Airport and the madness begins.
02 – After a 15-hour flight and a long ride to the north of Israel, Sadie manages to annoy most of the other people on the bus, Sarah makes an unlikely friend, Adina tries to relax, but can’t because her boyfriend won’t leave her alone, and Danielle mysteriously disappears at the historic Sea of Galilee. 03 – Our four girls discover how mystical the mountainous city of Tzfat really is after encountering some interesting characters. Sadie hates on the Kabbalistic artists, pissing Adina off. In the afternoon, they go rafting in the Jordan River, and end up in the hot springs of Hamat Gadar. 04 – Sadie meets a Palestinian who tells her he has some pretty major secrets and secretly has him join their tour as they climb Mt. Bental and look at the Golan Heights. The day takes a freaky turn when they start drinking Rose at a Vineyard overlooking the Jordan Valley. 05 – Exploring the old city in Jerusalem, Sadie and Danielle accidentally follow the wrong group out and end up on the bus of the ultra orthodox birthright trip. Adina goes deep into Shabbat. Sarah follows a mysterious man into an underground party. Things get heated between Danielle and one of the soldiers, Shay. 06 – Sarah sleeps in while the friends explore the rest of the city. Sadie crosses a line in trying to capture footage of Adina arguing with her boyfriend and the other girls call her out, but to no avail. That night, Sadie tries to get incriminating footage of the Rabbis and the dinner. 07 – A solemn, soulful visit to Yad Vashem has Adina feeling all sorts of things. The group learns about the founders of Israel at Mt Herzl and explore the complexities of the region. The neurotic guide finally breaks down when he discovers Danielle and Shay hooking up on the bus, on the way to the Dead Sea. 08 – Sadie tries to brave it, but can’t stop her pussy from burning. The group takes pictures in the mud. Pussy still on fire, the girls ride a camel and arrive at a Bedouin tent, where they have a hafla-dinner, and gather around a campfire for tea, stories, and song. All around them people are hooking up. 09 – The group visits Ben Gurion’s desert home and learn about his vision for Israel. Sadie is confronted with the truth that she hasn’t gotten any of the footage she had hoped on getting for her film. They make their final stop to Tel Aviv for the last day, where Sarah meets a handsome stranger who shows her a night to remember. 10 – Sarah awakes in the stranger’s bed. All is forgiven between the friends as they enjoy their last day, roaming the streets of Tel Aviv. Even Sadie is impressed with the city, its thriving art scene, and eclectic and queer culture. After eating a lamb shawarma at the entrance to Jaffa, they decide to extend their trip and stay in Tel Aviv for two weeks.
FUTURE SEASONS
 Season Two follows the friends after the trip ends and they decide to stay (as many who on Birthright do) and explore Tel Aviv on their own for a few weeks. Unbound by the itinerary, they start to see the real sides of the city: the grimy harbour, the cobblestoned ancient streets of Jaffa, the bustling markets and the constant haggling, the delicious snacks on every corner, the palpable tension, the culture clashes, the feeling of a never-ending celebration lingering in the air. Tel Aviv is a magical place full of rich contradictions, a city like no other, and in this season, becomes one of the central characters. One night, at a street party, Sadie meets a beautiful Ethiopian woman called Ayana, and falls for her instantly. Through the rose-tinted glasses of this new blossoming love, Sadie softens towards the country and discovers a more nuanced culture than she could have possibly imagined. Sarah too finds romance, but more of a hot, steamy summer fling - which is exactly what she wants. After a sketchy night out, Danielle decides to re-evaluate her priorities and uses her time in Tel Aviv to explore herself outside of who she is around guys. Adina struggles to be the perfect everything, as her boyfriend Nathan back home becomes increasingly jealous and controlling, but as the season progresses, sees her own role in the codependency and in the last episode, breaks up with Nathan before returning home. Sadie starts combing through her footage and realizes she didn’t get anything she wanted, but that to her surprise, there’s another film forming. In an epic season finale, Sadie decides to stay in Tel Aviv with Ayana, and the other girls head home. Season Three follows Sadie as she adapts to the Israeli lifestyle and attempts to make Aliah and learn Hebrew at the Ulpan, a state-funded language school. Now in the country about which she held such strong convictions, Sadie finds that very little is how she thought it would be, and is enthralled by the many diverse communities she interacts with. Sadie starts filming her daily interactions, meetings with new friends, and interviews with a variety of Israelis. Her footage now reflects a deeply divided and nuanced cultural landscape: from extreme leftists to the hardcore right, from Yemenites to Druze to Eastern-European Jews to Black Israelites to South-African Jews to Ethiopian-Israelis from orthodox to secular and everyone in between. Thrust into Sadie’s expansive world as she splits her time with Ayana and her circle of friends, her motley crew of immigrant friends at school, and the strangers she meets in random places in Tel Aviv, we experience together with Sadie a truly comprehensive picture of Israel and its people. At the end of the season, Adina comes to visit and although she too is in awe of the experience of Tel Aviv, she reminds Sadie of everything that’s great back home in LA. Future Seasons will find Sadie in a pickle: she’s come to love Israel and being in partnership with Ayana, but she also misses LA and knows she needs to be there to break through as a filmmaker. In Season Four, Sadie asks Ayana to move back with her to LA, where we then watch Ayana acclimate to Sadie’s natural environment, and struggle to make LA her own. At the end of the season, Sadie gets a huge grant for a film project in Israel, and they decide to start living in both cities.
SIDE CHARACTERS
CREATIVE VISION
Despite the niche group it represents, Shaglit tells a universal story and the viewing experience captures the quintessential gen-z dynamic and interaction with the world. Unlike other mockumentaries, Shaglit introduces the person and the purpose behind the documentary lens, giving a reason for the series to exist. The pilot includes Sadie (the filmmaker) as we get to know her, but the rest of the season is shot from her perspective, and we only see her through other's captures of her. Sadie’s lens serves as the candid reality, showcasing our characters’ vulnerability, weaknesses, and humanity, while the found footage - in the form of iPhone videos, GoPro footage, facetime conversations, and Instagram and TikTok stories - juxtaposes the authenticity, instead, presenting the image we wish to project to the world.
As such, on the surface, Shaglit is the story of what happens when you put 40 horny young Jews together for two weeks, but underneath the layers of parties, travel vlogs, and sex, is an exploration of the bipolar landscape afforded by new media, encapsulated in every Gen-Z’s psyche.
POLITICAL STANDPOINT
It is hard to think of a country about which even people who have never visited have such firm and impassioned opinions. Misconceptions about Israel, Israelis, and Jews run rampant and divide an already politically divisive landscape. Though it is virtually impossible to make an apolitical series set in Israel, Shaglit is not a political show by nature. Israel is a land of insane contradictions made all the more insane by its tiny square space and geography. And with Shaglit, we aim to explore these contradictions with humor. We are neither pro-Israel nor pro-Palestine. We are pro-peace.
THE VIEWING EXPERIENCE
We believe in embracing the future of storytelling and the opportunities new media present. Shaglit is designed to be viewed on a mobile device, as much as on the big screen, affording new and unique possibilities for content distribution. All of the main characters in the series will have respective social media accounts with with accompanying storylines with which viewers can interact. With the Instagram footage, we seamlessly weave product placement into their stories, creating consumer-valued content that doesn’t break the bank.
CREATORS’ BIO
Shirah Wagner is an American-Israeli-German screenwriter and producer. Jonathan Stein is an Israeli-American director and writer. Upon meeting in LA, they realized working together was inevitable. Shaglit is their first creative collaboration. Many Israeli shows have been purchased by the US and vice versa, but there hasn’t been a show created from scratch as an Israeli American co-production in Hebrew and English. Until now. Consumers are ready.
©2023 Shirah Wagner & Jonathan Stein
 A mockumentary series exploring Gen-Zs, religion, and sex in the Holy Land. CONCEPT Film student and leftist activist Sadie is initially reluctant to join her three girlfriends on Birthright, believing it to be pure IDF propaganda. But when tasked with shooting her thesis film, she comes to the realization that she could make an expository documentary, sure to win Sundance and every other major film festival in the country, and agrees to join her friends on the trip on the condition that they let her film the whole thing. Instead of uncovering right-wing ideologies, Sadie uncovers a more universal truth: sex runs deeper than politics.
MAIN CHARACTERS
STORYLINES & ARCS Throughout the season, as we travel across Israel with 36 other Jewish-Americans, we follow the four friends as they interact with their fellow Shaglit members, explore Israel, party, meet soldiers, take in the nature, and hook up. Although Sadie is determined to find anti-Palestine propaganda, all she ends up finding is more and more people having sex. In her quest for the ultimate story, Sadie starts spying on everyone and ends up crossing serious boundaries to get her shots. As the intense circumstances of the trip bring the friends closer together, they each go through a journey of their own. Sarah, forever battling with her weight and body image issues, will find that her voice is so much more powerful than her need to be skinny. Adina discovers that if she keeps putting her wishes aside for everyone else’s needs, she’ll end up living with regrets, and finally lets loose. Danielle, who has long decided that using her looks was the best way to get ahead in life, realizes she can be smart and sexy. And Sadie, who almost loses her best friends, realizes there’s a fine line between making art and exploitation.
EPISODE BREAKDOWNS
01 – Sadie’s in a frenzy. After months of preparing to present her idea for her thesis film – an experimental hybrid, in which a houseless youth re-enacts her life story - the girl she’s been working with suddenly gets discovered by a modelling agency and drops out of the project. She has 24 hours to come up with a new idea. Frustrated and at a loss, she goes home and starts smoking copious amounts of weed, looking for inspiration. She’s interrupted by her roommate Sarah, who wants to know why Sadie won’t join her and their friends on their Birthright to Israel. In between tokes Sadie has a stroke of genius and decides to make a documentary about Birthright exposing it for the pro-IDF anti-Palestine propaganda she believes it to be. She convinces her friends to let her film the whole trip. Adina and Danielle are beyond excited that Sadie is coming with them and even agree to let her film them getting ready, a decision they'll soon come to regret. Sarah, Sadie, Adina, and Danielle arrive at LAX and meet the staff and some of the other Birthrighters. They land in Ben Gurion Airport and the madness begins.
02 – After a 15-hour flight and a long ride to the north of Israel, Sadie manages to annoy most of the other people on the bus, Sarah makes an unlikely friend, Adina tries to relax, but can’t because her boyfriend won’t leave her alone, and Danielle mysteriously disappears at the historic Sea of Galilee. 03 – Our four girls discover how mystical the mountainous city of Tzfat really is after encountering some interesting characters. Sadie hates on the Kabbalistic artists, pissing Adina off. In the afternoon, they go rafting in the Jordan River, and end up in the hot springs of Hamat Gadar. 04 – Sadie meets a Palestinian who tells her he has some pretty major secrets and secretly has him join their tour as they climb Mt. Bental and look at the Golan Heights. The day takes a freaky turn when they start drinking Rose at a Vineyard overlooking the Jordan Valley. 05 – Exploring the old city in Jerusalem, Sadie and Danielle accidentally follow the wrong group out and end up on the bus of the ultra orthodox birthright trip. Adina goes deep into Shabbat. Sarah follows a mysterious man into an underground party. Things get heated between Danielle and one of the soldiers, Shay. 06 – Sarah sleeps in while the friends explore the rest of the city. Sadie crosses a line in trying to capture footage of Adina arguing with her boyfriend and the other girls call her out, but to no avail. That night, Sadie tries to get incriminating footage of the Rabbis and the dinner. 07 – A solemn, soulful visit to Yad Vashem has Adina feeling all sorts of things. The group learns about the founders of Israel at Mt Herzl and explore the complexities of the region. The neurotic guide finally breaks down when he discovers Danielle and Shay hooking up on the bus, on the way to the Dead Sea. 08 – Sadie tries to brave it, but can’t stop her pussy from burning. The group takes pictures in the mud. Pussy still on fire, the girls ride a camel and arrive at a Bedouin tent, where they have a hafla-dinner, and gather around a campfire for tea, stories, and song. All around them people are hooking up. 09 – The group visits Ben Gurion’s desert home and learn about his vision for Israel. Sadie is confronted with the truth that she hasn’t gotten any of the footage she had hoped on getting for her film. They make their final stop to Tel Aviv for the last day, where Sarah meets a handsome stranger who shows her a night to remember. 10 – Sarah awakes in the stranger’s bed. All is forgiven between the friends as they enjoy their last day, roaming the streets of Tel Aviv. Even Sadie is impressed with the city, its thriving art scene, and eclectic and queer culture. After eating a lamb shawarma at the entrance to Jaffa, they decide to extend their trip and stay in Tel Aviv for two weeks.
FUTURE SEASONS
 Season Two follows the friends after the trip ends and they decide to stay (as many who on Birthright do) and explore Tel Aviv on their own for a few weeks. Unbound by the itinerary, they start to see the real sides of the city: the grimy harbour, the cobblestoned ancient streets of Jaffa, the bustling markets and the constant haggling, the delicious snacks on every corner, the palpable tension, the culture clashes, the feeling of a never-ending celebration lingering in the air. Tel Aviv is a magical place full of rich contradictions, a city like no other, and in this season, becomes one of the central characters. One night, at a street party, Sadie meets a beautiful Ethiopian woman called Ayana, and falls for her instantly. Through the rose-tinted glasses of this new blossoming love, Sadie softens towards the country and discovers a more nuanced culture than she could have possibly imagined. Sarah too finds romance, but more of a hot, steamy summer fling - which is exactly what she wants. After a sketchy night out, Danielle decides to re-evaluate her priorities and uses her time in Tel Aviv to explore herself outside of who she is around guys. Adina struggles to be the perfect everything, as her boyfriend Nathan back home becomes increasingly jealous and controlling, but as the season progresses, sees her own role in the codependency and in the last episode, breaks up with Nathan before returning home. Sadie starts combing through her footage and realizes she didn’t get anything she wanted, but that to her surprise, there’s another film forming. In an epic season finale, Sadie decides to stay in Tel Aviv with Ayana, and the other girls head home. Season Three follows Sadie as she adapts to the Israeli lifestyle and attempts to make Aliah and learn Hebrew at the Ulpan, a state-funded language school. Now in the country about which she held such strong convictions, Sadie finds that very little is how she thought it would be, and is enthralled by the many diverse communities she interacts with. Sadie starts filming her daily interactions, meetings with new friends, and interviews with a variety of Israelis. Her footage now reflects a deeply divided and nuanced cultural landscape: from extreme leftists to the hardcore right, from Yemenites to Druze to Eastern-European Jews to Black Israelites to South-African Jews to Ethiopian-Israelis from orthodox to secular and everyone in between. Thrust into Sadie’s expansive world as she splits her time with Ayana and her circle of friends, her motley crew of immigrant friends at school, and the strangers she meets in random places in Tel Aviv, we experience together with Sadie a truly comprehensive picture of Israel and its people. At the end of the season, Adina comes to visit and although she too is in awe of the experience of Tel Aviv, she reminds Sadie of everything that’s great back home in LA. Future Seasons will find Sadie in a pickle: she’s come to love Israel and being in partnership with Ayana, but she also misses LA and knows she needs to be there to break through as a filmmaker. In Season Four, Sadie asks Ayana to move back with her to LA, where we then watch Ayana acclimate to Sadie’s natural environment, and struggle to make LA her own. At the end of the season, Sadie gets a huge grant for a film project in Israel, and they decide to start living in both cities. SIDE CHARACTERS
CREATIVE VISION
Despite the niche group it represents, Shaglit tells a universal story and the viewing experience captures the quintessential gen-z dynamic and interaction with the world. Unlike other mockumentaries, Shaglit introduces the person and the purpose behind the documentary lens, giving a reason for the series to exist. The pilot includes Sadie (the filmmaker) as we get to know her, but the rest of the season is shot from her perspective, and we only see her through other's captures of her. Sadie’s lens serves as the candid reality, showcasing our characters’ vulnerability, weaknesses, and humanity, while the found footage - in the form of iPhone videos, GoPro footage, facetime conversations, and Instagram and TikTok stories - juxtaposes the authenticity, instead, presenting the image we wish to project to the world.
As such, on the surface, Shaglit is the story of what happens when you put 40 horny young Jews together for two weeks, but underneath the layers of parties, travel vlogs, and sex, is an exploration of the bipolar landscape afforded by new media, encapsulated in every Gen-Z’s psyche.
POLITICAL STANDPOINT
It is hard to think of a country about which even people who have never visited have such firm and impassioned opinions. Misconceptions about Israel, Israelis, and Jews run rampant and divide an already politically divisive landscape. Though it is virtually impossible to make an apolitical series set in Israel, Shaglit is not a political show by nature. Israel is a land of insane contradictions made all the more insane by its tiny square space and geography. And with Shaglit, we aim to explore these contradictions with humor. We are neither pro-Israel nor pro-Palestine. We are pro-peace.
THE VIEWING EXPERIENCE
We believe in embracing the future of storytelling and the opportunities new media present. Shaglit is designed to be viewed on a mobile device, as much as on the big screen, affording new and unique possibilities for content distribution. All of the main characters in the series will have respective social media accounts with with accompanying storylines with which viewers can interact. With the Instagram footage, we seamlessly weave product placement into their stories, creating consumer-valued content that doesn’t break the bank.
CREATORS’ BIO
Shirah Wagner is an American-Israeli-German screenwriter and producer. Jonathan Stein is an Israeli-American director and writer. Upon meeting in LA, they realized working together was inevitable. Shaglit is their first creative collaboration. Many Israeli shows have been purchased by the US and vice versa, but there hasn’t been a show created from scratch as an Israeli American co-production in Hebrew and English. Until now. Consumers are ready.
©2023 Shirah Wagner & Jonathan Stein