Mike's Place

Description

Mike's Place was one of the few spots in Tel Aviv where Jews, Christians, and Muslims could hang out peaceably, surrounded by the expats who filled the bar every night. It was a cosmopolitan haven from the conflict, a local gem that many pointed to as a hopeful sign that peace could come to the Middle East after all. In the spring of 2003, filmmakers Jack Baxter and Josh Faudem had just begun making a documentary about the bar. And then the bar was destroyed in a suicide bombing that took three lives and wounded another fifty people - an attack that changed Jack and Josh's lives forever. With art from Israeli cartoonist Koren Shadmi, Mike's Place is a gripping nonfiction accounting of the lives of a handful of people who came together in hope, then had to find their way together through despair.

Author description

Jack Baxter is a filmmaker and freelance journalist from New York City. He and his wife Fran Strauss-Baxter co-produced the award-winning film "Blues by the Beach."Joshua Faudem is an American-Israeli documentary filmmaker who has made many notable documentaries and television shows in Israel and Europe and is the director of the award-winning documentary "Blues by the Beach." Koren Shadmi's graphic novels have been published in France, Italy, Spain, Israel, and the US. His work was selected for the Best American Comics 2009 anthology edited by Charles Burns and his illustrations have won several awards at the Society of Illustrators. The graphic novel "Mike's Place" is their first collaboration.