Draft:Yaniv (film)

Yaniv is a 2024 feature film co-written and produced by childhood friends Amnon Carmi (also the director and editor) and Ben Ducoff. The film stars Ducoff as Barry Bernstein, a Bronx high school teacher whose principal (Catherine Curtin) cuts the budget for his spring musical, and leaves him with no choice but to find an alternate source of funding. He enlists the help of his fellow teacher, Jonah (Eli Boskey), a card counter and recovering gambling addict, to infiltrate an underground card game run by Hasidic Jews and led by the charismatic Mendy (Adam B. Shapiro).

The film starts in medias res and then follows Bernstein over three months as his relationships and plans derail, interspersed with flashbacks experienced by his friend Jonah.

Production

Development and funding

Yaniv was written by Carmi and Ducoff over the course of 5 weeks in the summer of 2021 and modified over the next year in 17 drafts. In January of 2022, Ducoff, a world history teacher at H.E.R.O. High School in the South Bronx, brought Carmi on to develop an immersive filmmaking program using grants from the Department of Education. This later became a foundational piece of their fundraising campaign to make Yaniv, and they brought on their students to work for pay behind and in front of the camera on the union set. The students seen in the film are Ducoff's real life students.

Pre-production

In April of 2022 Carmi and Ducoff began 3 months of pre-production with the growing Yaniv crew. Through a connection to Rick Portwood at Display Group in Detroit, MI, the production gained access to an enormous studio where the sets for the Yaniv Club and a casino would be built. It was financially worthwhile to fly the cast and crew from New York to Michigan and house and feed them for 12 days in order to access these resources, then fly them back to New York to finish the film.

Casting

Michigan casting was done by Janet Pound. The main characters and extras were cast by Ducoff, Carmi and producer Nik Sadhnani. They pulled from actors met in high school (Mickey is played by Ducoff and Carmi's high school drama teacher Mitchell Fields), friends met while working at Eyal Shani's fast casual Miznon restaurant, classmates from Ducoff and Sadhnani's Boston University undergraduate program, and other New York based agencies.

Filming

Fundraising was complete and production began in July of 2022 in Detroit. Production ended at the end of the month after 19 days of shooting.

Post production

Carmi edited the rough cut in four months (2000 hours). The sound mix was completed by Bryant Falk at Abacus Entertainment. The film was first presented in an advance screening in Detroit in August, one year to the day after filming wrapped. The color grade was later completed by Shani Varner at Raven Eye.

Music

Music was primarily composed by Alan Douglass, who makes an appearance in the film as a Klezmer musician. One track was created by Filius Blue. A few tracks were created by Carmi. The film also features the tracks "Silverdome" by Lettuce, and "Lebedik Un Freilach" by Oktopus.

Distribution

Carmi, Ducoff and Sadhnani self-distributed the film across the US East Coast and Midwest. In March of 2023, Yaniv was picked up by distributor Menemsha Films for theatrical release.

Cast

• Ben Ducoff as Barry Bernstein
• Eli Boskey as Jonah Levy
• Catherine Curtin as Principal O'Donnell
• Annabel Steven as Deb Eichenberg
• Adam B. Shapiro as Mendy
• Mitchell Fields as Mickey
• Rachel Luciani as Emma Levy
• Ben Salus as Rick
• Lisa Ann Loggins as Mia
• Amnon Carmi as The Rebbe
• Tom Rosa as Shlomo
• Jeffrey Shawn Miller as Moishe
• Scott Zimmerman as Leo
• Nik Sadhnani as Bez