Film production company Zed Films behind "Sex with the Psychologist" hasbara video

On 30 June, a new Israeli video appeared on the internet which used satire to attack and misrepresent the Gaza Freedom Flotilla 2. “Sex with the Psychologist” features a young woman seeking treatment for an unspecified but apparently traumatic problem. The psychologist performs a Rorschach test which causes her to tell a story of a young woman who has been abused and harassed.

The video appears to suggest that the woman – and by implication Israel – is the victim of some past sexual assault, and images – related to the flotilla – shown by the psychologist trigger renewed fears and anguish. In line with official Israeli messaging, the video presents the flotilla as a violent provocation, in this case apparently akin to sexual assault, and Israel as a vulnerable woman.

Dimi Reider at +972 Magazine wrote:

Apart from making rather poorly judged use of the experience of real women with real trauma, the July 1st video is also ridiculously sexist; beginning with the cheap camera-pan up the actress’s legs and ending with the fact it was first posted on Youtube a day earlier, under the title “Sex with the Psychologist”.

He identified the actress as Aimee Neistat. Max Blumenthal looked further and found that “Neistat is a Haaretz employee who translates Hebrew content into English.” She also wrote articles for The Jerusalem Post between 2007 and 2010.

The Electronic Intifada has learned that Zed Films produced the short video. Gil Roeh, the founder of Zed Films, wrote the script. The actor in the film is named Björn Nordholm. These facts were on the Zed Films web site as “recent news” on 22 June 2011 but have since been scrubbed. The Google cache of the page states:

“Rorschach test” video

We finished filming to “Rorschach test” video Staring Aimee Neistat and Bjorn Nordholm, Script: Gil Roeh.. Editing now. The video we’ll [sic] be out soon..

Thanks to Jinjirrie for sharing her findings with us.