FORTY YEARS IN THE DESERT (2025-present)

Writer/Director: Olive Greenspan

Directors of Photography: John Beatty, Jules Hotz

Editor: Olive Greenspan

Status: In Post-Production, Fundraising

Vimeo link to temp opening (password required)

FORTY YEARS IN THE DESERT is an experimental “documentary fantasia” in which queer and transgender Jews reinvent ancient ritual to call for an end to violence in the name of zionism. Shot almost entirely on a virtual production "Volume," director Olive Greenspan harnesses the filmmaking process itself as a ritual container to manifest a Judaism that seeks collective liberation.

After October 7, queer and transgender Jews in Los Angeles began looking for each other, trying to figure out how to square religious identity with state violence supposedly done in their name. In informal gatherings in backyards and private homes across LA, this emerging community found a common language through ancient Jewish ritual.

Director Olive Greenspan—themself a transgender Jew—wanted to document these ritual practices gatherings of these emergent groups.

But for many reasons, filming was not possible.

Instead, Olive assembled a cohort to co-imagine a series of rituals within the context of a narrative film shoot—and these rituals would not just be for show. Could the filmmaking process itself becomes a ritual container for transformation?