by ELMORE TERADONOVICH, Alternate Reality News Service Film and Television Writer
The zombie walked into the fence. It stepped back and walked into the fence again. And again. And again. Soon, it was joined by another zombie, who walked into the fence a second after the first zombie. Again. And again. And again. Several additional zombies later, the fence fell.
The combination of students, faculty and supporters of the pro-Palestinian movement were so involved in chanting, “Two, four, six, eight, Israel is the country we really hate!” at the front gate of the encampment that they did not notice the zombies enter from behind them. Then, a middle-aged woman in a keffiyah screamed and the chanting died out as all eyes turned towards the zombie that had taken a bite out of her head. Pandemonium ensued.
Then, somebody shouted, “Cut!” and the pandemonium of a zombie attack was replaced by the pandemonium of a film set between takes.
The scene, for the streaming hit series The Walking Boys, is being shot on the York University campus in Toronto. Ironically, two days before, the green was the site of an actual pro-Palestinian encampment, which was shut down by the police and replaced by the set. Why not just use the actual activists?
“They wouldn’t follow the script,” explained director Balboa Sidney-Greenstreet. “They insisted that they didn’t hate Israelis and wouldn’t be honest chanting that they did. Well! The whole point of the scene is that the protesters are so consumed by hate that they don’t see doom coming towards them until it’s too late. Chanting, ‘Ceasefire now!’ and ‘Divulge! Divest!’ just wouldn’t cut it!”
Another problem with the original encampment was the fence, which was made up of chicken wire strung between metal rods driven into the ground. “It looked like a zombie could sneeze and knock it down!” complained set designer Phillipa Moyer-Gumbalt. “Not that zombies, you know, sneeze. I mean, do the undead have allergies? Doubtful. But you get the drift of what I’m saying.”
The set of the show has six foot metal fencing units held together by chains. How could student volunteers afford such an elaborate setup? Moyer-Gumbalt shrugged. “What do I look like?” she retorted. “A writer?”
When I asked Dudley Festrunk-Sayle, who wrote the episode, the same question, he shrugged and responded, “What do I look like? A set designer?”
Another difference between the real encampment and the set was that the original fence was largely covered by plastic tarps in order to deter passing Zionists from harassing protesters. No such tarps hung from the fence on the set.
“Obviously, the dramatic impact of the protesters ignoring the zombies wouldn’t be as great if they weren’t able to see the zombies coming!” Sidney-Greenstreet said as if lecturing a first year Screenwriting student. “Do you know nothing about building dramatic tension?”
The original encampment wasn’t up long enough to accumulate many signs, but the encampment in the series sported many signs ZIP tied to the fence. Most of them contained messages of violence against Jews.
When I pointed out that this was not the sentiment in the original camp, Moyer-Gumbalt looked at me like I was trying to dislocate her shoulder. “I’m just here to support the artistic vision of the director,” she told me as if lecturing a first year Dramaturgy student.
Interviewing some of the actors in the scene, it quickly became apparent that none of them were Palestinian. “If you think about it for a moment, you’ll see that it makes sense,” explained Joshua Greenblatt-Sapperstein, who plays Victim 7. “Actual Palestinians couldn’t bring the objectivity necessary to portray Palestinian protesters effectively.”
When I asked him if being Jewish didn’t affect his objectivity, he shrugged and said, “I’m a graduate of Julliard. I have exercises to deal with that!” Then, rubbing his left shoulder, he asked, “Oww. Is answering your questions usually so painful?”
“You seem to be taking this awfully seriously,” Sidney-Greenstreet remonstrated. “You know: overthinking things? The Walking Boys is a work of fiction. Fiiiiiiiiictiooooooooon. Fiction. It doesn’t have to have complete faith to reality as long as it reflects a deeper reality. Fiction has been said to be a lie that reveals the truth.”
“But you’re not revealing a truth,” I objected. “Your fiction is a lie that reveals more lies!”
Sidney-Greenstreet shook his head sadly. “I’m not going to waste any more perfectly good shrugs on you,” he commented. “Some people just don’t understand art!”