Documentary by Tampa director to air at Sunscreen Film Fest

A feature length documentary, Freedom Fighters of NILI, directed and produced by Tampa filmmaker Leora Chai, will air at the Sunscreen Film Festival on Friday, May 2 at 2 p.m. at the American Stage Theater in St. Petersburg.

The film is a documentary about the Aaronsohns and the NILI spy network which aided the British in its fight against the Ottoman Empire in Palestine during World War I. NILI is an acronym taken from a Hebrew phrase that means “The eternity of Israel will not lie.”

About 30 people are known to have participated in the spy ring and they received help from several notable Americans, including Judge Louis Brandeis and Henrietta Szold, founder of Hadassah.

Chai’s partner in the film production was Doran Aaronsohn, an Israeli filmmaker who is a descendant of NILI founder Aaron Aaronsohn, who included other family members in the spy group.

“These young men and women risked their lives for the idea of a Jewish nation,” Chai said.

The theater is located at 63 3rd St. N., St Petersburg. For more information and tickets, www.sunscreenfilmfestival.com.