I Made a Movie for $29,500 I Never Imagined It Would End Up on Apple TV

A few weeks ago, I did something very simple. I typed the name of my movie, The Quest: Get Back Your Ex, into a search bar. And there it was. Apple TV.
I stared at the screen.

This wasn’t a $29.5 million Hollywood production. It wasn’t even a $2.95 million independent film. The entire movie was made for approximately $29,500.
Seeing it there brought an extraordinary feeling of gratitude. But as I looked at that screen, I realized something else: the real story wasn’t that my movie had reached Apple TV. The real story was how long it took to get there.

I first conceived The Quest: Get Back Your Ex in 2010. The concept eventually attracted the interest of VH1. For a filmmaker trying to get an idea off the ground, that was exciting. It could have been the moment when everything changed.

But I wasn’t comfortable with the terms being offered. So I walked away.
That’s easy to write today. It wasn’t easy to do then. When you walk away from an opportunity, there is no guarantee another one is coming. You can believe completely in your project and still wonder whether you’ve just made the biggest mistake of your life.
What followed wasn’t another offer the next month. It wasn’t even the next year. I spent roughly 12 years searching for the investors who could finally help me turn the idea into a finished film.

Twelve years is a long time to carry a dream.People change.

Circumstances change. Relationships change. Money comes and goes. People who once believed in an idea lose interest. Others tell you to move on. Doors close.
But there was something else involved for me.
My parents, Mordechai and Henya Schwartz, of blessed memory, believed in me. I had made a commitment to them that I would make this movie. As the years passed and my parents were no longer here to see it, that commitment didn’t disappear. If anything, it became stronger.
I wanted to keep my word.
Then came COVID.
I was living in Florida during a period when the entire world seemed to have stopped. Businesses were struggling. People were isolated. Nobody knew exactly what tomorrow would bring.
And somehow, in the middle of that uncertainty, something I had been pursuing for more than a decade finally happened.
I found investors who believed in the project.
In 2022, twelve years after I first conceived the idea, we finally made The Quest: Get Back Your Ex.
Our budget was approximately $29,500.

At that level of filmmaking, there isn’t an enormous machine waiting to solve every problem. You don’t simply throw money at an obstacle. You improvise. You ask people to believe. You stretch every dollar. You find solutions because there is no other choice.
And you rely upon people who are willing to give their talent, time and energy to something that exists primarily because a group of people believes it should exist.
Global Filmz in Florida became part of making that dream a reality.
And somehow, we finished the movie.

For many filmmakers, completing a feature film is itself the victory. But I soon discovered that finishing a movie and getting people to see a movie are two very different battles.
Then came distribution.

Relentless Media Group, Homestead Entertainment and B.A.R. TV became part of the next stage of the journey, helping the film move beyond the people who had made it and toward an audience.

And the movie began traveling.
Meanwhile, my own life was traveling in an entirely different direction.
In 2023, I returned to Israel to remain for several months to re-establish myself in the country and then shuttle back and forth to the USA and Israel ..

Then came October 7.

Like millions of Israelis, the world I woke up to that morning was different from the world in which I had gone to sleep.
I made a decision: I wasn’t leaving my country.
I became involved in a Swords of Shield Military Unit in protecting Israel and later joined a Special Operations volunteer police unit. There were moments of genuine risk. Life suddenly involved concerns far greater than whether an independent movie would succeed.
And yet, somewhere thousands of miles away from the realities I was experiencing in Israel, this little $29,500 movie kept moving.

That is one of the strangest things about creating something. Once you release it into the world, it begins having a life separate from yours.
I started discovering international listings. The movie appeared before audiences I had never expected to reach. I even discovered Russian-language streaming sites carrying versions of the film.

And then came Apple TV.
Years after the first idea, after VH1, after walking away, after searching for investors, after losing my parents, after finally finding financing, after making the movie, after moving back to Israel, after October 7 and everything that followed—I looked at a screen.
And there was The Quest: Get Back Your Ex on Apple TV.
I wish my parents could have seen it.
I wish I could have turned to them and simply said: “I kept my promise.”
But perhaps keeping that promise is itself the greatest tribute I can give them.
And that brings me to something much larger than a movie.
Over a long enough journey, people will give up on you. Sometimes they will have perfectly reasonable reasons. They may think your dream is unrealistic. They may believe too much time has passed. They may think the opportunity disappeared years ago. Sometimes even the people who once encouraged you will move on.
Let them.
Their decision to stop believing does not require you to stop believing.
They don’t get the final vote.
There are times when we confuse “not yet” with “never.” They aren’t the same thing.
Had you told me in 2010 that approximately 16 years later I would be sitting in Israel looking at my little independent movie on Apple TV, I don’t know if even I would have believed you.
But that’s precisely the point. We don’t know where today’s effort will ultimately lead.
And perhaps that is why this moment feels especially meaningful to me as we approach Rosh Hashanah.
We stand before G-d and ask to be written into the Book of Life.
Give us another year.
Another year of life, health, parnassah, wisdom, strength, family, peace and blessing.
Why?
Not because our work is finished.
Precisely because our work is not finished.
There are still promises to keep. There are still things to build. There are still people to help. There are still dreams that haven’t reached their destination.
Some things happen quickly. Others take 16 years.
We don’t control the timetable. We control whether we continue.
So as this new year begins, that is the lesson I’m taking from the unlikely journey of a $29,500 movie.
Do what you have to do for the right reasons. Keep your commitments. When you fall, get up. When a door closes, find another door. When people stop believing, remember that their disbelief doesn’t determine your future.
Keep building. Keep creating. Keep believing. And never give up.
Sometimes the answer isn’t no.
Sometimes it is simply: Not yet.
Shanah Tovah U’Metukah.