Igal Hecht’s Israeli Nightlife paints a different picture of Israel than you’re used to seeing on television – heck it’s probably a different picture of Israel than you’re used to seeing on your visits.

Israeli Nightlife tracks a typical weekend night from midnight to the early hours of the morning, from the beachfront of Tel Aviv to the clubs on Koresh Street, just steps away from the Old City.

As Lori, one young party goer says, “People in Toronto are ignorant of what goes on in Israel at night – they think it’s like Iraq or something.”

A clubber at the Colony Bar in Tel Aviv at 3 a.m. believes that Israel’s wild nightlife is a result of mandatory army service.

“When you’re out of the army, which is very intense, you want to party and relax. Maybe this is the difference between us and people in other countries.”

It’s typical for Israeli youths to head out to the nightclubs, late in the evening, party till dawn, go out for breakfast and then go to an after party at someone’s house and then repeat the process.

As one clubber at the Ha Omam 17 Club in Tel Aviv says, “You don’t sleep for the whole weekend.”

People are lined up outside the Breakfast Club in Tel Aviv waiting to get in – at 5 a.m.

At a sushi bar at dawn, after a night of partying, one youth looks around at the vibrant street and says, “It’s like 5 a.m., and it’s like the middle of the day.”

It seems like it never stops.

“I truly did this movie because I believe Israel is not just about politics, and filmmakers like me and so many  others always focus on that,” Hecht said in an interview.  “This to me was showing everyone ‘look how much fun you can have in Israel. Look at all the amazing good looking people.’I mean where else can you find sushi at 5:30 a.m. Not the best sushi, but still. There’s more to Israel then just conflicts and history.”

Hecht’s Israeli Nightlife is a great showcase of the best that Israel’s after hours has to offer. It’s a documentary about Israel that leaves the guns and bombs at home.

Israeli Nightlife airs on Israel Today on CTS,  Jan. 6 at 9 p.m.

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There’s another documentary by Igal Hecht running a week earlier that is completly different.

Journey of Miracles is a look at survivors attempting to keep the memory of the Holocaust alive.

Primarily, it focuses on a recent Canadian Society of Yad Vashem’s Dinner of Miracles, a novel concept where survivors sit with young people, many of whom have no direct relation to the Holocaust.

Over dinner, the survivors tell their personal stories to the youths in an intimate setting. These include Inge Spitz, a German Jew, who survived the Holocaust by hiding in a convent yet defiantly kept her Jewish heritage; Faye Schulman, a Polish Jew, who fought in the resistance and, as an avid photographer, took many pictures of her experiences; and Amek Adler, originally from Lublin, who says, “It’s every survivor’s obligation to speak about the Holocaust to educate the younger generation – whether Jewish or Gentile – on what happened.”

What makes this interesting is that every survivor has a different story to tell.

Hecht intersperses dinner footage with some March of the Living scenes at Auschwitz and other death camps.

This low-key documentary is very moving.

Journey of Miracles airs on Israel Today on CTS on Dec. 30 at 9 p.m.