Ari Sandel on AllMovie

Few young cinematic hopefuls have what it takes to actually produce a film -- let alone a film in which the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is satirized with a West Side Story-esque musical rumble staged between two falafel stands -- but that's just what Ari Sandel did. After the California native studied Media Arts at the University of Arizona and earned an MFA in Directing from the University of Southern California's School of Cinema-Television, the young filmmaker set out to cross not only the boundaries of conventional taste, but the boundaries of religion, politics, and culture for one of the most volatile conflicts in history. With the hilarious musical short West Bank Story, Sandel injected laughter into a topic for which few filmmakers had been willing to so much as crack a smile. The project was a huge success, premiering at Sundance and going on to win several awards, including an Oscar for Best Short Film.