We first met Lea many years ago. By then, the once anonymous firebrand law student who, following the 1967 war fearlessly distributed flyers on campus warning her fellow Israelis to end the occupation or risk a vicious cycle of violence, was already a household name. For us, socially and politically engaged filmmakers, her rebellious spirit and radical zeal were an inspiration. Lea spoke truth to power before the term became trendy and she’ll continue to do so after fear makes it fashionable. As such, she’s a model we’re hard-pressed to preserve, in Israel/Palestine and elsewhere. And yet Lea, who has spent a lifetime going against the grain of Israeli society, is as much a product of it as she is an exception to it. Through her, we tell another kind of Israeli history, without a capital H. Not the usual: ‘We came, we saw, we conquered, we shot, we cried.’ More like: ‘We cooked, we cleaned, we cursed, we tried to better the world, but didn’t always manage…’ At the end of the day, Advocate is a female-centered portrait of chutzpah put to good use: Lea is more often than not the only woman, or the only Jew, or the only leftist — in the room.