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Israel Film Festival Announces Programming, Panels, Attendees, "Second Generation"
27th ISRAEL FILM FESTIVAL IN LOS ANGELES Thirty Films to Screen April 18-May 2 Highlights Include Opening Night Gala honoring Sherry Lansing, Martin Landau
Enriching the American vision of Israeli life and culture through the powerful medium of film, the 27th Israel Film Festival has become the largest showcase of Israeli filmsin the United States. Running April 18-May 2 at the Laemmle Music Hall and Laemmle Town Center 5, with special events at the Saban Theater, this year’s Festival encompasses over 30 dynamic titles, including award winning features, thought-provoking documentaries, animated and student shorts, it was announced by Meir Fenigstein, IFF’s founder and executive director. As previously announced, Sherry Lansing will be honored with the IFF’s 2013 Lifetime Achievement Award and Martin Landau will receive the Career Achievement Award, both of which will be bestowed on Opening Night, April 18th, at the Writers Guild Theatre in Beverly Hills. Following the presentations will be the West Coast Premiere of The Ballad of the Weeping Spring, the Opening Night film. Also being honored on Opening Night is Israeli actor Uri Gavriel with the Cinematic Achievement Award. He has numerous acting credits both in the United States and Israel; he is perhaps best known in the U.S. for playing the blind prison doctor in The Dark Night Rises and for starring in The Band’s Visit, which won eight Israeli Ophir Prizes awarded by the Israeli Film Academy. This year, the Festival will also pay homage to Second Generation Holocaust Survivors, and their families. Evidence shows that the children of Holocaust survivors, referred to as the “Second Generation,” can be deeply affected – both negatively and positively - by the horrific events their parents experienced. The intergenerational transmission of trauma is so strong that Holocaust-related influences can even be seen in the “Third Generation,” grandchildren of survivors. Second Generation is an all-encompassing movement set up to keep the Holocaust stories alive by way of community events & educational activities, actively remembering the past and teaching its lessons. A Second Generation program will occur on April 28th at the Saban Theater in Beverly Hills, at noon and is sponsored in part by The 1939 Club, Jewish Community Foundation, and Stand with Us. The Festival will screen the critically acclaimed documentary Numbered, directed by Uriel Siani and Dana Doron. A portion of the proceeds from this event will benefit Holocaust Survivors in urgent need. The festivities will continue with the Festival’s Closing Night celebration. The evening will include a presentation of an IFF Lifetime Achievement Awardto legendary Israeli comedians HaGashash HaHiver, perhaps the most influential comedy act in the history of Israel. The event will take place at the Saban Theater on May 2nd, followed by a screening of Zaytoun, which was directed by Eran Rikles, a highly respected Israeli filmmaker. The following actors and filmmakers will attending the Festival and participating in Q & A sessions: Ofer Naim, director Poli’s Last Sketch; Roy Assaf, the star of God’s Neighbors; Yariv Horowitz, the director Rock the Casbah; Uri Gavriel, the star of The Ballad of the Weeping Spring; Eyal Shiray, the director of Dr. Pomerantz; Evgeny Ruman, the director of Igor and the Crane’s Journey; Noa Aharoni, the director by of Summers End; Uriel Siani, the director of Numbered and Shayke Levi and Gavri Banai from HaGashash HaHiver. “The Israeli film industry has been on a great upswing these past few years with bigger, better and more high-profile movies than in its history,” said Meir Fenigstein, IFF’s founder and executive director. “This year’s crop of exciting, fresh and smart pictures and programs is no exception and they showcase the broad and yet divergent stories and personalities only Israel can produce.” All Israel Film Festival films will screen at the Laemmle Music Hall in Beverly Hills and the Laemmle Town Center in Encino. Tickets will be available April 5th. For additional information, visit www.IsraelFilmFestival.com or call IsraFest, Foundation Inc., toll-free at 1-877-966-5566. In the last two and a half decades, the Festival has presented nearly 900 feature films, documentaries, television dramas and short films to over 900,000 filmgoers and brought hundreds of Israeli filmmakers to the U.S. to share their art. The Israel Film Festival is produced by IsraFest Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization created in 1982. The 27th Festival Chairman is Rick Feldman, with Ryan Kavanaugh and Arnon Milchan serving as Honorary Chairmen. The Honorary Committee includes Avi Arad, Mark Canton, Robert DeNiro, Danny Dimbort, Michael Douglas, Richard Dreyfuss, Jean Picker Firstenberg, Meyer Gottlieb, Peter Guber, Goldie Hawn, David Hoberman, Dustin Hoffman, Marvin Josephson, Avi Lerner, Amir J. Malin, Penny Marshall, Mike Medavoy, Bette Midler, Rob Reiner, Terry Semel, Nina Tassler, Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky and many others.
Opening Night Film Torn apart by tragedy, a legendary band reunites to play an emotional final concert in The Ballad of the Weeping Spring, a stylized homage to Spaghetti Westerns and samurai epics, shot entirely in Israel but set in a mythical time and place. With a pervasive pan-ethnic soundtrack serving as the film’s backbone, the story centers on the brooding Josef Tawila (Ophir winner Uri Gavriel), once the leader of a Mizrahi band (a unique musical form combining Middle Eastern and North African influences), who lives a hermit-like existence in the wake of a terrible accident. In a series of quirky vignettes across stunning exotic locations, Tawila brings together his old musician buddies to grant the last wishes of a dying friend, while healing his own tortured soul. Director: Benny Toraty Closing Night Film In Lebanon, 1982, an Israeli fighter pilot is shot down over Beirut. When one of his captors, an angry and disillusioned young Palestinian refugee, decides he has had enough of the meaningless fighting, the pair make a pact to escape. So begins a perilous journey across a war-torn country to a far-off place they can both call home. With a cast led by Stephen Dorff (Somewhere), Zaytoun is a superb road movie that, with humor and pathos, explores the growing friendship of two enemies born out of mutual dependency. Director: Eran Riklis
It is the summer of 1978, on the backdrop of the imminent peace accords with Egypt, Michal is dealing with her 7 year old daughter Maya’s inability to read and write and her teacher threatening to hold her back a year. Michal vows that by the end of the summer Maya will read, write and move on to the next grade. However, this summer is set to be full of surprises. Michal's father, Haim, who has been missing for twenty years, suddenly returns, and brings with him the family's dark past and hidden secrets. By summer's end, Michal will have to deal with the past that her family has tried so hard to bury and the painful, yet liberating process of discovery and forgiveness. - Jury Special Mention, The Rehovot Women's International Film Festival 2011 Director: Noa Haroni
Dr. Yoel Pomerantz, 64, an unemployed clinical psychologist, lives in poverty in his 12th floor apartment with his son Yoav, 30, who works as a parking inspector and suffers from severe "ticketomania." Dr. Pomerantz volunteers at ANA, the psychology hotline, and as an expert on suicide callers, he suggests that they come to his clinic for private therapy sessions. One day, a patient named Shtark is offended when Pomerantz arrives late for a session and jumps off his 12th floor balcony to his death. Shtark's suicide provides the doctor with a life changing idea - to let his apartment to potentially suicidal tenants for enormous sums of money. Funny, sad and philosophical, this black comedy raises the important question of why we live or, more accurately, why we don't just give up on living. Director: Assi Dayan
Eighteen-year-old Shira is the youngest daughter of her family and is about to be married to a lovely young man of the same age. On Purim, her twenty-eight-year-old sister, Esther, dies during childbirth, leaving her husband Yochay to care for the child and postponing Shira's promised wedding. When the girls' mother finds out that Yochay may leave the country with her only grandchild, she proposes a match between Shira and the widower, forcing Shira to choose between her wish for a happy marriage and her family's desire to keep the child near them. - 2012 Venice Film Festival winner for Best Actress Director: Rama Burshtein
God’s Neighbors is a raw and provocative dramatic thriller from first-time writer director Meny Yaesh. The film follows Avi, Kobi and Yaniv, three young men who belong to the Breslev Hassidic community and place themselves in charge of supervising the codes of modesty, without hesitating to use violence to convey the message. Order is upended when the attractive, independent-minded Miri moves into the neighborhood. Avi is torn between his feelings for her and the codes of the gang. - 2012 SACD Award Festival De Cannes Director: Meny Yaesh
When Tanya informs her 11-year-old son, Igor, that they will be leaving their home in Russia to start a new life in Israel, the boy's world falls apart. He is desperate to stay, even to the point of imagining himself living with the father he hardly knows: Peter, an avid ornithologist. Peter, however, is too obsessed with tracking the annual crane migration from Russia to Africa to care for his son. Like the cranes on their long and perilous journey, Igor too must overcome the hardships and tribulations of migration and reassess his relationship with his father. - 2012 Winner, Special Mention Award Haifa International Film Festival Director: Evgeny Ruman
When a repressed high-school teacher loses his job, he decides to pull his entire life down with it. Within the span of a few days, he will kidnap a teenage student, reconnect with his old high-school crush, forgive an old friend and kill his mother. He will then openly challenge a rabid group of feminists, a pompous movie star, the vengeful police and the stifling conventions of his boring small town. A drama, dark comedy, love triangle, crime story and much, much more, this adventure could only happen to people who are not in Tel Aviv. - 2012 Locarno International Film Festival, Special Jury Prize – Filmmakers of the Present Director: Nony Geffen
After years of living apart from her father, Libby, an introverted yet sharp-witted teenager, is sent to live with him in Israel. Her arrival coincides with the outbreak of the Second Lebanon War. Libby quickly discovers that her father, Shaul, is an infantile eccentric who is “in-between apartments” (in other words: homeless). Shaul comes up with a creative plan to put a roof over their heads—they pose as refugees from the bombarded Northern region of Israel, and are taken in by an affluent family in Jerusalem. Finally in a “normal” household, Shaul and Libby begin to build their father-daughter relationship. However, their false identities cannot last forever, especially as Libby unleashes her teenage fury at the lies permeating her life. -Best Actor, Jerusalem Film Festival 2011 - Gur Bentwich Director: Maya Kenig
In the early summer of 1989, a company of young Israeli soldiers reports for duty in the occupied area of the Gaza Strip. Clashes with the Palestinian population claim their first fatality: a soldier named Iliya, who is killed by a washing machine being dropped from the rooftop of an apartment. In order to capture the perpetrator, part of the company; Aki, Ariel, Haim and Tomer take up a defensive position on the roof for the weekend. In spite of vehement protests from the building's Palestinian owner, the men begin their vigil. The film deals with the charged interactions among the soldiers, between the soldiers and the family, with their commanding officers and the surrounding chaos. - Won Prize of International Confederation of Art Cinemas, Berlin International Film Festival Director: Yariv Horowitz
On one side of Room 514 is a young, beautiful and determined Russian female military investigator. On the other side is a gruff, exceptional Israeli army officer accused of overstepping his authority. As the two sides confront each other over truth and justice, they soon find themselves dealing with the complex reality where it is not easy to distinguish between good and bad. In the rough land of Israel, good and bad must sometimes coexist. - Nominated for an Israeli Oscars (Ophir Awards) for Best Actress 2012 Director: Sharon Bar-Ziv
No one appreciates Kamel Nadjer, the young Bedouin security guard at the Be’er Sheba central bus station. When his poor desert village is threatened by demolition by the Israeli government, Kamel decides to take action. He will stage a bomb attack in the bus station and then prevent it, becoming a hero, preserving his village, and win the admiration he so desperately desires. - Berlinale Panorama official selection, 2012 Director: Ami Livne
ABOUT THE DOCUMENTARIES AMEER GOT HIS GUN Ameer Abu Ria is about to enlist in the army. As opposed to the majority of eighteen-year-old boys in Israel, for whom army service is mandatory, Ameer is exempt from military service under the assumption that his enlistment may endanger Israel’s security. That is because Ameer, an Israeli citizen, is a Muslim Arab. And yet, Ameer has decided to volunteer. He believes that his induction is the way to equality, and is the way to belong to the state he lives in, the state he wants to love. He is considered an enemy, a fifth column in the eyes of Israeli Jews, and a traitor of the worst kind in the eyes of Arab citizens; the kind who turns against his brothers. All alone, Ameer sets out on a journey to civic and self-definition, while carefully navigating the thin line between Jewish and Arab societies. Ameer, an eternal optimist, wishes to be both a proud Arab and an enthusiastic Israeli, while his only enemy is reality. -Special Mention - Jerusalem International film festival 2011 Director: Naomi Levari
Ben-Amotz was the essence of “Israeliness.” He was a prolific and accomplished creator who insisted on constantly reinventing himself, while carrying along an entire society, a language and culture that were not yet fully formed. In April 1989, just before undergoing an experimental treatment for cancer, Ben-Amotz held a “farewell party,” a brilliant prank in which the dying man invited 300 of his closest friends to take part in a moving group dynamic. - Best Israeli Film Docaviv Int'l Film Festival 2011, Best Editing award Director: Levi Zini
Let's Dance is a film about the soul of Israeli society–dance. The film presents Israeli society as a dancing society and the way in which the need to move, shift, and to be in motion has raised generations of dancers and choreographers who have turned local modern dance into a national and international success story. Through the works of leading choreographers Ohad Naharin, Rami Be'er and Yasmeen Godder, Let's Dance opens a window to their sources of inspiration–to the vibrant and exotic world of the pioneer choreographers and to the story of the development of the local dance scene. Combining spectacular pieces of video-dance, rich archival material, interviews and visual demonstrations, the film offers a unique and surprising view on Israeli society, as well as on dance. Director: Gabriel Bibliowicz
Tamar Tal’s poignant, prize-winning documentary tells the story of Miriam Weissenstein as she and her grandson Ben Peter defend their family’s iconic Tel Aviv photo studio from demolition. Miriam’s late husband, Rudi was the unofficial photographer of the State of Israel, and documented the country’s political and daily life from the 1930s until his passing in 1992. Grandmother and grandson cope not only with the impending shop relocation, but also acutely painful family circumstances. As they interact in ways by turns blunt and comic, the movie becomes a love story spanning three generations. The film offers a visual ode to Weissenstein’s late husband Rudi, with moving montages of his stunning black & white photographs of Israel including his world famous photo of David Ben-Gurion proclaiming Israel’s Independence in May of 1948. -Won the Israeli Oscars (Ophir Awards), for Best Documentary 2012 Director: Tamar Tal
05.04.2013 | Editor's blog Cat. : FESTIVALS
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