The Israeli Program
The Dead
of Jaffa
Dir: Ram Loevy
2019
96 min
Three children from the West Bank are smuggled into Israel – their mother is dead and their father jailed for life. An Israeli Palestinian couple, George and Rita living in Jaffa, take the children in. But George is afraid that hiding illegal aliens will ruin the safe equilibrium of their life. Rita feels the opposite – that the children’s sudden arrival will bring meaning to her life. Meanwhile, nearby, a British director is shooting a film about his parents’ love story in 1947, when they’d fought side by side for the British in Palestine. The two plots unfold simultaneously, dramatically changing George and Rita’s lives, and bringing a resolution to the former’s fears.
Screening in the presence of the filmmakers.
Bread,
In Memory of Rami Danon
Dir: Ram Loevy
ןsrael
1986
84 min
Shlomo Elmaliach, an immigrant from Morocco living in a development town in the south of Israel, is fired without severance pay from the bakery where he has worked for the last 20 years. He sinks into depression, begins a hunger strike, and locks his family in their apartment. His actions capture the town's attention, but the younger generation of the family, who were born in Israel, do not succeed in mobilizing support and turning the hunger strike into a public struggle.
Screening in the presence of the filmmaker
Holding it In
Dir: Chen Rotem,
Omer Yefman
2019
60 min
This documentary tells the story of Chen and Omer, who decide to become surrogate parents for a couple who have lost all hope of having children. The main characters are the surrogates, who aim the camera at themselves from the first moment they decide that Chen will carry a child that is not their own – and keep it there. In intense, emotional moments, we watch as conflicting wishes and the fragility of personal relationships pose a threat to their stability.
Screening in the presence of the filmmakers.
Hassan Arfa Compound
Dir: Yoav Gurfinkel
2019
55 min
Hassan Arfa Compound, an assembly of small workshops and garages built on a deserted Arab grove in a neglected enclave in the heart of Tel Aviv, is occupied by a bunch of misfits living on the margins of society.
Today the Hassan Arfa Compound is in the process of demolition, and new high rises are being planned for its ruins. Attay, a metal workshop owner, has received an eviction notice but refuses to leave despite continuous threats from local outlaws. Andrey, once a respected graphic designer in the USSR, is now mostly drunk and addicted to "Nice Guy". Homeless Yitzhak narrates the plot of his disappearing existence with encyclopedic accuracy. Misha, who wants to flee the country but is tied down by an old debt, is at work building an escape raft. Like a modern-day version of a forsaken town in the Wild West, money, principles and despair all meet for one final duel.
Screening in the presence of the filmmakers.
A Fish Tale
Dir: Emmanuelle Mayer
2019
52 min
Johnny believes in the future of Africa. His wife, Thérèse, has lost hope. Living in Israel, he dreams of returning to Africa with advanced Western knowhow and introducing modern fish farming techniques. But Thérèse is determined to create the best future she can for their children. When their visas expire tensions between the two arise, leading to an inevitable clash, and altering the family’s fate forever.
Emmanuelle Mayer’s directorial debut is a moving documentary portrait, pieced from ten years of intimate footage. Emphasizing the profound gap between developing Africa and the West, the film contrasts male and female narratives and raises ideas of choice versus fate.
Screening in the presence of the filmmakers.
Accompanied by a screening of "Image of Victory" (2014), depicting Israel once again at war with Gaza. Uri, a wounded soldier in an Israeli hospital, finds himself turned into a poster boy for war overnight, as hundreds gather to show support for Israel's soldiers and actions. One family's hardship, turned public spectacle, offers an inside look into Israeli society and its obsession with war and heroism.
A series of unnatural deaths and departures (almost all of them men) disrupts the lives of nine families sharing an apartment block in Jerusalem. This experimental documentary forms a fragmented assembly piece – portraits of the men gone, of the women who mourn them, and of the one last isolated tenant, a musician still living in the building. The stories intersect at numerous points, together creating a complex image of the culture the house fostered, against the backdrop of the wider culture’s entropy, and a land devastated by its own acts of military violence and repression.
Screening in the presence of the filmmakers.
Dir: Tirtza Eve
2019
86 min
Land Mine
B'Tselem's
2019
Selection
80 min
Soldier and settler violence, curses, pushing, permits, arrests and checkpoints: the violent routine of the occupation as reflected in the films photographed by B'Tselem's Camera Project volunteers.The volunteers film neighbors, family members and themselves in the insufferable circumstances of their exposed and defenseless lives.
At the end of the screening B'Tselem staff and volunteers will answer questions from the Followed by a discussion with the audience.
Let’s Talk about Gaza
80 min
eadly attacks that kill civilians, shooting at demonstrators, the harsh ramifications of the siege: the lives of some 2 million inhabitants of Gaza are rarely the subject of public discussion in Israel. The same is true for the military attacks and the policy of opening fire on the "return demonstrations" along the Gaza border, which it would seem take place somewhere else and not right here, alongside us.
Thos event will offer documentary footage from Gaza and a Skype call with B'Tselem's field researcher in the Gaza Strip, Khaled al-'Azayzeh.
Followed by a discussion with the audience.
Recognized -
A Video Project of
the Negev Coexistence Forum for Civil Equality
The films presented by the Negev Forum for Co-Existence were filmed by female participants in the documentary video project "Recognized," which focuses on the lives of the inhabitants of the unrecognized Bedouin villages in the Negev. The participants learn in weekly meetings the basics of documentary filming and undergo cinematic training in the area of video-activism.
The films enable a rare glimpse into everyday lives in the unrecognized villages from the point of view of their inhabitants, who experience non-stop human-rights violations. They provide a direct expression of the state's abuse of its Bedouin citizens in the form of house demolitions, forced migration and flagrant discrimination in basic services.
Followed by a discussion with the audience.
80 min
Amos Kenan in the Cinema
80 min
Having written the accoladed screenplay to Uri Zohar's classic film “A Hole in the Moon” Amos Kenan also directed a few short films. Two will be screened during the tribute:
How Wonderful
Written and directed by: Amos Kenan, With Uri Zohar, Aril Lavie, Yael Aviv, Isreal Gurion. 1970, 14 min
Against the waves licking the shores, two lovers reflect upon notions of time, happiness and longing. Can one long for the present moment? Or can happiness only be encompassed in hindsight?
The film won 1970 best short film award by the Ministry of Education.
Two Minutes Without Hope
Written and directed by: Amos Kenan, With: Aril Lavie, 1970, 1:30 min
A wild west hit-man draws out his pistol, as the likes of Mao Tse Tung and Golda Meir appear in his bull's eye target. But who will be his final target?
After the screenings, Dov Glickman will read a scene from “A Hole in the Moon” screenplay, followed by a discussion with Shmulik Duvedevani and others.