Special Events
Opening Night
Thursday December 3rd at 20:00
Solidarity - Tel Aviv Human Rights Film Festival
Dir: Fatos Berisha, Fiction, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Albania, 2019, 115 min
Screening by invitation only
The15-Year Anniversary to the Protest Against the Seperation Barrier in Bil'in
Tuesday 08/12, 19:00
Life on Wheels
Dir: Haitham Al Khatib, Documentary, Palestine, 2010, 30 min
Tuesday 08/12, 20:30
Dir: Julia Bacha, Documentary, Israel, Palestine, USA, 2019, 80 min
B'Tselem's 2020
Selection
Israel did not end up formally annexing the West Bank this year – but in practice annexed it long ago. Footage captured by B’Tselem field researchers and volunteers shows Israel already doing at it pleases in the West Bank: soldiers opening lethal fire at Palestinians; settlers acting violently with military backing; homes demolished; trees uprooted; and many other things we do not like to see but must know.
The screening will be followed by a Q&A with Field Research Director Kareem Jubran and International Advocacy Officer Sarit Michaeli
Price: 19.90 ₪
Monday | 7/12/20
20:00
Let’s Talk about Gaza
2020 was tough everywhere. In Gaza, it was the year the UN declared the home of 2 million people uninhabitable. Long before the coronavirus broke out, Gaza was already suffering lethal attacks on civilians, live fire at demonstrators, and a devastating blockade soon entering its 15th year. Israelis hardly hear about this reality, nor do we discuss our shared responsibility for the fate of Gazans.
Along with video footage, B’Tselem field researchers Khaled al-‘Azayzeh will Skype with the audience from Gaza.
Price: 19.90 ₪
Sunday | 6/12/20
20:30
Arrests of Palestinian Children in the Occupied Territories
₪ Price: 19.90
6/12/20 | Sunday
19:00
When the Boys Return
Dir: Tone Andersen, Documentary, Norway, 2012, 58 min
Not a day goes by without Palestinian youths being arrested by Israeli soldiers for throwing stones, and sent to prison for months, and even years.
When these teens come out of prison, they have a hard time adjusting to life on the outside. At the Hebron YMCA, 12 such youths gather for group counseling meetings, meant to help them return to normality. Each teen expresses their hardship in his own way – Mohammed does not want to go to school, and spends his days taunting soldiers, Maharan spent two years in prison, and upon his release could not return to school or find a job, and spends his nights playing video game; and Hamza can’t focus and takes his frustrations out on his younger brother. In the reality these teens experience, prolonged arrests are nothing out of the ordinary, and they are not used to addressing their mental hardships and nightmares. The group becomes a safe place to open up, and discuss the trauma, even if reality does not allow for a normal life. They talk about their aspirations for the days after the occupation ends, to be a pilot, or a doctor; naïve dreams. But the chance of them going back to prison is greater than the chance of rehabilitation. This film provides a rare view into the tragic consequences of the imprisonment of young people who were born into a reality of occupation.
99.7%
Dir: Einat Weizmann
This video is a pilot to film which will document the working of the military tribunal, one of the central mechanisms of the occupation facilitating military control of hundreds of thousands of people, the subjects of the occupation.
The film will be divided into two plot lines. The first will profile the Ofer Military Court - a shadow mechanism with minimal journalistic or civilian oversight. The second will follow the obstacles I encountered in trying to document the military court.
The artist Emi Sfard accompany me on my visits to Ofer and created computer animation model recreating what we had seen.
Experpts from "Children"
Written and directed by Ada Ushpiz
The painful personal stories of five Palestinian kids, ages 7-17, open
a window into the world of Palestinian minors – trapped within the
violence, humiliation, and daily confrontations with soldiers and
settlers – while remaining children in every way. Each child finds his
or her own way to cope and to construct emotional and political worlds
in an impossible situation.
The film combines the children’s intimate experiences, one of them was
involved in the "Knife Intifada," with the constant soundtrack of
their lives on closed circle TV and social media, and their schools'
educational programs. At this seam between an impenetrable occupation
and Palestinian society, increasingly mobilized to fight against it –
The children are looking for their voice. Their helplessness is heart
breaking, as wherever reality sweeps them - they are still just
children, naughty, funny, dreaming.
Live online discussion with the filmmakers following the screening of the film.
THE GENTRIFIER’S GUIDE
Dir: Keren Shayo, Lavi Vanunu, 2020
A 3-part documentary series for Channel HOT8
Decades of intentional criminal negligence, Jaffa is rediscovered as a desirable real-estate gem. Property values have climbed and with them private initiatives, backed by government agencies, have led to the eviction of hundreds of families who were living in the city in public housing, and meteoric rise in housing prices, threatening the continued existence of the local population. Through personal stories, we follow the metamorphosis the city is undergoing and its social and political implications.
At the event we shall screen Episode 2 of the series – "The System"
The gentrification process taking place in Jaffa over recent decades seems like a mere product of market forces, but is revealed to be a deliberate plan by the authorities – “the system”. Longtime residents and business owners small and large alike stand helpless in the face of forces more powerful than themselves, that threaten to uproot them from the city.
Live online discussion with the filmmakers following the screening of the film.
Price: FREE
8/12/20 | Tuesday
19:00
A Series of Films Dealing with Social Issues in Partnership with MAZON
"MAZON – A Jewish Response to Hunger" is a social change organization devoted to public advocacy and education on issues of hunger and nutritional insecurity. The organization acts to advance social policy and frameworks that will ensure that every person has access to nutritious food. Its aim is to put an end to hunger and nutritional insecurity for every person in the United States and Israel. Every individual is entitled to nutritional security regardless of race, religion, ethnic affiliation, sexual orientation or gender identity. "MAZON" supports various organizations in Israel and is proud to host some of them here.
Saturday, 5/12/20, 18:00
Through The Night
Dir: Loira Limbal, Documentary, USA, 2020, 75 min
Wednesday, 9/12/20, 19:00
Taste of Hope
Dir: Laura Coppens, Documentary, Switzerland, 2019, 70 min
Wednesday, 9/12/20, 18:00
Voices Of Lisbon
Dir: Céline Coste Carlisle, Judit Kalmár, Documentary, Portugal, Hungary, 2020, 87 min
Closing Night + Announcement of the winning films
Thursday, December 12th, at 20:00
The closing night of the 2020 Solidarity Human Rights Film Festival
The ceremony will include the announcement of the winners in the various categories:
The Zeev Sternhell Israeli Human Rights Film Award
The Award this year is generously sponsored by the “Breaking the Silence” organization.
The award is intended to honor the memory of Professor Zeev Sternhell, who passed in June of this year. Professor Sternhell, an Israel Prize recipient, was one of the foremost scholars of fascism in the world, a political activist and a human rights activist.
In his essays Prof. Sternhell warned against the deterioration of democratic discourse in Israel, the deepening of the occupation of the Palestinian territories and the rise of nationalist and racist movements in Israel. In 2008 Prof. Sternhell was injured from a bomb set by a Jewish terrorist on his doorstep.
Awards for new Israeli cinematic work dealing with human rights, sponsored by the Zulat Institute for Equality and Human Rights.
Zulat is an activist think-tank founded by former Meretz Chairman Zehava Galon, to combat the delegitimization of the humanist and liberal underpinnings of democracy, operating out of the view that the left must move from defense to offense. Zulat’s goal is to be a bridge between the political system and civil society, to act among decision makers and public opinion leaders to promote policy, legislation and media discourse centered on equality and human rights.
We give awards to human rights films in order to encourage Israeli filmmakers to deal with social and political issues, and to promote social change in their work. We at Solidarity have been working for years to promote films that seek to change the world, cinema that deals with society’s open wounds.
At a time when the local media is trending rightwards and the Israeli government is holding loyalty tests for creators, we seek to preserve a living, biting cinematic landscape.
Our goal is to provide a platform for critical work dealing with political and social struggles in the Israeli public, to encourage filmmakers and creators to deal with social issues and human rights struggles in their work, and to bring the various issues to the surface of public discourse in order to make a real change in the Israel’s reality.
Solidarity is the only film festival in Israel dedicated entirely to activism and human rights.
Screening by invitation only
