Archives

Diplomat

The story of the Diplomat, a luxurious hotel turned absorption center, a place where time has come to a standstill. This is the story of veteran immigrants of the former Soviet Union, residing at the Diplomat Hotel in Jerusalem. These people, who came to Israel in search of a new home, have ended up permanently living in a hotel. More than 600 Diplomat residents live among us as strangers, this is their story.

Avenge But One of My Two Eyes

A documentary on the treatment of Palestianians by members of the Israeli army. From the Myths of Samson and Massada, the youger Israeli generations learn that death is preferable to domination. Today, as the second Intifada is raging, the Palesinians are constantly humiliated by the Israeli army, peasants are kept from ploughing their fields, children on their way back from school are stranded at checkpoints for hours, an old woman can’t even go back home. Echausted, these people voice their anger and despair, just as the Jews did with the Romans or Samson with the Philistines. Israeli filmaker Avi Mograbi still believes in the power of dialogue, with besieged Palestinians, and omnipresent Israeli army officials.

Waiting for Godik

Waiting for Godik, a musical documentary, tells the story of the rise and fall of the Israeli King of Musicals, legendary producer and impresario Giora Godik. The tragic story of the man, who touched the dream and crashed, is also the story of an unforgettable era and the tale of the local version of the musical genre. Godik, one of the prominent symbols of Israel’s happy 60s, endeavored, in his way, to bring the American dream to Tel Aviv. However, the dream was shattered when Godik skyrocketed to the top and plummeted to the lowest depths. Godik fled unexpectedly to Germany, on the eve of his last premiere. Utterly destitute, he sold hot-dogs for a living, at the central railway station in Frankfurt. He believed he would soon resume his position as King of Musicals. But Godik stayed far away from the theater, never to return. Combined with archival segments and songs from Godik’s musicals, the film focuses the spotlight on the corner that remained in the darkness, Godik’s family. His widow and two children relive the moments of despair on the eve of his sudden flight from the country. The film glimpses into the gap between glittering lights and a life in the shadows. It brings back to life the story of a man who believed that life was a musical.

The Green Dumpster Mystery

Traveling on his scooter through south Tel Aviv, film-maker Tal Haim Yoffe noticed an old photograph and some documents inside a green dumpster. This was the beginning of an investigation that slowly unwinded a tragic family history beginning in Lodz, transverses a Siberian Gulag, a Samarkand sugar plant, a kibbutz in Frankfurt, a deserted Arab building in Jaffa, and an absentee IDF soldier somewhere in the sands of the Sinai Peninsula. Just an anonymous family, but a typical Israeli one.

Fireflies

The film “Fireflies” (Gachliliyot) is the story of Gili, a 12 year old boy, a 24 year old young man and a 44 year old adult, who ventures out in search of his brother, Giora, who remained forever 19 after dissapearing in the Yom Kippur War. This is a personal, genuine, moving and devastating documentation about mental crisis and bereavement, drugs and hallucinations, a falling star and fireflies, that combines reality and imagination, love and hope, in Jerusalem, the Sinai, Nepal and everywhere in between.

Ahead of Time

‘Ahead of Time’, a documentary on the remarkable life of Ruth Gruber. At 97 years old, Brooklyn-born Ruth still has that same sharp intellect and moxie that propelled her to become the world’s youngest PhD at age 20. At age 24, she became a New York Herald Tribune reporter and photographer and the same year was the first journalist to enter the Soviet Arctic. A trusted member of the Roosevelt Administration during WWII, she was given a dangerous secret mission. A feminist before feminism, Ruth was never just an observer, she was a participant in the making of history. Ruth covered the turbulent Middle East throughout the 1940’s, and the film combines verité footage of Ruth traveling back to Israel, with interviews and archival material

Liquid of Life

A rapid fire ‘essay’ film – an intellectual roller-coaster ride steeped in black humor that connects fake movie blood, disaster clean-up, blood donations, and paintings made with blood to, among other things, a Bloody Mary recipe.