Archives

Call Me A Jew

The complicity of large parts of the Austrian people in the Nazi extermination of the Jewish people remains a palpable presence to this day. What is it like growing up as a Jews in the land of the perpetrators? For many years, the subject of Austrian collaboration remained a taboo for survivors and their descendants, as well as for the perpetrators and their children. But does this taboo still exist for the grandchildren and great-grandchildren? The film is constructed entirely from interviews with survivors, who tell about their childhoods in Austria before WWII, the growing anti-Semitism, and their experiences during the war. The film also incorporates interviews with members of the second and third generations, living in Israel and in Austria. Through the mosaic of interviews, the film attempts to map the complex connections between yesterday and today, between private and public, in order to draw conclusions from the past.

The Gatekeepers

Since 1967 Israel has tried to transform its incredible military victory into a bridge to peace. It failed. Forty years and two peace treaties later an atmosphere of fear and mistrust still permeates the region. In this film, the five former heads of Israel’s Secret Service exclusively reflect on their successes and failures to maintain security, even while violence flares up again, this time in the Gaza Strip. These five men individually and as a group have come to reconsider their hard-line positions and advocate a conciliatory approach toward their enemies based on a two-state solution.

Wind Darkness Water

Over the years, Naomi Shemer has earned the title of “national poet.” For most of her creative life, she was the ultimate decoder of Israeli society, succeeding in both describing and influencing its everyday and national reality. Whether on her native Kibbutz Kinneret, in Tel Aviv, or looking over the Jerusalem Hills, Shemer masterfully expressed in word and song the feelings of Israelis about their country.

Breaking the wall

 The film uncovers the personality of Dr. Vicki Shiran, a feminist and Mizrahi-born leader who led all major social struggles in the past 3 decades until her untimely death 8 years ago. Occasionally a person’s biography can faithfully mirror the spirit of a social struggle. The life story of Shiran is also the story of the rise, and some say the fall, of the social struggle for equality that characterized Israel in the past and still goes on in a different manner to this day.

Kusturica Dream

Eyal, a shy young filmmaker, musters up his courage and travels to Emir Kusturica’s village to convince the Serbian director to come to Tel Aviv to be a guest actor in his feature film.