Top documentaries at Israeli festival
MORE than 100 Israeli and overseas documentaries will be screened at Docaviv, the Tel Aviv International Documentary Film Festival which opens today (Thursday) and runs until May 20.
MORE than 100 Israeli and overseas documentaries will be screened at Docaviv, the Tel Aviv International Documentary Film Festival which opens today (Thursday) and runs until May 20.
The festival has four competitions: Israeli, International, Depth of Field (for innovative films) and Student. It also features a special tribute program dedicated to the work of acclaimed filmmakers, as well as programs dedicated to the themes of music, art, society.
The festival’s opening night film is Before My Feet Touch the Ground, directed by Daphni Leef, one of the leaders of the 2011 social justice protests.
French philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy will attend the festival and present his film, Battle of Mosul.
Israeli director Moran Ifergan’s film Wall is about a woman going through a divorce who takes solace at the Western Wall, but it also follows the Women of the Wall movement.
Anat Schwartz’s The Promised looks at French Jews who have moved to Israel recently, and examines their conflicting identities and memories.
Liat Mer’s Fence Your Best tells the story of the Hatuels, a family of fencing champions from Acre. Mordechai Vardi’s film The Field looks at an unusual organisation in Gush Etzion that tries to find a way for Jews and Arabs to live together in peace.
The International competition features a variety of films including Raoul Peck’s I Am Not Your Negro, a documentary about writer and political activist James Baldwin that was nominated for an Oscar.
Zaradasht Ahmed’s Nowhere to Hide tells the story of an Iraqi paramedic who photographs the devastation that followed the Americans’ departure from Iraq and the rise of ISIL in his hometown.
In the film Austerlitz, Sergei Loznitsa films tourists visiting the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, recording the phenomenon of Holocaust tourism.
In Bobbi Jene, Elvira Lind documents the journey of Bobbi Jene Smith, who danced with Ohad Naharin’s Batsheva company for 10 years, as she moves back to her native America.
Susanne Regina Meures’s film Raving Iran is about two Iranian DJs who risk their freedom by running raves in the desert and must decide whether to leave the country.
Ron Howard’s The Beatles: Eight Days a Week – The Touring Years features rare footage of The Beatles in concert.
During the festival Israel’s largest prize for an original Israeli documentary production will be announced.
HANNAH BROWN / THE JERUSALEM POST
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