NOISE Director: Dan and Noit Geva Category: Creative Documentary / Society & Ethnology Production:Israel 2012 Language: Hebrew, English. Subtitles: English Length: 51/ 71 minutes. HD. Synopsis: Noise is a politically subversive tragic-comedy a salutation to the social engagé of the Griersonian tradition. The film creatively dramatizes the story of a documentarist who suffers from hyper-acoustic sensitivity, which makes his life in Tel Aviv, one of the noisiest urban locations on earth, a living hell. Tormented by the belief that they live in an incredibly noisy society, the award-winning couple of Israeli filmmakers resolves to investigate the issue: they install cameras in their house to capture sources of this formidable sonic mass that invades their daily lives.
DESCRIPTION OF A MEMORY - thirteen memories following Chris Marker's ''Description of a Struggle'' Director: Dan Geva / Israel 2006 Category: Creative Documentary Production: Habayit Hakatom: Dan & Noit Geva / Israel 2006 Language: Hebrew, English, Arabic, Russian. Subtitles: English Length: 60 minutes
Synopsis: Dan Geva takes us in a cinematic journey to the recesses of the photographed memory in Chris Marker's 1960 impressionist film about Israel, ''Description d'un combat'' (Description of a Struggle), which won the 'Golden Bear' at the 1961 Berlin Festival. Geva creates a poetic and philosophic cinematic dialogue with the original text, using images and words from that film, and then adds his own in a process that reveals that the Israel of today is the country, which the French Master could not even have imagined.
THINK POPCORN Director: Dan Geva / Israel 2004 Category: Creative Documentary Production: Dan & Noit Geva: Habayit Hakatom / Israel 2004 Language: Hebrew, English, French, Arabic.Subtitles: English narration / English / French Length: 80 minutes
Synopsis:A tribute to Dziga Vertov's ''Man with a Movie Camera''. Dan Geva, the filmmaker, roams through the country on his motorcycle, with a stage and three cameras, asking people to talk about their ultimate truth. From the seashore, the city square, the market, the park, and the countryside Geva combines dramatic and documentary scenes that break the boundaries of the classic documentary genre.
Festivals & Awards:
Official Selection: '' Mediterranean'' : ''Sole E Luna'' Doc Fest - Italy 2006
Official Selection:''Cinema'' : Roma Art Doc Fest - Italy 2006
Nominee for Best Documentary : Israel Academy Awards - Israel 2005
Honorable Mention : Jerusalem International Film Festival - Israel 2004
NOT FAR FROM THE TREE Director: Alon Alsheich & Eran Yehezkel / Israel 2011 Category: Creative Documentary Producers: Yariv Mozer and Alon Alsheich Production: for Reshet-Docu, Channel Two, Israel; Commissioning Editor: Elinor Kowarsky Language: Hebrew, Arabic. Subtitles: English Length: 50 minutes
Synopsis: ''Not Far from the Tree'' is a funny and moving story about the creation of a family-owned winery and about the unavoidable father-son conflict.
Avi Kahanov, has spent his entire life working in the vineyards left to him by his father. This labor of love produced over the past few years the boutique winery Kahanov. Eran is the natural heir, good natured and kind, but he does not work in the family business created by his grandfather. He has chosen his own path and works as an educator of troubled youth. Avi would like to have his son working with him but any attempt ends in a shouting match.
Festivals & Awards:
Best Documentary Award: Haifa International Film Festival -Israel 2011
HULA AND NATAN Director: Robby Elmaliah / Israel 2010 Category: Creative Documentary Production: for Noga Communications, Channel 8: Robby Elmaliah and the Sapir College, Arik Bernstein: Alma Films / Israel 2010
Language: Hebrew, Arabic. Subtitles: English / French Length: 54 minutes
Synopsis: The tragicomic story of two brothers who survive by working as mechanics in a small garage in Sderot. Under the hail of missiles from Gaza, they comment the harsh reality of life in southern Israel during brotherly arguments oozing with black humour. The film is juxtaposing their disheveled lives with the drama of conflict intensifying around them. As much a funny and moving family story as a devastating commentary on the absurdity of war.
AS LILITH Director: Eytan Harris / Israel 2009 Category: Creative Documentary Production: for Channel 10, Israel; Commissioning Editor: Tzipi Baider Language: Hebrew. Subtitles: English Length: 77 minutes
Synopsis: An absurd, brilliant and surreal film about an orthodox Jewish organization and an eccentric mother who lock horns over the remains of her teenage daughter's body. Lilith, a charismatic single mother woman, with an unusual life story, is in a terrible clash with one of the largest religious organization in Israel, only because she's determined to cremate, not to bury in the Jewish way, the body of her 14-year daughter, who unexpectedly committed suicide. A real witch hunt, with no limits, is taking place in a tiny suburban town. ''As Lilith'' is a darkly funny film, filled with situations, an impeccably well-crafted film that uses fly-on-the-wall filmmaking to capture a completely off-the-wall story.
JEREMIAH Director: Eran Paz / Israel 2010 Category: Creative Documentary Production: Eran Paz & Ilan Moskovitch Language: Russian, Hebrew. Subtitles: English Length: 54 minutes
Synopsis: Yura (Jeremiah), his wife, and two children live in the Shapira neighborhood in the southern part of Tel Aviv. They live among junkies, prostitutes and alcoholics; a different image than the one expected when hearing the words: “Tel Aviv.” In one of the rooms lives Valera, an alcoholic. In the storage room lives Gora, Yura's cousin and a drug addict. Misha, a former boxer, needs a place to stay and is willing to sleep in the yard.
AISHA Director: Oshri Hayun and Hila Cohen / Israel 2010 Category: Creative Documentary Production: Oshri Hayun and Hila Cohen and the Sapir College Language: Moroccan Arabic, Hebrew. Subtitles: English Length: 47 minutes
Synopsis: Born in the Atlas mountains of Morocco, Aisha was married at 11 when she fell in love with Joseph, immigrated to Israel in 1955 and had 14 children. At 96, with her husband deceased, and her children rarely visiting, she only has her animals to keep her company, and among them Booba, the goat with whom she has the kind of relationship between a mother and adolescent daughter. In her heart, Aisha is still on the foothills of the Atlas Mountains, refusing to let go of the traditions of her childhood, traditions that have alienated her children.
Festivals & Awards:
Golden Apricot Yerevan International Film Festival - Armenia 2011
Shaken's Stars Almaty International Film Festival - Kazahstan 2011
HOME IS YOU Director: Yaelle and Aya Shwed / Israel 2012 Production: Yaelle and Aya Shwed: Coming Out Production Category: Creative Documentary / Society Language: Hebrew, French, English. Subtitles: English / French Length: 59 minutes
Synopsis: Aya, a 32 years old musician, with no boundaries or doubts about her identity as a lesbian, meets Yaelle, a 29 years old multimedia artist and new immigrant to Israel from a conservative French family. They create performances together and their encounter develops into a story of true love, while they have to face inner and external conflicts
''Home is You'' is a brave and intimate documentary portrait, vibrant, full of humor, real, and touching. ''Home is You'' confronts a humanistic struggle for love, marriage, and acceptance for all. The film was shot in Tel Aviv, Paris, Toronto and Nevada. Click to read more >
ONE OF SEVEN Director: Goel Pinto / Israel 2010 Category: Creative Documentary / Identity Production: for Noga Communications, Channel 8; Commissioning Editor: Liran Atzmor Language: Hebrew, French. Subtitles: English Length: 50 minutes
Synopsis: ''One of Seven'' is a fascinating journey of journalist and film critic Goel Pinto's life stations. Goel, born to an Oriental religious family, 'one of seven' children, in the ultra-Orthodox city of Bnei Brak, near Tel Aviv.
Going back to his childhood memories, the director, along with his mother Monique, peel off the layers of his past, in order to get to the root of the lack of identity that accompanies him, he tries to reconcile the different elements that shape his being: religion, ethnicity, homosexuality and the memory of the holocaust.
DOLL (Why Did You Dance Naked?) Director:Zohar Wagner / Israel 2012 Category: Creative Documentary / Society Production:for Channel 8, Documentary Channel, Israel (Noga Communications) Language: Hebrew. Subtitles: English Length: 58 minutes
Synopsis: On her third self-revealing documentary film, Zohar Wagner returns to her past as a club stripper in New York and discloses a complicated tale of repression and denial. One day, her fiancé finds a bunch of old tapes which reveals Zohar's wild past in her 20s. The dispute around the video footage leads Zohar on a deeply emotional quest, seeking out her memories and those who were her companions during this hectic period.
With their help she uncovers the ways in which her repression mechanism has led her astray.
STRETCH MARKS Director:Zohar Wagner / Israel 2009 Category: Creative Documentary / Society Production: for Channel 8, Documentary Channel, Israel (Noga Communications) Language: Hebrew. Subtitles: English Length: 67 minutes
Synopsis: This highly revealing self documentation follows a pregnant, single woman, provocative performance artist into the club, the living room, the bedroom and even beyond… This movie tells the story of Zohar Wagner (''Zorki''), how she got pregnant by one man, fell in love with another and celebrated her rising sexuality up until the day she gave birth. But when her baby is born with the blessing came a curse: the luscious boobs and the man she loved both disappeared.
ZORKI – hiding mom's secret Director:Zohar Wagner / Israel 2006 Category: Creative Documentary / Society Production: Barak Heymann: Barak Films; for Yes-Docu, Documentary Channel, Israel Language: Hebrew. Subtitles: English Length: 54 minutes
Synopsis: Two years ago, Zohar Wagner, then 34, decided to tear away the cloak of silence that enveloped her bourgeois family. Her mother had a five year affair with a man ten years her junior, and Zohar, at the age of twelve, was an accomplice to the secret. Twenty years after the difficult episode that had torn the family apart, as the Filmmaker's Mother is selling her childhood home, the family gathers and Pandora's Box is opened. The film is called "Zorki," the family nickname for Zohar.
FRAGMENTS Director: Jonathan Haimovitch / Israel 2009 Category: Creative Documentary Production: Meital Gambashoo, Jonathan Haimovitch and the Sapir College Language: Russian, Hebrew. Subtitles: English / French / Russian Length: 50 minutes
Synopsis: A filmed journey through a single street on the outskirts of Jerusalem. An attempt to explore fragments of the filmmaker's childhood and recapture memories of the mother he lost. He returns to the street where his childhood unfolded and meets its elderly residents, immigrants from the former Soviet Union, creating a mosaic of a rapidly vanishing way of life.
Festivals & Awards:
3 Continents Film Festival, Nantes- France 2010
Punto de Vista International Documentary Film Festival, Pamplona - Spain 2010
Hamburg International Film Festival - Germany 2009
Torino International Film Festival - Italy 2009
Winner of the David Perlov Grant - Israel 2008
Winner: Best Film Award: Doc Aviv International Documentary Film Festival, Students Category - Israel 2009
Winner: Best Film Award & Best Editing Award: Cinema South International Films Festival - Israel 2009
SPOKEN WITH LOVE Director: Dan Wolman / Israel 2007 Category: Creative Documentary Production: Dan Wolman Film Productions Language: Hebrew. Subtitles: English Length: 52 minutes
Synopsis: Film director Dan Wolman who's many fictional features have included extreme parent-children relationships, documents his parents daily life and tries to find out what lies at the root of the childhood traumas portrayed in his films. The film holds many surprises like the fact that as a child Dan discovered in his parents bedroom a photograph of a young man dressed in the uniform of the German Army, or the fact that his father was the private Doctor of the Emperor of Ethiopia.
Synopsis: Filmmaker Ronen Amar (''My Family's Pizza'') documents two protagonists whose only common denominator is the sleepy southern town they come from. Amar follows his cousin Eyal, a successful architect-contractor who decides to run for mayor and kick up dust. He also follows his friend Koko, a stoner on an eternal soul search. With municipal elections raging in the background, Amar's protagonists stand at critical junctures in their lives. How will their s[elections] shape the director's future as well?
Festivals & Awards:
Winner: Best Film- Audience Choice : DeREEL Independent Film Festival, Melbourne - Australia 2008
Winner: Silver Remi Award : Worldfest Houston International Film Festival, Texas - USA 2007
Israel Documentary Film Festival, Paris - France 2006
MY FAMILY'S PIZZA Director: Ronen Amar / Israel 2003 Category: Creative Documentary Production: Ronen Amar, Lior Dustry, Sapir Academic College Language: Hebrew. English translation. Available: French translation. Length: 52minutes
Synopsis:Maksim, a sleep addict, asks his parents to help him buy a pizza place he co-owns. As soon as the work begins, the parents realize they will have to invest a lot more than just money. With dad as the delivery boy and mom as the oven cleaner, the film creates a true profile of the average Israeli family in the new millennium. Perhaps the same applies to your home and family?
Festivals & Awards:
3 Continents Film Festival, Nantes- France 2010
Winner: Best Documentary Award : The Mediterranean Film Festival of Algarve - Portugal 2006
Gold Remi Award: Worldfest International Film Festival - Houston Texas - USA 2005
SISAI Director: David Gavro / Israel / Ethiopia 2005 Category: Creative Documentary Production: David Gavro, Yael Shavit, Avner Faingulernt and Sapir Academic College Language: Hebrew, Amharic. English translation. Length: 56 minutes
Synopsis: 20-year-old Sisai, Ethiopian immigrant in Israel, lives with his adoptive family - the Gavros. Father Gavro returns from Ethiopia with news of Sisai's biological father's whereabouts. Confused by the news and the fresh confrontation with his past, Sisai does not share his family's excitement. He is too busy with his own news; Sivan, his girlfriend, is pregnant. The director, who is also Sisai's brother, joins him and their father on a journey to Ethiopia on their search for identity, blood connection, love and longing.
Festivals & Awards:
Winner: FIPA D'OR Prize : Best Documentary Award:FIPA Festival Biarritz France 2006
Winner: Best Documentary Award : DeREEL Independent Film Festival -Australia 2007
Winner: Lombardia Prize for Best Film : Milan African Film Festival - Italy 2006
Winner: Best Documentary Award : Jerusalem International Film Festival - Israel 2005
Winner: Best First Film Award: Israel Documentary Awards - Israel 2006
Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival Toronto - Canada 2006
3 Continents Film Festival, Nantes- France 2010
The African Diaspora Film Festival, New York City - USA 2006
Muestra Internacional Documental, Bogota- Colombia 2006
Open Frame International Festival & Forum - India 2006
Mediterranean Documentary Film Festival - Greece 2006
DaKINO Bucharest International Film Festival - Romania 2006
Beeld voor Beeld Film Festival, Amsterdam - The Netherlands 2006
Etats generaux du documentaire de Lussas - France 2006
ALIMENTATION GÉNÉRALE / THE GENERAL STORE Director: Chantal Briet / France 2005 Category: Creative Documentary Production: Ludovic Arnal: Yenta Production/Arsenal Productions Language: French. Subtitles: English Length: 84 minutes
Synopsis: Elegant vérité-style documentary gracefully explores the quotidian lives in an immigrant-heavy Parisian suburb, Epinay-sur-Seine, taking us into the everyday life of a small grocery store. Customers arrive, one after the other, under the happy gaze of Ali, the charismatic owner. There is the old lady with the dog, the unemployed philosopher, the youngster who dance hip hop and the kids who want candies. The film shows us the importance of the small shop “around the corner”: a space, where you can find human warmth, laughter and conviviality in spite of the difficult conditions.
SYSTEMA Director: Ohad Milstein Category: Creative Documentary Production: : Israel / 2010 Language: : Hebrew Subtitles: English Length: 46 minutes
Synopsis: A documentary film with a very strong aesthetic value, following a member of the Israeli women's synchronized swimming team during her final year before being drafted to the army.
The film's arena is the swimming pool which is divided into two parts: the underwater world of poetics, abstracts and enigmas, representing an inner world, as opposed to the world above the water which contains a strong, realistic, sharp set of rules upheld by coach Lola.
Festivals & Awards:
Best ''Free Documentary'' Award: Israel Documentary Awards - Israel 2011
ESHBAL Director: Ziv Even Tsur / Israel 2005/2007 Category: Creative Documentary Production: Amit Goren, Galia Bador: Amit Goren Productions Language: Hebrew. Subtitles: English / French Length: 56 minutes
Synopsis: Kibbutz Eshbal in the Galilee, established in 1998 as an educational center, runs a boarding school for adolescents who have been expelled from other educational institutions. At Eshbal, Baruch, Ora, Moshe and Yael, first-generation immigrants from Ethiopia, are counseled by Yoav and Vickie, kibbutz members. The film portrays the first class at Eshbal's boarding school while documenting life on a secluded hill in the Galilee, of committed kibbutz youngsters and alienated youths, each striving, in their own way, for a place within Israeli society.
Festivals & Awards:
DeREEL Independent Film Festival, Melbourne - Australia 2008
Bogota International Documentary Encounters- Colombia 2006
Fipatel, FIPA International Film Festival, Biarritz - France 2006
Nominee for Best Documentary: Israel Academy Awards - Israel 2005
Doc Aviv International Documentary Film Festival - Israel 2005
GATOS (Cats) Director: Gali Meiri / Brazil / Israel 2005 Category: Creative Documentary Production: Language: Portuguese, Hebrew. Subtitles: English Length: 52 minutes
Synopsis: The film follows 4 young Brazilians from a village that was just recently discovered by tourists. It shows the immense influence that the tourists have over the lives of the locals, and the difference between the way the tourists conceive the locals and the reality that is filmed. The arrival of foreigners to the village has created a new variety of options for self fulfillment, that doesn't go hand in hand with the economical and social possibilities of the locals.
Festivals & Awards:
Special Mention : Amazonas World Adventure Film Festival - Brazil 2006
Globians world and culture Documentary Film Festival, Potsdam - Germany 2008
Capoeira Film Festival, Amsterdam - The Netherlands 2008
DeREEL Independent Film Festival, Melbourne - Australia 2008
Toronto International Portuguese Film Festival - Canada 2007
Ethnographic International Film Panorama, Paris - France 2007
Ecolnoa International Environmental Film Festival, Tel Aviv - Israel 2007
Planet in Focus International Film Festival, Toronto - Canada 2006
Pärnu International Film Festival - Estonia 2006
Doc Aviv International Documentary Film Festival - Israel 2005
SABA (Grandfather) Director: Amram Jacoby / Israel 2005 Category: Creative Documentary Production: Amram Jacoby and Sapir Academic College. Language: Hebrew, Arabic, English. Subtitles: English / French Length: 56 minutes
Synopsis: Avraham Ezequiel is 92 years old. He was born in Irak, educated in Singapore , then worked as a journalist for the Palestine Bulletin after 1929, he now offers his story to his grandson, interspersing it with quotations from Kafka and Robert Frost, readings from holy texts in Arabic, Hebrew and English and patient tending of his olive grove. This film is an unusual man's journal, through which his grandson let his voice be heard. It provides Grandfather, at the age of ninety-two with a reason to live.
FROM THE HEART OF ODESSA Director: André Schreuders / Ukraine / The Netherlands 2007 Category: Creative Documentary Production: Amram Jacoby and Sapir Academic College. Language: Russian, Ukrainian. Subtitles: English Length: 59 minutes
Synopsis: Alec Kopyt, a musician from Amsterdam returns to Moldavanka - once the poor Jewish neighbourhood of Odessa - his place of birth and the cradle of old-time Russian Mafia songs (Blatnyak). He is looking for musicians to play together these songs in the restaurant of an old friend. While strolling along the picturesque yards of the ruinous slums, we meet colourful Odesits who resemble the ancient heroes of the street songs we hear. A touching portrait of a neighbourhood, its music and performers.
Festivals & Awards:
Krakow Film Festival - Poland 2011
WATCH DOCS. Human Rights in Film IFF - Poland 2009
IFFR International Film Festival Rotterdam - The Netherlands 2008
Dialëktus European Documentary Film Festival Budapest - Hungary 2008
Docudays International Human Rights Film Festival, Kiev - Ukraine 2008
DeREEL Independent Film Festival, Melbourne - Australia 2008
Netherlands Film Festival Utrecht - The Netherlands 2007
Bursa International Silk Road Film Festival - Turkey 2007
THE OLD STORES Director: Yoav Gurfinkel / Israel 2007 Category: Creative Documentary Production: Maayan Keret & Yoav Gurfinkel: Y.G. Productions Language: Hebrew, Arabic. Subtitles: English Length: 53 minutes
Synopsis: This is the story of a number of old stores in modern-day Tel Aviv-Jaffa, all small businesses, 40 years old or older, who have somehow survived despite the hardships of time. The film passes between the stores and unfolds an old and aging world of tradition and family businesses, a whole fabric of life and places very different from the fast, dynamic life that surrounds us.
Among the participating shops: A barber shop about to close, Mikolinsy shoes which was one of the city's most elegant shops and an Arab-owned pharmacy in Jaffa run by a father and his son.
Festivals & Awards:
Remi Award Winner: Worldfest Houston International Film Festival, Texas - USA 2008
Globians world and culture Documentary Film Festival, Potsdam - Germany 2008
DeREEL Independent Film Festival, Melbourne - Australia 2008
NIGHT WATCHERS Director: Amnon Benjamin & Hanna Ben-Moshe / Israel 2003 Category: Creative Documentary Production: Language: Hebrew. Subtitles: English Length: 52 minutes
Synopsis: The radio program 'Out with Drugs' goes on air every Saturday at midnight. Eyal, a radio broadcaster takes calls from drug addicts crying out for help, while Yuval rushes through the empty streets of Tel Aviv in search of the anonymous voices. From the dark night appear dreamlike images. Eyal and Yuval are trying to help them fight their addiction - against all odds.
Festivals & Awards:
New York Independent International Film and Video Festival- USA 2003
Jerusalem International Film Festival - Israel 2003
CHILDREN BY REMOTE CONTROL Director: Nachum Landau / Israel 2004 Category: Creative Documentary Production: Language: Thai, English, Hebrew. English translation Length: 51 minutes
Synopsis: A personal voyage attempting to decipher the mystery behind the Thai workers' warm and loving bonds with their children, based mainly on telephone calls and letters. The filmmaker, living in a Kibbutz and father to seven children, tries to understand the Thai workers' inner conflict of financial gain vs. family ties. He joins one of these couples on their return trip to Thailand. A thought- provoking film which takes viewers from smiles to tears.
Festivals & Awards:
Israeli Documentary Film Festival Confluences Paris - France 2005
Taiwan International Ethnographic Film Festival - Taiwan 2005
Second Prize: Doc Aviv International Documentary Film Festival Tel Aviv (Student Category) - Israel 2003
