CoPro 16 – The Israel Documentary Screen Market, will take place from May 26 – June 2, 2013. 60 international film and television industry members will arrive in Israel for the annual event, a unique independent marketing channel for documentary filmmakers, founded and directed by Orna Yarmut. Now in its 15th edition, CoPro events will take place in Hangar 11 at the Port of Tel Aviv, the Tel Aviv Cinematheque, and the Arab-Hebrew Theatre in Jaffa.
Simon Chinn, producer of the Oscar-winning documentary Searching for Sugarman and Man on a Wire, …

Malka (Queen), an original play written and directed by Jason Danino Holt, billed as “a pop legend for grown ups” will be performed by the third year students of the Nissan Nativ Acting Studio.
Nissan Nativ Acting Studio on the play: “Malka the Queen had everything: a nation that admired her, a man willing to die for her, a son who was a source of pride and a pair of legs that any woman would kill for. But like in any juicy legend, a fateful spell shook up the plot and …

Gesher Theater will host their 7th Annual International Theatre Festival from June 20 – 29, 2013. Three new plays fresh from the Russian stage will be performed in Israel, offering  the perspective of Russian directors on the works of Hanoch Levin,  Meir Shalev and Arthur Miller. The plays will be performed in Russian with surtitles in Hebrew.
Hanoch Levin’s Suitcase Packers will open the festival. A production of the Mayakovsky Theatre in Russia, staged by  Alexander Koruchekov,  the play revolves around several neighboring families, living out the cyles of life: birth, …

Bawdy, poetic, incisive and scathingly witty, the late Israeli playwright Hanoch Levin is a powerful presence  on the Israeli and international stage. The Cameri Theatre presents the first International Hanoch Levin Festival, paying tribute to this great writer, with events taking place at the Cameri, Habima and Gesher Theatres from June 17 – 26, 2013.
Six international productions and eleven Israeli productions of Levin’s plays will be presented, as well as discussions, staged readings of plays that have not been produced, and an exhibition of photographs of Levin’s plays by Gadi …

Dance – always moving, changing shape, exploring new ground. The Diver Festival seeks to express this spirit in a new festival that initiators and artistic directors Moshe Shecter Avshalom and Ido Feder say will be “the new front line of dance in Tel Aviv and Israel.”

Opening May 16th, the festival will take place over the course of four weekends, through June 8, 2013. What are the special characteristics of this festival? Discarding labels of “mainstream” vs. “fringe” or “alternative” dance, the festival seeks to present quality works by established and …

Fresh Paint 6 will take place in Tel Aviv from May 21 – 26, 2013. The contemporary art fair showcases the work of independent artists in Israel, as well as those represented by galleries. The artsy happening maintains a fresh perspective, appearing in a new venue each year. This year’s venue will be The New Logistics Center, Tel Aviv – Yafo, 48 Tel Giborim Street, South Tel Aviv. To see the map, click here.
An intriguing new feature this year is the fair’s expansion into the realm of design, with the …

The alluring Haze, choreographed by Wang Yuanuan and performed by the Beijing Dance Theater, will premiere in Israel at the Israeli Opera, with four performances from June 5 – 8, 2013.

19 dancers move through the haze to music composed by Henryk Gorecki and Biosphere, evoking the sense of faltering uncertainty, inspired by the economic crisis and environmental concerns that began in 2009. Haze develops as a metaphor for the atmospheric fog of pollution and the spiritual dark mists of thought in times of difficulty.  The work focuses on the question …

Director Ari Folman and the creative team of The Congress will be making their way to Cannes, where the film will open the prestigious Director’s Fortnight. Going to Cannes with Folman are: producer Eitan Manzuri, production manager Shirly Herman, animation director Yoni Goodman, art director David Polonsky, editor Nili Feller, visual & effects artist Roy Nitzan, soundtrack designer Aviv Aldema, and actors Robin Wright and Danny Houston.
The schedule for Cannes will be:
Thursday, May 16th
9:00 Press screening of The Congress at Theatre Croisette (50 La Croisette), followed by a Q & …

Avi Kaiser and Sergio Antonino take dance off the stage and into a more intimate place with their site-specific performance At Your Place. I had the pleasure of talking to Avi about the dancer/choreographers’ ongoing project, in anticipation of its performance at the Suzanne Dellal Centre in the context of Tel Aviv Dance 2013. Unlike conventional concert dance performances, this one will not take place in one of the centre’s performance halls, but rather in the dance studio.
Bringing Dance Closer to the Audience – Literally
“It’s a project that had different …

It was a trip: from Berlin to Ben Gurion and then on to the woodland of Yaarot Menashe, home of Armageddon, the mythic end of times according to the Book of Revelation and the outrageous eclectic Armageddon Jam. I went straight from the Jewish Film Festival in Berlin & Potsdam to the Yaarot Menashe Music Festival, worlds away, yet perhaps not so far away as one might imagine. Between Habiluim‘s song Hora Haslama (the “escalation” hora is from their latest album – just out!) with its cynical dance instructions “move …