{"id":15893,"date":"2011-11-15T02:22:06","date_gmt":"2011-11-15T09:22:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/?p=15893"},"modified":"2011-11-21T07:18:16","modified_gmt":"2011-11-21T14:18:16","slug":"searching-for-new-israeli-heroes-at-sam-spiegel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/?p=15893","title":{"rendered":"Searching for New Israeli Heroes at Sam Spiegel"},"content":{"rendered":"

Who are our heroes? How and why has our definition of a hero changed over time? What is the connection between an actor and the character she or he portrays? What are the underlying values revealed by these choices? These are some of the questions raised by filmmaker Renen Schorr, Director of the Sam Spiegel Film & Television School Jerusalem<\/a>, as he opened the 2011 conference on The Cinematic Hero<\/em>. Now in its third year, the conference with its roster of film industry members, academics, musicians, activists, writers and others, may be seen as a barometer of the Israeli cultural climate, reflecting concerns current and timeless through the filter of cinema.<\/p>\n

The festive opening of the Sam Spiegel School academic year, the conference is a training ground for the students who produce the event, a lively initiation for new students and a reminder to all of the power inherent in film. The marathon 40 speaker event is open to the general public free of charge, with the individual talks made available on YouTube. When Schorr urged, \u201cWe must demand of ourselves to search for new Israeli heroes on the screen,\u201d his words resonated with the intention to influence and inspire not only the emerging generation of Israeli filmmakers, but the wider span of Israeli culture.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Ilana Dayan\/Photo: Ayelet Dekel<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cMy name is Shoshana Dreyfus, and this is the face of Jewish vengeance,\u201d said investigative journalist and attorney Ilana Dayan<\/strong>, host of Uvda (Fact) on Channel 2, quoting from the clip of Quentin Tarantino\u2019s Inglourious Basterds<\/em> (2009) that had just been screened. Dayan explained that her choice was not influenced by the film or the director, but by the heroine\u2019s strong need to tell her story. By the time the words are spoken in the film, Shoshana (Melanie Laurent) is no longer alive and the screen from which her words emanate is already in flames. Telling the story is so important to Shoshana that it is worth dying for, \u201cthat is where I felt a connection \u2013 to that need to tell the story,\u201d said Dayan, \u201cand perhaps, also to the ease with which a story can be distorted.\u201d Asking the audience to set thoughts of the film aside for a moment, she asked, \u201cWhy is it so important to tell the story? To ask, to investigate, to know, to keep the channels of communication open, from blogs to the main news broadcast. The answer is clear to me: as a society we must hear in order to know, to understand and to choose. I feel an affinity to those who feel the need to tell the story\u2026one day we\u2019ll wake up and realize there is no one left to tell the story, to tell the truth without fear or bias.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Shaanan Streett\/Photo: Ayelet Dekel<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI love the anarchism, hating the establishment, criticizing the canon, making a commotion, standing alone against the world, against all odds,\u201d Shaanan Streett<\/strong> brought the groove with a rap on The Blues Brothers<\/em> (John Belushi and Dan Akroyd as Jake and Elwood, in the 1980 John Landis film) that no translation can touch. Reader \u2013 you\u2019ll just have to wish you were there. Streett, lead singer of hip-hop\/funk socially aware band Hadag Nahash<\/a> and founder of the Festival for a Shekel (a music festival that takes place in a different city each year, with the admission price an egalitarian 1 NIS), said that the first time he saw the movie was on the Israeli Broadcasting Authority Channel 1, with the line \u201cWe\u2019re on a mission from God\u201d deleted. Of Jake and Elwood, Streett said, \u201cThey have bad taste in food, their clothes look like Hassidic diamond dealers, but they have great taste in music \u2013 Cab Calloway, Ray Charles, James Brown, Aretha Franklin\u2026and they believe that through music, you can change the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Yuval Elbashan\/Photo: Ayelet Dekel<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

One way to change the world is through education, and lawyer\/activist\/writer Yuval Elbashan<\/strong>, founder of Yedid, <\/a>The Association for Community Empowerment, chose to look at the character of Daniel Lefebvre (Philippe Torreton) in Bertrand Tavernier\u2019s \u00c7a commence aujourd’hui<\/em> (1998). The film\u2019s title \u2013 It all starts today \u2013 refers to the student protests of May 1968, and the call to action expressed in this and other graffiti slogans that covered the walls of the Latin Quarter in Paris. Lefebvre is the Director of a preschool in a poor mining village in northern France, \u201cImmersed in ideals,\u201d said Elbashan, \u201che wants to change the world, working within the system, yet he is subversive as well.\u201d As he works in the community, Elbashan said that Lefebvre \u201cbegins to understand the complexity of life, that there is no one truth, but several versions of it\u2026how hard it is to effect this tikkun (change, healing).\u201d Elbashan chose Lefebvre as his hero because although he fails, and breaks down, Lefebvre returns to work in the school, quoting Lefebvre\u2019s girlfriend in the movie: \u201cYou can\u2019t always help people, but you can love them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Nachman Ingber\/Photo: Ayelet Dekel<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Nahman Ingber<\/strong>, film critic, teacher, researcher, and recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2011 Jerusalem Film Festival, spoke of the changing image of the hero, from the powerful hero in folk traditions of storytelling, when heroes were almost exclusively male, to a different cultural consciousness, that of the anti-hero, the one who is acted upon by forces greater than himself, \u201cHe cannot act, he can only talk and talk, and wait, like Vladimir and Estragon.\u201d Looking at the character of Lidia in Michelangelo Antonioni\u2019s La Notte<\/em> (1961) Ingber said, \u201cIn the early 60s, Antonioni brings this alienation, sense of detachment, and lack of connection to cinema, the foundation of modern cinema.\u201d The male hero of action is replaced by a female figure, said Ingber, \u201cLidia, the wife of the writer, understands that there is no longer any meaning to existence, love, or relationships. Her face expresses all that her consciousness perceives. The landscape and urban architecture of Milan reflects the soul\u2019s internal contradictions. When she encounters action \u2013 it is male, violent, and meaningless.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Judd Neeman\/Photo: Ayelet Dekel<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Questions of action and heroism figure prominently in John Ford\u2019s The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance<\/em> (1962). Filmmaker Judd Neeman<\/strong> looked at the character of Ransom Stoddard (James Stewart), the \u201cCity slicker\u201d represents the law and its values, while John Wayne represents the other half of the myth: the winner is the one who has what it takes to survive, as Neeman said, \u201cIt\u2019s the gun belt, the fastest draw that determines the outcome.\u201d Taking place in a territory that is in the process of becoming a state, the gun and the book of law, embodied by Wayne and Stewart, vie for the role of hero. Neeman said, \u201cWithout law and order there can be no state and no culture.\u201d He spoke of the United States as a nation that is not a \u201cblood relations,\u201d (a nation of homogenous ethnic origin) but is a nation founded on a \u201cbook of laws.\u201d Referring to Israel, he said, \u201cWe claim to be a nation of blood relations, but actually, we\u2019re a bunch of immigrants and without a book of laws we will not survive.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Avi Nir\/Photo: Ayelet Dekel<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Keshet Broadcasting CEO Avi Nir<\/strong> spoke of the nameless hero, juror #8 (Henry Fonda), in Sidney Lumet\u2019s 12 Angry Men<\/em> (1957). Although the situation in the film is similar to the structure of Westerns \u2013 one against many, Nir said of the character, \u201cHe is a cinematic hero without action or movement, who does not care about winning\u2026he just wants to have his say, although he is not certain that he is right. If there is something that caught my eye, it is his skepticism\u2026a hero is usually led by his ego and the motivation to win. He (juror #8\/Fonda) only wants justice to be done.\u201d Nir further commended Lumet and Fonda for taking what was originally broadcast as a black and white television movie to the cinemas during the heyday of color, resulting in an Oscar nomination and a box office disaster.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Oded Kotler\/Photo: Ayelet Dekel<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A different perspective to the discussion was introduced by Oded Kotler<\/strong>, actor, director and recently appointed Director of the Herzliya Ensemble: that of the actor in relation to the role. Kotler showed a gripping scene from Elia Kazan\u2019s East of Eden<\/em> (1955), in which Cal (James Dean) presents his father with a unique birthday gift, which is cruelly rejected.\u00a0 Cal\u2019s response is heart-rending and visceral, watching the scene I cringed in my seat. Kotler reminded the audience that an actor is not someone who merely \u201cperforms what others have instructed him to perform,\u201d but rather takes the material \u201cdeeply into his inner self, his being\u2026acting requires endless searching and researching.\u201d In terms of the specific scene, Kotler revealed that Dean\u2019s stage instructions were to walk out of the room when his gift is rejected. Yet during filming, Cal remained fixed on the spot, broken, bent over, almost collapsing, then threw his arms around his father saying \u201cI hate you.\u201d Kotler commended both Dean\u2019s creativity and Kazan as a director who ultimately decided to allow this improvisation to become part of the film.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Ari Folman\/Photo: Ayelet Dekel<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Threads of narrative wove their way through the morning sessions, creating connections between people and issues in film and in life. Speaking of the way we seek out different heros during the different stages of our lives, Ari Folman<\/strong> invoked his childhood hero, Zvika Greengold, another speaker at the conference. Greengold was awarded the Medal of Valor for his actions in the Yom Kippur War as an IDF tank commander of \u2018Koah Zvika\u2019 (further intertextuality \u2013 the story of Zvika\u2019s courageous fight was told by then-military correspondent for BaMahane (the IDF magazine) Renen Schorr).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Avi Nesher\/Photo: Ayelet Dekel<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The changing image of the hero was further discussed by filmmaker Avi Nesher<\/strong>, who looked at Sam Pekinpah\u2019s Pat Garret and Billy the Kid<\/em> (1973) as he reflected on his own current project, adapting Yoram Kaniuk\u2019s memoir 1948. \u201cFilm does not like ambivalence; it wants to present reality as something whole and with a unified meaning. The heroes of 1948 \u2013 how does one present them?\u201d As a child Nesher said he felt that they were like the cowboys in Westerns, Nesher said, \u201cThey were honest people who never drew first, shooting only when others shot at them\u2026it took some time for me to realize that life doesn\u2019t work that way.\u201d Nesher described Pekinpah\u2019s film not only as a negation of heroes, but a negation of the desire for heroes. A cautionary tale whose message is: beware of storytellers. With musicians Bob Dylan and Kris Kristofferson cast in leading roles, Nesher said that in this way Pekinpah works against the ability of cinema to instill belief, \u201cyou never forget that Bob Dylan is Bob Dylan. There is no redemption, [Pekinpah says] I\u2019m not selling illusions, I\u2019m selling fabrications\u2026I find that liberating.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Yoram Kaniuk\/Photo: Ayelet Dekel<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Author Yoram Kaniuk<\/strong> was suave and charming as the hero he chose, Fred Astaire, regaling the audience with his memories of crashing a wedding in Hollywood and literally standing in his hero\u2019s shoes \u2013 dancing with Ginger Rogers. Calling Astaire the \u201cgreatest dancer I have ever seen,\u201d Kaniuk quipped, \u201cI recently read that his grandfather was Jewish, that really moved me.\u201d Reflecting on his recent legal victory to be referred to as \u201cwithout religion<\/a>\u201d on all official documents, Kaniuk went on to say, \u201cI am no longer Jewish.\u201d Listening to Kaniuk describe his cinematic hero \u2013 \u201che was always himself, he was never kitsch, he didn\u2019t try to make anyone love him\u201d \u2013 one might be tempted to see an affinity between Kaniuk and his view of Astaire.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Zvi Greengold\/Photo: Ayelet Dekel<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Attending two out of six sessions provided this writer with a very partial yet stimulating view of the conference, with much material for further reflection as Zvika Greengold<\/strong>, took the mic, and said, \u201cI am not part of the film industry and haven\u2019t seen as many films, I feel part of the Jewish destiny, by the way, I am Jewish.\u201d Currently Mayor of Ofakim, a development town in the south of Israel (reminiscent of the town described in Avi Nesher\u2019s Turn Left at the End of the World), Greengold showed a scene from Otto Preminger’s Exodus (1960) featuring Paul Newman as Ari Ben Canaan. Greengold said, \u201cI was born in Kibbutz Lohamei Haghetaot (Ghetto Fighters) in 1952. My mother came to this country as an immigrant, she didn\u2019t even have a suitcase. It took me many years to realize that our collective parents, the refugees, were heroes. We (my generation) saw the Palmach as heroes. I identify with the difficulty of being a soldier in wartime. War is often glorified; the film industry has contributed to that image. War is hard, it\u2019s abhorrent, and we need to do everything in our power so that there will be no more wars.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Who are our heroes? How and why has our definition of a hero changed over time? What is the connection between an actor and the character she or he portrays? What are the underlying values revealed by these choices? These are some of the questions raised by filmmaker Renen Schorr, Director of the Sam Spiegel […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture","category-film"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15893","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15893"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15893\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}