{"id":6208,"date":"2010-07-24T14:25:05","date_gmt":"2010-07-24T21:25:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/?p=6208"},"modified":"2010-07-30T04:09:53","modified_gmt":"2010-07-30T11:09:53","slug":"jerusalem-film-festival-2010-between-national-and-personal-documentation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/?p=6208","title":{"rendered":"Jerusalem Film Festival 2010: Between National and Personal Documentation"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cYou shine your shoes, why not your face?\u201d a woman cheerfully defends the validity of facials in a short film made on a kibbutz in the 1960s, a time when the kibbutz was in its heyday and any activity was scrutinized according to values of equality, simplicity and the benefit of the collective. Reading these words is nothing like seeing the film itself; the unmediated experience requires no explanation: funny, informative and poignant, it conveys the mood of the time and essential qualities of the kibbutz movement in a matter of moments.<\/p>\n

The Forum for the Preservation of the Audio Visual Memory in Israel <\/a>is dedicated to ensuring the preservation and accessibility of such audio-visual materials \u2013 many of which have already been lost. It is a labor of love that has been carried out without fanfare, as over the years people have collected, preserved and catalogued material in archives (private and public collections, many without reliable funding). Established in 2005, the Forum has worked to increase public awareness and promote legislation to save these resources. \u201cBetween National and Personal Documentation,\u201d the sixth annual conference of the Forum, moderated by filmmaker Danny Muggia, and held at the Jerusalem Van Leer Institute on Friday, July 9, 2010 as part of the 27th Jerusalem Film Festival, was both a celebration and a rallying cry for action.<\/p>\n

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Zach Granit\/Photo: Oscar Abosh<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Israel Film Archive of the Jerusalem Cinematheque and taking a look at 100 years of the Kibbutz in art and documentation, with screenings of rare archival footage, it was also an occasion to note the progress that has been made and call attention to the task that lies ahead. Opening remarks by Zach Granit, Head of Culture and Art Administration, Ministry of Culture and Sport, included mention of the newly launched TAMAR Program (Hebrew acronym for Tashtiyot Moreshet Leumit \u2013 Foundations of National Heritage) which seeks to bring about a \u201crevolution\u201d (from Cabinet Secretary Zvi Hauser\u2019s letter to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu of 17.2.10) in the approach to the preservation of Israeli national heritage.<\/p>\n

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Yishai Amrami\/Photo: Oscar Abosh<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Yishai Amrami, Chairman of the Forum, was pleased to announce, \u201cThere is a breakthrough \u2013 we have succeeded in placing a new law on the agenda of the Knesset.\u201d The bill proposing legislation, click here for Hebrew text<\/a>, was presented by Ofir Akonis of the Likud Party, Chairman of the Economic Affairs Committee, to the Knesset on July 21, 2010, and co-signed by Zevulun Orlev, of Habayit Hayehudi \u2013 New National Religious Party, and Chairman of the Education and Culture Committee; Robert Ilatov, Chairman of the Yisrael Beteinu Party; Ronnie Bar-On, of the Kadima Party; Nitzan Horowitz, of the New Movement \u2013 Meretz Party and Chairman of the Lobby for Culture; and Einat Wilf of the Israel Labor Party.<\/p>\n

Emphasizing that this is just a proposal, Amrami said, \u201cWe call the public to be our partners in this endeavor in the process of creating a law.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Yigal Mulad-Hayo\/Photo: Oscar Abosh<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Yigal Mulad-Hayo, Co-Director of the Jerusalem Cinematheque expressed the essence of the conference saying, \u201cWe commemorate wars with memorial ceremonies and monuments, but the life that takes place between them we remember thanks to people like Wim and Lia Van Leer. As Israelis we should have been more aware of the importance of preservation and making materials accessible, sadly, this was not the case\u2026 Did you ever wonder what Trumpeldor looked like? What kind of laundry detergent did people use? What was every day life like in the Jewish communities destroyed in the Holocaust?\u201d<\/p>\n

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Yigal Ravid\/Photo: Oscar Abosh<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Yigal Ravid, whose show \u201cKach Haya\u201d [loosely translated from Hebrew \u2013 That\u2019s the Way it Was] airs every Friday at 18:00on Channel 1 of the Israeli Broadcasting Authority (IBA), took the conference on a visual journey of the past from scenes of daily life in Jerusalem filmed by the Lumiere Brothers in 1896, rare footage of Zeev Jabotinsky in 1928 discovered in the Warsaw National Archive, to the first espresso bar in Tel Aviv (on Dizengof in 1951), and actress Gila Amagor in an ad for Elite Coffee.<\/p>\n

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Photo: Oscar Abosh<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Unlike many conferences which tend to stray in the direction of tedium, the sessions were fascinating and the atmosphere was warm, lively and spontaneous. A clip from the 1950 film \u201cHafuga\u201d which advertises itself as \u201cspeaking and singing in Hebrew\u201d featured an Israeli soldier Miriam, kidnapped by two Arabs, calling out \u2013 as Ravid pointed out, \u2018not very convincingly\u2019 – \u201cHatzilu! Hatzilu!\u201d [Hebrew: save me!]. This not only prompted chuckles from the audience, but historical notes from filmmaker Yaakov Gross that \u201cthe actress was called Eti Hasimha and everyone in her class at law school called her Eti Hatzilu.\u201d Yet the photograph of the site where the film footage was found \u2013 a trash heap in an alley where it was recovered and restored from inside an old projector – was eloquent testimony to the importance and urgency of the Forum\u2019s mission.<\/p>\n

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Lia Van Leer\/Photo: Oscar Abosh<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The tribute to Lia Van Leer was a joyous part of the conference, inspiring in its reminder of what the imagination, drive and wisdom of one person can accomplish. In a clip from Dalia Karpel\u2019s documentary (in progress), Ms. Van Leer says, \u201cI began to collect films that I kept in my home in the guest room under the bed,\u201d and that is where the Israel Film Archive began.<\/p>\n

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Vivian Ostrovsky, Lia Van Leer and Yigal Ravid\/Photo: Oscar Abosh<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The focus on the kibbutz included several different perspectives. Dr. Gila Flam of the National Library of Israel\u2019s Music and Sound Archives Collection presented the kibbutz\u2019s unique approach to celebrating Jewish holidays, defining their relationship to tradition through creating their own ceremonies in song. Dr. Ariel Feldstein, Academic Head of the Sapir College, recalled the influence of the National Center for Jewish Film while conducting his post-doctoral research at Brandeiss University in 2000, saying: \u201cI saw history in front of my eyes. The written word does not bring the material to life. Visual material is important in historical research.\u201d Feldstein discussed the image of the pioneer and the kibbutz in Israeli cinema of the 1930s. He said that although cinema was employed as a \u201cvehicle of institutional propaganda,\u201d examination of the films reveals that in fact, the cinema of the time did \u201cgive expression to doubt,\u201d and accompanied his talk with interesting footage that expressed the different aspects of Israeli cinema of that era.<\/p>\n

Guy Raz presented \u201cPhotographers 1924 \u2013 1974 Court Photographers.\u201d Although on one hand the kibbutz had a sense of the unique historic importance of the social experiment they were conducting, at the same time, the documenters of this process from within \u2013 the kibbutz member photographers were often unappreciated and worked under the constraint of inadequate time allotment and difficult conditions. Raz showed photographs of Yaakov Ben Dov, Hanan Bahir (an exhibit of Bahir\u2019s work, curated by Raz was presented in the foyer in conjunction with the conference), Dalia Amotz and others. Raz noted the difference between their intimate perspective as seen in photographs such as Bahir\u2019s photo of two people sitting on a bench, one reading a newspaper while the other dozes, compared to the heroic pioneer stance captured by Zoltan Kluger (selected as the image to represent the conference) who was sent to photograph the 20th anniversary of Kibbutz Geva. David Amitai of the Yad Yaari Research and Documentation Center presented the dire conditions of existing kibbutz archives, emphasizing the need for immediate action.<\/p>\n

The concluding session of the conference was bitter-sweet: Director and researcher Professor Judd Ne\u2019eman discussed the work of filmmaker Nadav Levitan, receipient of the 2010 Lifetime Achievement Award of the Forum and the Jerusalem International Film Festival. Levitan passed away in January 2010, and the award was accepted by his wife, singer Chava Alberstein. Levitan\u2019s kibbutz trilogy \u2013 \u2018An Intimate Story\u2019 1981, \u2018Stalin\u2019s Disciples\u2019 1987 (screened at the Cannes Film Festival \u2013 Un Certain Regard), and \u2018No Names on the Doors\u2019 1997, provide an intimate, yet critical view of kibbutz culture as it evolved over the years.<\/p>\n

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Liat Benhabib, Chava Alberstein and Jonathan Nadav\/Photo: Oscar Abosh<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In accepting the award, Chava Alberstein (who met Levitan when she starred in his first kibbutz film \u2013 \u2018An Intimate Story\u2019) said that \u201cNadav would have been happy to receive this award\u2026He did not reap much satisfaction, but was happy that he was able to make his kibbutz movies. He wanted to give special thanks to Judd Ne\u2019eman, but did not have time to do it personally.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to the annual conference, the Forum for the Preservation of the Audio Visual Memory in Israel presents an annual award at the Jerusalem International Film Festival. This year\u2019s award was given to Yael Hersonski\u2019s \u2018A Film Unfinished.\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

Memory is a powerful force, one that is deeply felt and experienced in Israel, where memory frames our identity, shapes our decisions \u2013 both personal and political, and influences our daily lives in countless ways. Yet it is also fragile, evasive, and mutable. The documents of memory \u2013 texts and images, bring to life the transient moments of our collective and individual history, yet are themselves painfully vulnerable to the effects of time.<\/p>\n

The sixth annual conference of the Forum for the Preservation of Audio-Visual Memory in Israel was made possible through the efforts of many people:
\nEditor and director, Liat Benhabib<\/p>\n

Archival research and directing of transitional segments, Billy Segal
\nOrganization of the 50th anniversary Israel Film Archive session: Israel Film Archive Jerusalem Cinemathque, Yaakov Gross, Avigail Green, Ilil Weiser, Yigal Mulad-Hayo, Michal Mendelbaum, Sasha Kleinman, Yigal Ravid, Meir Russo
\nProduction: Jonathan Nadav
\nConference staff: Liat Benhabib, Anat Zeltzer, Billy Segal
\nProduction coordinator: Yael Factor
\nTechnical operation: Nir Bar-Av
\nGraphic design: Studio Z
\nVideo editing: Danit Uziel, United King Films<\/p>\n

AYELET DEKEL<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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