DocAviv Festival
May 10th 2011
While you’re traveling in Israel, take the opportunity to travel the entire world in a single day. No need to fear strange airplane meals; this trip will happen without a seatbelt in the comfort of your smooshy, cushioned theatre chair.
How? At the hip DocAviv festival; Tel Aviv’s International Film Festival for the third year running, focused on documentary work from within and without Israeli borders.
Some sensational things to look out for:
One highlighted, must-see piece is called, appropriately, Life in A Day, and was compiled by documentary filmmaker Kevin MacDonald. Calling for submissions from amateur filmmakers around the world, he got a large response- 85,000 responses from 200 countries to be exact. What’s a filmmaker to do with so much footage? Wheedle it down into a fascinating, diverse and mind spinning journey is one option, which is what MacDonald succeeds in doing exactly. The journey you will go on will perfectly compliment your ethnic Israel vacation, as you get inside the hearts of minds of people from all walks of life as they share what they find fascinating and significant about the lives they lead and the world they live in. And you thought that having one Israeli tour guide was enough!
But if you’re vacationing in Israel, then you’re going to want to see authentic Israel documentaries, right? Of course right! And DocAviv has Israel documentaries like no other. This includes a fascinating insight into the lives of two ultra-Orthodox women who want to create cinema for other women in their community in “The Dreamers”. Another monumental piece, “Torn” looks at the unbelievable story of a Polish Catholic priest who learned that both of his parents were Jewish, came to Israel, and became Orthodox. Now that’s a change of scenery.
At “Pitching Event”, feel free to pitch your very own documentary proposal to veteran filmmakers. Perhaps you and your private Israel group tour could star in a brand-new reality series?
Israelis are always game for friendly competition, and at this festival is “DocChallenge”; 12-15 filmmakers are given five days and all the equipment and assistance they need to create a short documentary between 4 and 7 minutes long ( this will make cramming for any college paper seem like a breeze). The viewing and award ceremony will be five days after takeoff, May 12.
For all you food lovers, the fooddoc part of the festival focuses on films having to do with food.
If you’re a film buff, this is the perfect place for you to stopover while you’re cruising the happening streets of Tel Aviv. DocAviv is certainly all it’s cracked up to be, and then some. This May 12-21, get sucked into the dynamic world of cinema in Tel Aviv.
