We are proud to announce the Israeli documentaries coming to Docaviv 2023
Here are some of the highlights of this year’s Israeli film and event program:
• The festival will take place at the Tel Aviv Cinematheque and various other venues in Tel Aviv from May 11th through May 20th.
• This year, 13 films will compete for the Best Israeli Documentary award, and dozens of new local and international docs will be screened at the festival.
• Total prizes awarded to this year’s winners will amount to NIS 350,000.
The 25th edition of Docaviv, Israel’s biggest celebration of documentary cinema and the only Israeli festival dedicated exclusively to documentaries, returns to the Tel Aviv Cinematheque and select Tel Aviv venues on May 11 through May 20.
In keeping with the festival’s tradition, this year’s program will include Israeli and international documentaries that explore the topics of liberty, equality, and democracy.
The winner of the Best Israeli Documentary award will receive a NIS 70,000 prize, plus a NIS 100,000 grant from Docaviv to be used toward promoting the winning film in preparation for the Academy Awards. This is the largest cash prize offered in Israel for documentary filmmaking. Other honors include the Mayor of Tel Aviv–Yafo Award for Best Debut Film, Honorable Mention courtesy of Harel Insurance Investments and Financial Services, the Yossi Kaufman Best Director Award, the Cinematography and Research awards, and for the first time, the Felicja Blumental Music Center Award for Best Soundtrack.
The Kadar Prize of Israel’s Storytelling, a NIS 50,000 prize for a documentary inspired by the history of Israel and Israeli society, is returning this year as well. The award is presented by Kadar Art, Culture, and Science Foundation, founded by Dr. Avraham Kadar. The winner will be chosen from the Israeli Competition lineup.
Israeli Competition Selection Committee
Docaviv artistic director Karin Rywkind Segal; filmmaker and film editor Gideon Latzman (“I Hope I’m in the Frame”, “Marry Me However”, “A War Reel: Shalal”) and documentary filmmaker and artistic designer Ayelet Albenda (“In My Room”, “Love it was Not”).
Student Competition Selection Committee
Filmmaker Tal Inbar (“Closed Circuit”); documentary filmmaker and musician Adam Weingrod (“The Island”); and Docaviv Program Manager Anat Nattel.
THE ISRAELI LINEUP FOR DOCAVIV 2023 EDITION
ISRAELI COMPETITION:
1948 – Remember, Remember not.
World Premiere
Director: Neta Shoshani
Production: Mika Timor, Yotam Guendelman
Archival visual research: Lily Yudinsky
Production Company: Silvio Films
Israel 2023, 143 min, Hebrew and Arabic
Letters and diaries which have been written during the 1948 Palestine war, edited upon rare archival footage, breathing life into the people who wrote them – Jews and Arabs, and their time. On their side, in the present, documented people who work in commemorating or breaking that wars’ ethos.
KAN 11
A Minor Crime
Israeli Premiere
Director: Nur Fibak
Production: Assaf Amir
Production Company: Norma Productions
Israel 2023, 54 min, Hebrew
What happens when a woman chooses to report sexual violence? Filmmaker Nur Fibak lays open the legal proceedings around the sexual abuse she had suffered as a child, revealing her transition from accuser to witness.
Yes Docu
A Movie at the Center
World Premiere
Directors: Kobi Farag, Morris Ben-Mayor
Production: Kobi Farag, Liron Amir
Production Company: Ben-Mayor Farag Studio
Israel / Thailand, 2023, 95 min, Hebrew and English
A Movie at the Center discovers the story and the history of Dizengoff Center, layer by layer, from the ground it was built on, to the top floor and the secrets this place withholds.
HOT8
Inbal Perlmutter- If you let me go
World Premiere
Director: Sharon Luzon, Avigail Sperber
Production: Avigail Sperber
Production Company: Pardes Production – Avigail Sperber
Israel 2023, 85 min, Hebrew
If it’s Over is a documentary about the life, work and death of Inbal Perlmutter. A local rock legend, different sex symbol, a trailblazing woman who was mysteriously killed at the age of 27.
Yes Docu
Innocence
Israeli Premiere
Directors: Guy Davidi
Production: Hilla Medalia, Sigrid Dyekjær
Production Company: Medalia Productions, Danish Documentary
Israel / Denmark, 2022, 101 min, Hebrew
Innocence tells the story of young people who enlisted into the Israeli army despite feelings of alienation towards it, and against their values. Their story is told through narration based on writings found after their death during their military service.
HOT8
Lies I Told Myself
World Premiere
Director: Efim Graboy
Production: Yahaly Gat
Production Company: Muse productions
Israel, 2023, 100 min, Russian
A cinematic family odyssey on love, lies, betrayals and everything in between.
KAN 11
My Project X
International Premiere
Director: Limor Pinhasov
Production: Lilach Shayo
Production Company: Cicero Films
Israel 2023, 90 min, Hebrew and English
In an attempt to understand the stamp of genius and logical madness of her stepfather, an infamous Mossad agent who hurt her family, Michal embarks on a journey with personal videos that explore America’s most notorious criminals, including Charles Manson and Richard Ramirez.
KAN 11
Nora
World Premiere
Directors: Matan Ben Moreh
Production: Haggai Arad, Aharon Peer, Elad Peleg
Production Company: Daroma Productions
Israel, 2023, 59 min, Hebrew
Nora lives with 500 bats in a shelter she built for them and for herself, but she discovers that no place is safe from pain, loss and love.
Observation Diary
World Premiere
Director: Itay Marom
Production: Itay Marom, Idit Kliger
Israel, 2023, 65 min, Hebrew
The film follows the observation diaries of Amit Geffen, a young bird-watcher who died at 21. By telling his story, the film explores the way we look at the world and our need to record it.
Once Upon a School
International Premiere
Director: Tal Becher, Yair Agmon
Production: Omri Uzrad, Yoav Zeevi, Tal Becher, Yair Agmon
Production Company: Zeevi/Uzrad, Yalla Films
Israel, 2023, 70 min, Hebrew
This is the astounding story of The Midrashia, the mothership of the religious Zionism. It’s a story about an elitist educational establishment – that in its last years became a school dominated by chaos and violence.
KAN 11
Radio Propaganda
International Premiere
Directors: Ofer Pinchasov
Production: Ofer Pinchasov
Production Company: Ofer Pinchasov Productions
Israel, 2023, 82 min, Hebrew
The story of immigrants from Arab countries to the Land of Israel who founded an underground radio station. The radio station operated in intelligence and political warfare against Arab countries.
Yes Docu
Silver’s Uprising
World Premiere
Director: Dan Shadur
Production: Dan Shadur, Ido Mizrahy
Co-Producer: Phinehas Veuillet
Production Company: Shadurian Films, Restless Pictures
Israel, 2023, 95 min, Hebrew
Crime boss or fearless dissident? The biggest cyber trial in the history of Israel will determine the fate of a former ultra-orthodox kid who transformed the drug-dealing business.
Yes Docu
Tzipora and Rachel are not dead
World Premiere
A film by Hadar Morag and Tahel Ran
Director: : Hadar Morag
Production: Hadar Morag
Israel, 2023, 104 min, Hebrew and arabic
After 30 years of failed efforts, Tahel finally persuades her younger sister Tzipora to leave Abarbanel Psychiatric Hospital and move in with her. A 16-year documentation of a struggle with the existence of a raw, unspeakable traumatic excess.
BEYOND THE SCREEN COMPETITION
ANGELS
World Premiere
Directors: Yaron Zilberman
Production: Yaron Zilberman
Production Company: Opening Night Productions
Israel, 2023, 105 min, Hebrew and English
Eight men and women of different ages and backgrounds embark on an emotionally-fraught journey. All of them were sexually abused as children. Speaking with incredible honesty, they shed a powerful light on the darkness faced by one in five girls and boys in Israel.
The First Night
World Premiere
Director: Rachel Elizur
Production: Avigail Sperber
Production Company: Pardes Production
Israel, 2023, 60 min, Hebrew
The First Night is an intimate film that takes us on a journey, capturing the time when ultra-Orthodox couples who have lived in complete separation from the opposite sex until marriage connect, marry and become husband and wife.
Yes Docu
Kiki
World Premiere
Director: Natan Rushansky
Production: Haggai Arad, Aharon Peer, Elad Peleg
Production Company: Daroma Production
Israel, 2023, 61 min, Hebrew
14-year-old Kiki is sentenced to juvenile prison for violence and drug offenses. His sister, Gal convinces the authorities to give him one last chance: a therapeutic trip to the desert.
Shorts Competition
Two Hours a Day
Israeli Premiere
Director: Maya Klar
Production: Alon Sahar, Maya Klar
Israel / Germany, 2023, 12 min, Hebrew and German
A mysterious illness sends Maya to the hospital during pregnancy. Between medical checkups, phone calls from her partner and cellular meditations are intertwined with digital hallucinations.
Panorama
End of Love Season
World Premiere
Director: Shai Gal
Production: Lilach Shayo Kadosh
Israel, 2023, 61 min, Hebrew
At 75, Geula broke up with her husband Arik, 77. A contractor built a wall that divided their house in two. This intimate, funny, painful and surprising family journey reveals why it took them 55 years to break up.
Yes Docu
Incoming Call
World Premiere
Director: Sharon Yaish, Golan Rise
Production: Amir Ganor, Adi Bar Yossef
Production Company: Endemol Shine Israel
Israel, 2023, 74 min, Hebrew and Arabic
Aref, Marcella, Ziv, and Lydia; answering incoming calls on the anonymous ERAN helplines. They all received extensive training to help people with emotional difficulties and participated in countless conversations. Each one of them has a conversation they will never forget.
Yes Docu
Mourning in Lod
World Premiere
Director: Hilla Medalia
Production: Hilla Medalia
Production Company: Medalia productions
Israel, 2023, 75 min, Hebrew and Arabic
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict retold through three people whose fates become inextricably linked in a vicious cycle of violence. The outpouring of love, anger, and forgiveness that follows is a ray of light that offsets a collective state of seemingly endless mourning.
mtv documentary
Secularism – Religion and state
Israeli Premiere
Director: Anat Zletzer
Production: yoav Leshem
Production Company: Beyond Creative
Israel, 2023, 56 min, Hebrew
Although Zionism was established as a secular movement of rebellion against religion, it never managed to break away. As Israeli identity drifts from its founders’ secularism, the futuristic horror scenario of conflict between religion and state turns into actuality.
KAN 11
Yossi Sarid
Israeli Premiere
Director: Avida Livny
Production: Shula Spiegel, Dana Eden
Production Company: Donna and Shula Studios
Israel, 2023, 70 min, Hebrew
For 50 weeks and five days, the Minister of Education, Yossi Sarid, fought to demand that Shas’
education budget be covered, a struggle that concealed the story of the lifelong oppositionist who refused to compromise despite the consequences.
HOT8
Music Docs
Days of Pick
World Premiere
Director: Shai Lahav, Ron Omer
Production: Erez Ben Harosh, Benny Menache
Production Company: no drama studio
Israel, 2023, 105 min, Hebrew
Tsvika Pick, Israel’s first pop star, never let his downfalls diminish his place as king – at least in his opinion. Composed of rare archival footage and interviews, including ones with Pick himself shortly before his death.
Yes Docu
The child within me
International Premiere
Director: Eti Aneta, Yaniv Amoday
Production: Tzipi Baider
Production Company: Kastina communication
Israel, 2023, 90 min, Hebrew and Greek
In a series of open, rare and sweepingly intimate documented meetings, Poliker, one of Israel’s musical giants, looks back at his life. His introspective, direct and honest gaze inwards is full of humor and self-acceptance.
Yes Docu
Art and Culture
Nurith Aviv – Woman with a Camera
World Premiere
Directors: Zohar Behrendt
Production: Zohar Behrendt
Israel, 2023, 70 min, Hebrew and French
For the first time, filmmaker Nurith Aviv sits down in front of the camera. As the defenses are lowered, her unique life story as the first woman cinematographer in Europe turns out to be the key to her own films.
The Activist. Karl Marx
World Premiere
Director: Benjamin Freidenberg
Production: Yair Qedar
Production Company: The Hebrews
Israel, 2023, 53 min, Hebrew, Arabic and English
Only 11 people attended the funeral of Karl Marx in 1883. In the years to come, he changed the world. The film returns to the life story of the greatest activist of all times. The 18th film of the Hebrews-project.
KAN 11
STUDENTS COMPETITION
118
World Premiere
Director: Avichai Bloch, Yaara Ruth Maimon, Gilit Bigman, Lysa-Rose Zaoui, Tony Danilchenko, Tal Kuperstein, Berry Akerman, Opal, Shachar Loni, Shany Cnaan, Batya Gur, Kira Pinhusovich, Aviv Kaufman, Li Cohen, Noy Beggagon
Production: Yaara Ruth Maimon
Production Company: Sapir College – School of Audio and Visual Arts
Israel, 2023, 18 min, Hebrew
An animated documentary film, showing a new perspective on women who work or live in the shelter for battered women. Based on interviews describing their daily experience in the shelter.
Before Bedtime
World Premiere
Director: Fábio Zilberman Luchno
Production: Lev Orlov
Production Company: The Jerusalem Sam Spiegel Film School
Israel, 2023, 27 min, Hebrew
Three years after receiving a terminal ALS diagnosis, 47-year-old Michal lost everything she was, except for being a mother.
Bella’s Daughter
World Premiere
Director: Yasmine Scheft, Amit Gavish
Production: Lev Orlov
Production Company: The Jerusalem Sam Spiegel Film School
Israel, 2023, 27 min, Hebrew
19-year-old Tsehla has an unwanted pregnancy, which brings her to reestablish her dependent relationship with her mother Bella.
Blind Spot
World Premiere
Director and producer: Bar Mayer
Production: Lev Orlov
Production Company: The Steve Tisch School of Film and Television, Tel Aviv University
Israel, 2023, 22 min, Hebrew, Arabic
A young couple moves from Jerusalem to Jaffa to get closer to Tel-Aviv. They learn to suppress reality outside their window in favor of a comfortable life until the walls around them collapse.
Girl, Disordered
Israeli Premiere
Director and producer: Shelly Shalev
Production Company: Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, Jerusalem.
Israel, 2023, 7 min, Hebrew
Girl, Disordered portrays my personal journey, as an associative digital collage that sheds light on life with ADHD. It is an attempt to illustrate a transparent disorder into a documentary detailing the difficulties and symptoms.
Golda’s Prince
World Premiere
Director: Roi Sabo
Production: Roi Sabo, Ido Aviv
Production Company: Camera Obscura
Israel, 2023, 33 min, Hebrew
In the early 2000s of the Tel Aviv skateboard scene, Moti was an enigmatic skateboarder who was willing to pay any price it takes to become a “pro skater”.
Gorda
World Premiere
Director and producer: Hillel Rate
Production Company: The Steve Tisch School of Film and Television, Tel Aviv University.
Israel, 2023, 28 min, Hebrew, English, Spanish
Lior and Fortuna make an unusual couple. Are they mother and son, friends, or simply two lonely immigrants that chose to live together as their own family?
Labor Pains
World Premiere
Director and producer: Nahar Cohen
Production Company: The Maaleh Film School
Israel, 2023, 32 min, Hebrew
After escaping from her abusive partner, Liron (24) discovered she was pregnant with triplets. Today she is raising her three daughters alone, and fighting the temptation to go back to their father.
On Parole
World Premiere
Director and producer: Neta Pat Ben-Itzhak
Production Company: The Steve Tisch School of Film and Television, Tel Aviv University.
Israel, 2023, 53 min, Hebrew, Arabic
The film follows Tysir, a 15-year-old boy released on parole from prison, and Yonatan, a social worker from the Prisoner Rehabilitation Authority, on their journey towards rehabilitation. Will they succeed against all odds?
The Gospel According to Alain
Israeli Premiere
Director: Yarden Malka Bonet
Production: Barak Stern
Production Company: Minshar College for Art
Israel, 2023, 21 min, Hebrew, French, German
Alain left the family and returned after a decade. By getting closer to the grandpa she never had, the filmmaker asks him to look at the one who was left behind.
The Gun
World Premiere
Directorand producer: Shaya Chesner
Production Company: The Maaleh Film School
Israel, 2023, 17 min, Hebrew, English
Shaya is married to Moriah and father to Maayan. He carries a handgun everywhere. Shaya embarks on a journey to discover the possible origins of his fears after suffering post-trauma in the IDF.
“May I Please Film You?”
A compilation of 3 short documentary films made by 3 women filmmakers from the Arab Society in Israel, produced with the support of the New Fund for Cinema and Television, in collaboration with the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung.
These debut films were created in the framework of a development and mentorship hub, led by filmmaker Michal Aronzon and provide different and personal points of view on the lives of young women in current-day Arab society in Israel.
Something of my Own / إشي لإلي / Rosalin Agbaria
A month before Rosalin and Jalal, two Arab filmmakers, are due to marry, Rosalin decides to embark on a brave and honest journey documenting her questions and struggles about the institution of marriage and starting a family. In everyday situations, sometimes amusing and sometimes sad, Rosalin records daily scenes from her personal life with her family, her friends, Jalal and herself.
Directorand producer: Shaya Chesner
Production Company: The Maaleh Film School
My Rock / عكازي / Arkan Husseny
Filmmaker Arkan shares an intimate conversation with her father, while they reflect on traumatic events from the past. Arkan goes to visit the family’s old house, which burned down almost 20 years ago after a family conflict that led to the death of her uncle – her father’s brother. For the first time, she shares with her father her feelings and memories about what had happened and goes with him on a journey between the past and the present.
Drop in the Ocean / نُقطة بِبَحر / Malak Orok
The film revolves around the strong relationship formed between a young woman who decides to dedicate her time to helping other women in an emergency call center, and a battered woman, who decides to break the barriers of fear and build a new life for herself and for her children.
*The films Descriptions were written by the creators and the Docaviv Festival has no responsibility for the content of these Descriptions.