That Orchestra With the Broken Instruments by Yuval Hameiri
The 23rd edition of the Academy Award qualifying international documentary film festival Docaviv returns to Tel Aviv cinemas July 1-10, with over 100 local and international documentaries.
This year’s edition will take a hybrid format, with both on-site and online screenings, all in compliance with social distancing guidelines and with events taking place indoors and outdoors throughout the city and on the festival website.
Currently, cinemas in Israel are allowed open again with a maximum capacity of 75% or 300 people per screening room.
Artistic Director of Docaviv Karin Rywkind Segal comments: “It is a great pleasure to know that the 23rd edition of Docaviv will take place on the big screen allowing the magical encounter between the audiences, the films and their creators. What used to be the most natural experience to us film lovers has become something to look forward to. These screenings will coincide with online screening for those who are still unable to attend the physical ones and deserve to enjoy the program we offer.
Docaviv is the largest film festival in the city of Tel Aviv, and the only festival in Israel dedicated exclusively to documentary films.
Israeli Competition
A total of 13 documentaries, of which 9 world premieres, have been selected for this year’s Israeli competition. Among the world premieres are All The Trees Are Blowing In The Wind by Tomer Heymann (Mr. Gaga, Who’s Gonna Love Me Now?), about a boy with Asperger’s Syndrome who embarks on a journey in search of his biological parents in Guatemala; Queen Shoshana by actor/writer/director Kobi Farag and Morris Ben-Mayor, the story of the first Israeli diva, Shoshana Damari; and Riding With a Spy, in which filmmaker Shlomi Eldar (Foreign Land) accompanies Israeli whistleblower Anat Kamm on a cross-country road trip through the United States.
Hot Docs titles Viral by Udi Nir and Sagi Bornstein about the self-documented lives of YouTubers from around the world during the COVID-19 pandemic and Daniel Sivan’s Dirty Tricks, following the scandal around the world’s best bridge player, are among the Israeli premieres in competition.
Total prizes awarded to this year’s winners of the Israeli Competition amount to 256,000 ILS (around €65,400). Full Israeli Competition line-up here
Beyond the Screen Award
Another prominent competition of the festival, the Beyond the Screen Award, was launched last year and will be presented this year in memory of Docaviv’s founder Ilana Tsur, who served as the festival’s director during its first decade and passed away last year. Up for this award are Israeli and international films whose subjects work to change our political, social and ecological reality. The Israeli contenders include A Happy Ending: Anat Gov by Tamar Tal Anati (Life in Stills, Shalom Italia) about one the most influential playwrights in Israeli theater; and Two Minutes to Midnight, Yael Bartana’s attempt to answer the question “What if women ruled the world?”
Other programme strands
Across the different programme strands, other Israeli titles at this year’s festival include the opener of the Art and Culture section Grossman by Adi Arbel, an intimate portrait of Israeli writer David Grossman; Panorama title People Forever about the Eternal Flame group by former member Ranni Midyan; music doc That Orchestra With the Broken Instruments (pictured) by Yuval Hameiri about the symphony of broken instruments at Jerusalem’s Mekudeshet Festival; The Good Soldier by Silvina Landsmann (Soldier/Citizen, Hotline), offering a look inside the work of Breaking the Silence, playing in the festival’s Masters section; and Depth of Field competition title State of Emergency by Idan Glikzelig, a tragi-comical kaleidoscopic look at Israel’s addiction to living in a perpetual state of crisis.
Competing in this year’s international Shorts category is local filmmaker Maya Klar’s The Girl Who Didn’t Know What to Do, in which childhood drawings and stories assemble the filmmaker’s diary.
International titles of the festival will be announced in June.
