SF Jewish Film Festival to honor Amos Gitai
San Francisco Jewish Film Festival Celebrates Prolific and Political Vision of Israeli Master Filmmaker Amos Gitai - 2006 SFJFF Freedom of Expression Award Winner
On Sunday, July 23 at the Castro Theatre, the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival (SFJFF), recognized worldwide as the leader in using contemporary independent film to expand notions of Jewish identity, will celebrate the cinematic vision of Gitai, and will award him the 2006 San Francisco Jewish Film Festival Freedom of Expression Award.
“Gitai is one of those rare filmmakers who are equally accomplished in documentary and narrative forms. I can think of no other filmmaker whose work personifies freedom of expression more than Gitai, both in terms of his courage in tackling complex issues in documentaries and the innovative structure of his narratives,” commented Program Director Nancy Fishman.
With some 40 films already to his credit, 55-year-old Gitai has distinguished himself as one of the most persistent and fearless explorers of the landscape and mythologies of Jewish life, both in the Diaspora and in Israel. SFJFF is proud to screen his two newest films (the narrative feature Free Zone, starring Hiam Abbass, Hanna Laslo and Natalie Portman and the documentary News From Home/News From House), and to revisit one of his earliest groundbreaking documentaries House.
Born in Haifa in 1950, Gitai trained as an architect, earning his Ph.D. at UC Berkeley. But it was his experience being shot down in a Red Cross helicopter during the Yom Kippur War that first prompted him to take up a movie camera. Several of his early documentaries made for Israeli television, including Political Myths (1977) and House (1980), ran afoul of TV censors.
Profound empathy for the panoply of characters
When Field Diary (1982), made during the Lebanon War, created a critical firestorm, Gitai and his family relocated to Paris. For the next decade, in both fiction and nonfiction, he explored notions of homeland, utopia, migration and exile in such films as Pineapple (1984) and Berlin Jerusalem (SFJFF 1990). He has since returned to his native Haifa to create a string of fiercely imagined feature films, often with complex female protagonists, exhibiting a profound empathy for the panoply of characters -Arabs and Jews alike - who inhabit his landscapes.
The Festival has long championed the work of Gitai, having screened in the past Yom Yom (SFJFF 1998), Kedma (SFJFF 2002), Kippur (SFJFF 2000), and Alila (SFJFF 2004). SFJFF’s Freedom of Expression Award honors the unfettered imagination, which is the cornerstone of a free, just and open society. Gitai will accept his award after the screening of News From Home/News From House.
The San Francisco Jewish Film Festival Freedom of Expression Award was launched at last year’s Festival as part of its silver anniversary. Previous winners include local independent filmmaker Jay Rosenblatt, and Walter Bernstein and Norma Barzman, two veteran screenwriters who survived the darkest years of the Hollywood Blacklist.
The San Francisco Jewish Film Festival, the world’s oldest and largest Jewish film festival is proudly celebrating its 26th anniversary. The SFJFF's signature summer Film Festival, monthly screenings, youth mentorship program, publications, and online resources have made SFJFF a recognized leader in the use of media arts to foster cultural understanding. Annually attracting more than 33,000 filmgoers, the SFJFF is world-renowned for the diversity and breadth of its audiences and films.
