From Avi Nesher to Sapir Berman: Dokaviv Festival 2024 is underway

The film “Avi Nesher: Words for Exchange” by Yair Reva will open the 16th Dokaviv Festival. which will be held at the Tel Aviv Cinematheque on May 23.

The decision to open the festival with a film about one of the most prolific directors in Israel whose story describes the story of the State of Israel is an accurate and worthy choice for the largest and only festival in Israel dedicated entirely to documentary cinema.

In addition to Reva’s film, the festival will screen 12 new films by Israeli filmmakers, including “sapphire”a film dealing with the story of trans soccer referee Sapir Berman of Keshet 12; “The Last Justice: The Abu Hachira Dynasty”Raphael Balolo’s film describing how a family of rabbis from the Safar region of Morocco became the most important rabbinic-Sephardic family in Israel; “Stiff effect”which accompanies the major junctures in the life of veteran journalist Hadas Steif; “If this world is a sea”a documentary-biographical film that brings the life story of the poet Natan Yonatan to the screen for the first time; “Wanted: Ronnie Calderon”at the heart of which is the Israeli football legend Rony Calderon, who became a drug lord who escaped from prisons in Israel and Brazil until he disappeared, and more.

The journalist Hadas Steif. (Miriam Alster, Flash 90)

The festival will also refer to the events of October 7 in several events. We will screen four short films produced at the initiative and with the support of the New Fund for Cinema and Television, which were made immediately after the massacre by Hamas terrorists of the residents of the Gaza Strip and southern Israel.

In addition, there will be a conversation on the topic of ‘ethics and the preservation of memory during wartime’ with members of the “710 Evidence” initiative, a historical evidence database of the events of October 7. As part of the festival, there will be a special press conference that will deal with “War and Truth” with the participation of Nahum Barnea, Shimon Elkabatz, Gilad Tokatli, Uri Meshgav and Han Lieberman.

The festival will take place between May 23 and June 1 at the Tel Aviv Cinematheque and throughout the city. At the festival, the Dov Yodkovski Prize will be awarded to the best Israeli film in the amount of 60 thousand shekels and in addition the winning film will receive a financial grant for the marketing and promotion of the film in the amount of 100 thousand shekels on behalf of the Lottery Council for Culture and Art in preparation for the Oscar race.

More details and advance sale of tickets at a discounted price on the website Docaviv.