Jerusalem 2018: Documentary Overview

Festival:
The 35th Jerusalem Film Festival

Dates:
July 26-August 5

About:
This Israeli event includes more than thirty documentaries among its 100+ features lineup.

This year’s Documentary Competition includes eight new Israeli films: Dan Shadur’s KING BIBI, an exploration of Benjamin Netanyahu’s proto-Trump path to power; Tomer Heymann’s JONATHAN AGASSI SAVED MY LIFE, a portrait of the Israeli gay porn star; Shaked Goren’s MY WAR HERO UNCLE, in which the filmmaker uncovers the truth behind a family legend; Ramy A Katz’s CAUSE OF DEATH, which chronicles an Arab ethnic minority man’s efforts to find out the facts about his policeman brother’s death on duty; Gad Aisen, David Ofek, and Shir Ben’s TOKLOMATI, about a boy wishing to meet his Beninese father before his bar mitzvah; Dani Rosenberg and Yaniv Segalovich’s ZOHAR – THE RETURN, on the semi-autobiographical return to filmmaking by a director who left film to become a rabbi; and Tal Pesses’ WILD KIDS, about two Russian-Israeli teenagers who express themselves through an animation workshop.

Other docs include: Tammy Federman’s CELLFISH, a portrait of an artist told through 30 years of personal archive; Uri Barbash’s BLACK HONEY, THE LIFE AND POETRY OF AVRAHAM SUTSKEVER, on an influential Yiddish poet; James Benning’s READERS, a study of individuals reading to themselves; and Giacomo Durzi’s FERRANTE FEVER, an exploration of the mystique behind the pseudonymous author Elena Ferrante.