Israel’s Haifa International Film Festival kicks off its 29th edition tonight, September 19, and runs through next Saturday, September 28. Historically the first film festival in the country, it annually takes place during the Sukkot holiday, introducing audiences to more than a hundred new and retrospective features and shorts, including a large slate of Israeli productions. Approximately forty of these are new documentary features, primarily appearing in the four sections noted below.
Docs make up nearly half of the Israeli Film Competition, including several which commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Yom Kippur War: Amos Gitai’s KIPPUR WAR MEMORIES, which features material the director filmed during the war, when he was part of a helicopter crew that was shot down; Yoel Sharon’s ONE BATTLE TOO MANY (pictured), an animated doc about the final day of conflict, when the director was wounded; Nurit Kedar’s three-part CATCH 73, about the influence on Israel of the generation of those who fought in the war; and the first episode of Amit Goren’s four-part THE AVOIDABLE WAR. Two selections explore the African immigrant experience in Israel: Yotam Kaminsky and Mor Carmel’s NIGERIAN BAR MITZVAH, about a boy’s desire to fit in with his Israeli friends; and Itamar Chen’s NIGHT SHIFT, exploring an Ethiopian enclave tin Rehovot through the eyes of its beat cop. Among the other docs screening here are Judith Kahana’s GARDEN OF EDEN, a look at a home for young women rejected by their ultra-Orthodox families; and Dani Wasserman’s DO YOU BELIEVE IN LOVE?, the story of a matchmaker with muscular dystrophy.
Moving outside of locally made work, the fest spotlights nonfiction from around the world in International Documentaries. Selections here include: Roberto Minervini’s STOP THE POUNDING HEART (pictured), a hybrid portrait of a young religious woman who slowly questions her beliefs after meeting a young bullrider; Lyubov Arkus’ ANTON’S RIGHT HERE, which follows an autistic teenager for several years; Esther Hoffenberg’s VIOLETTE LEDUC, IN PURSUIT OF LOVE, about the contemporary of Simone de Beauvoir who never shied away from controversial topics in her novels; and Shane Salerno’s SALINGER, about the reclusive author of THE CATCHER IN THE RYE.
Haifa Classics, like Cannes’ similar section, combines retrospective fiction with new documentaries about filmmakers and film. Included in the latter category are six titles, including James Toback’s SEDUCED AND ABANDONED (pictured), following the director and Alec Baldwin as the pitch their new project at Cannes; and Gérald Morin’s ON FELLINI’S FOOTSTEPS, a portrait of the director’s mentor. Finally, Haifa presents CinemArt, a program largely consisting of art docs, curated by critic David D’Arcy.
what (not) to doc 