Documentary Film Festival at the National Library 15-25.11.2020
Special Screening
Four Mothers
Mon
11
.
23
18:00
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A female-driven, grassroots protest movement takes on the military establishment and challenges the patriarchal society of Israel to stop a bloody war that has been raging for years.
The story of Dvora Omer, from the dark secrets of her childhood to her status as Israel’s ‘national’ author whose writing influenced generations of children. Her son, the filmmaker, revisits the events that shaped her life.
For 10 years, Ben Shani has documented the artist Eli Shamir. But what began as an artistic documentary was transformed when Shamir was diagnosed with Parkinson’s. This is a film about coping with disease, with an artist at its center.
Publisher and editor Professor Gabriel Moked has lived a colorful life. An enfant terrible of literature who was the first to publish the work of many young writers, at 85 he continues to write, publish and fight his way through.
In this thought-provoking and playful documentary, ebullient director Nelly Ben Hayoun-Stépanian (Disaster Playground) takes you on a journey to find the origins of knowledge.
Israeli Musicians Neta Elkayam and Amit Haï Cohen embark on a musical journey to Morocco, where they play on stage, have many musical encounters, and try to trace their roots. The music, the language, the scenery, and the people make the couple wonder which country they truly feel at home in. Nominated for the Beyond the Screen Award.
Facing the deterioration of the machines and the advance of new technologies, the printing presses are closing their workshops. At the same time, a group of young people rediscovers the greatest technical innovation in the history of the written word: the typesetting printing.
Do objects retain a spark of life from their owner after that person dies? This question catapults a dynamic brother-sister film making duo on an epic odyssey to excavate their deceased grandma Annette’s unassuming Newark home of 71 years. Toothbrushes, tax documents, three vacuum cleaners-her motley collection of stuff becomes a universe unto itself, springing to life in the cinematic playground of this innovative documentary.
Passionate translators of the book The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, who fight for the preservation of their endangered languages. Why do people from very diverse cultures choose this book and no other to keep their languages and cultures alive?
From a Kafkaesque office for social media in Germany and a South Sudan military headquarters, to conversations with an Iranian Ayatollah and Chinese news editors. With remarkable access to this secretive world, Norwegian filmmaker Håvard Fossum intimately follows the daily working lives of the censors. Hearing the word censorship makes us cringe, but is it a misunderstood idea?
Seven young people share their love for Yiddish avant-garde poetry written during the interwar period. For them, this poetry belongs not only to the Jewish past, but speaks also to the present moment.
A lively tour of New York's book world, populated by an assortment of obsessives, intellects, eccentrics and dreamers, past and present: from the Park Avenue Armory's annual Antiquarian Book Fair, where original editions can fetch hundreds of thousands of dollars, to the Strand and Argosy bookstores, still standing against all odds.
In the late 1970s, back when music still had the power to change the world, young punk-heads and rock-heads took to the streets to protest against fascism, racism, and the xenophobia stirred up by politicians. This is how Rock against Racism was born. This is the movement’s story, featuring a lot of music and rare live recordings.
A young filmmaker follows a 94-year-old Soviet war heroine who fought in the Siege of Leningrad. During filming, the two become involved in a spiritual process that awakens the young woman within her. A film about war and loss becomes a story of love and friendship.
Margaret Atwood: A Word After a Word After a Word is Power
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The TV adaptation of A Handmaid’s Tale has made Margaret Atwood into a superstar. At 80, the brilliant Canadian author jets around the world to meet her readers and talks with candor and humor about her life story and the sources of inspiration for her work.
James Stevenson, phenomenal cartoonist and columnist (regularly featured in The New Yorker and The New York Times), father of nine and author of dozens of children’s books, never stopped being prolific—even when he had dementia. The story of his life and work is intercut with animations based on his unique illustrations.
Ursula K. Le Guin, who passed away in 2018, is best known for her classic Earthsea fantasy series and masterworks of science fiction such as The Left Hand of Darkness and The Dispossessed. Filmmaker Arwen Curry worked with the groundbreaking feminist author for a decade to make Worlds of Ursula K. Le Guin, which features stunning animation and commentary from Margaret Atwood, Neil Gaiman, David Mitchell, Michael Chabon, and more.
Films shot by his mother in China in the beginning of the Maoist revolution send director João Moeira Salles on a philosophical-archival quest for the revolutionary spirit of 1968.
The credit for the comeback of Polaroid cameras, now a hit among young enthusiasts, belongs to one very analog guy: Doc Kaps, a spider expert determined to save the world from the digital revolution. His meandering and amusing path toward his goal takes him to Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, and others.
Agnès Varda — Shorts: Salut les Cubains! + Black Panthers
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"Black Panthers" Seen through the eyes of Agnès Varda, the 1968 Black Panthers protest in Oakland, California, gets a voice, and many human faces. "Salut Les Cubains!" Right after the revolution in Cuba, Agnès Varda came to the island, shot thousands of photographs, and assembled them into a captivating cinematic collage of local culture.
Renowned Chilean filmmaker Patricio Guzmán returns to his homeland for the first time, 46 years after fleeing because of the government’s persecution of liberals. In this beautiful and sober homesick lament, winner of the best documentary award at Cannes 2019, Guzmán asks what dreams will be allowed for the next generation of Chileans.
During the renovation of a tenement house in Lublin a team of builders discovered a collection of almost 3000 glass negatives. The discovery becomes the starting point for a fascinating journey in time and space.
Salman Schocken, King of Department Stores in Germany, bought "Haaretz" which survives on the verge of consensus in Israel. He was a lifelong supporter of Shmuel Yosef Agnon and fought for a secular Jewish Renaissance.
Elena Ferrante is undoubtedly the most successful Italian author of our time. Her novels – from Troubling Love to The Story of the Lost Child – have captivated millions of fervent fans. But the true identity behind this pseudonym has become one of the most incendiary literary mysteries of recent decades.