Michal Aviad
Encyclopedia
Michal Aviad is director
, script writer
, producer
and senior lecturer
at the Department of Cinema and Television, Tel Aviv University
.
Aviad’s films bring to light the complex relationships between women issues and other major social-political issues such as the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
Acting Our Age is Aviad's first movie, which she produced and directed in the United States. The film deals with the experience of aging among women, and tackles age-linked stereotypes and discrimination. The film received several prizes and was the first to be broadcast within the prestigious documentary slot POV (Point of View) on the American public network PBS. It was broadcast in several international festivals including the Sundance Film Festival
and the Telluride film festival
in the USA.
The Women Next Door (1992, 80 min, production and direction
The film deals with the involvement of women, both as conquerors and as conquered, in the Israeli-Palestinian conflit
. It takes place during the First Intifada
. The film was screened in many festivals including Jerusalem, Munich, São Paulo, Chicago, Calcotta, and INPUT 93, and got the Prize of Peace in the International Film Festival
in Berlin
. It was broadcast on many television stations in the world, including coast-to-coast broadcasting in the US, but never in Israel.
Ever Shot Anyone? (1995, 60 min, direction)
Produced by Amit Goren, this documentary explores Israeli male culture from a woman’s point of view. The video was part of the Hong Kong International Film Festival
, Feminale, the Liepzig Film Festival, INPUT ’96, London Jewish Film Festival, Washington Jewish Film Festival, Flaherty film Seminar and many others. It was aired in Canada, Israel, Holland, Denmark, Russia and other countries.
Jenny and Jenny (1997, 60 mn)
A film on two teenage working-class Israeli girls, Jenny and Jenny was awarded Best Israeli Documentary for 1997 from the Israel Film Institute. It was part of the Jerusalem International Film Festival, Denver Film Festival
, Boston Film Festival
, Feminale, San Francisco Jewish Film Festival
, Films des Femmes in France and INPUT ’98. To date it was aired in Germany, Sweden and Israel.
Ramleh (2001, 60 min, direction and coproduction)
Produced with the help of the Soros Documentary Fund, Ramleh is a social-political film about the lives of four women in the town of Ramleh, a Jewish- Arab town, and a powerful example to the disintegration of a country of displaced people torn by religious, national and cultural differences. The film was part of the Jerusalem International Film Festival, FIPA
2002, Munich, Prague, Istanbul, Milano, Mumbai, Kalamata, Human Rights Watch Film Festival in New York and others.
For My Children (2002, 66 min, production and direction)
This is personal film about the history and events in the life of one family of immigrants and refugees as seen through the prism of the first days of the new Intifada. The film is co-produced with Israel and ZDF
-ARTE
. So far the film took part in the Leipzig film Festival, MoMa Documentary Series, Boston & Washington Jewish Film Festivals, San Francisco International Film Festival, Munich Documentary, Visions du réel
documentary film festival in Nyon, Switzerland, INPUT 03, Istanbul Documentary, Berlin Cinematheque, Palestinian- Israeli Film Festival in Paris and Brussels and others.
Lemon Delicacy (2008, 20 min, experimental documentary)
People and details of life are captured at a Tunisian sandwich Kiosk, in the market of the town of Ramleh. The crowd of Jewish and Arab dislocated persons and refugees are a microcosm of Israel, exposed of its ideological clichés. Through the kiosk the director combines a reality represented by her and her memory of it. The film was part of an exhibit at the Petah Tikwa Museum of Modern Art in Israel, and premiered at the international festival DocAviv in Tel Aviv in April 2008.
Invisible
(2011, 90 min, direction) AKA Lo Roim Alaich
Ronit Elkabetz
and Evgenia Dodina star in this story where two women are brought together over a shared trauma; they were both victims of a serial rapist twenty years earlier. Their characters are fictional but the rapist is real, having killed 16 women and girls in Tel Aviv
between 1977-1978. Therefore actual victim testimonies are interlaced into the film.
On Ever Shot Anyone
On For My Children
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
, script writer
Screenwriter
Screenwriters or scriptwriters or scenario writers are people who write/create the short or feature-length screenplays from which mass media such as films, television programs, Comics or video games are based.-Profession:...
, producer
Film producer
A film producer oversees and delivers a film project to all relevant parties while preserving the integrity, voice and vision of the film. They will also often take on some financial risk by using their own money, especially during the pre-production period, before a film is fully financed.The...
and senior lecturer
Senior lecturer
Senior lecturer is an academic rank. In the United Kingdom, lecturer is a faculty position at a university or similar institution. Especially in research-intensive universities, lecturers lead research groups and supervise research students, as well as teach...
at the Department of Cinema and Television, Tel Aviv University
Tel Aviv University
Tel Aviv University is a public university located in Ramat Aviv, Tel Aviv, Israel. With nearly 30,000 students, TAU is Israel's largest university.-History:...
.
Biography
Michal Aviad was born in Jerusalem in 1955 to an Italian-born mother and a Hungarian-born father. She graduated in 1981 in literature and philosophy from Tel Aviv University. In 1984, she received a Master of Film at San Francisco State University Between 1981- 1990 she lived and worked in San Francisco, where she made her first film. Since 1991, she has been a lecturer at the department of Cinema and Television at Tel Aviv University.Aviad’s films bring to light the complex relationships between women issues and other major social-political issues such as the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
Filmography
Acting Our Age (1987, 60 min, production and direction)Acting Our Age is Aviad's first movie, which she produced and directed in the United States. The film deals with the experience of aging among women, and tackles age-linked stereotypes and discrimination. The film received several prizes and was the first to be broadcast within the prestigious documentary slot POV (Point of View) on the American public network PBS. It was broadcast in several international festivals including the Sundance Film Festival
Sundance Film Festival
The Sundance Film Festival is a film festival that takes place annually in Utah, in the United States. It is the largest independent cinema festival in the United States. Held in January in Park City, Salt Lake City, and Ogden, as well as at the Sundance Resort, the festival is a showcase for new...
and the Telluride film festival
Telluride Film Festival
The Telluride Film Festival was started in 1974 by Bill and Stella Pence, Tom Luddy and Jim Card in the town of Telluride, Colorado, United States. It is operated by the National Film Preserve....
in the USA.
The Women Next Door (1992, 80 min, production and direction
The film deals with the involvement of women, both as conquerors and as conquered, in the Israeli-Palestinian conflit
Israeli–Palestinian conflict
The Israeli–Palestinian conflict is the ongoing conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. The conflict is wide-ranging, and the term is also used in reference to the earlier phases of the same conflict, between Jewish and Zionist yishuv and the Arab population living in Palestine under Ottoman or...
. It takes place during the First Intifada
First Intifada
The First Intifada was a Palestinian uprising against the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian Territories. The uprising began in the Jabalia refugee camp and quickly spread throughout Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem....
. The film was screened in many festivals including Jerusalem, Munich, São Paulo, Chicago, Calcotta, and INPUT 93, and got the Prize of Peace in the International Film Festival
Berlin International Film Festival
The Berlin International Film Festival , also called the Berlinale, is one of the world's leading film festivals and most reputable media events. It is held in Berlin, Germany. Founded in West Berlin in 1951, the festival has been celebrated annually in February since 1978...
in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
. It was broadcast on many television stations in the world, including coast-to-coast broadcasting in the US, but never in Israel.
Ever Shot Anyone? (1995, 60 min, direction)
Produced by Amit Goren, this documentary explores Israeli male culture from a woman’s point of view. The video was part of the Hong Kong International Film Festival
Hong Kong International Film Festival
The Hong Kong International Film Festival is a platform for filmmakers, film professionals and filmgoers from all over the world to launch and experience new film work. There are seminars, conferences, exhibitions, and parties celebrating the festival community...
, Feminale, the Liepzig Film Festival, INPUT ’96, London Jewish Film Festival, Washington Jewish Film Festival, Flaherty film Seminar and many others. It was aired in Canada, Israel, Holland, Denmark, Russia and other countries.
Jenny and Jenny (1997, 60 mn)
A film on two teenage working-class Israeli girls, Jenny and Jenny was awarded Best Israeli Documentary for 1997 from the Israel Film Institute. It was part of the Jerusalem International Film Festival, Denver Film Festival
Denver Film Festival
The Denver Film Festival is held in November, primarily in the Tivoli Union on the Auraria Campus and the new Denver Film Center/Colfax, in Denver Colorado...
, Boston Film Festival
Boston Film Festival
Boston Film Festival is an annual film festival held in Boston in the U.S. state of Massachusetts. It has been held annually since 1984, usually in early September....
, Feminale, San Francisco Jewish Film Festival
San Francisco Jewish Film Festival
San Francisco Jewish Film Festival is the oldest and largest Jewish film festival in the world. The three-week summer festival is held in San Francisco, California, usually at the Castro Theater in San Francisco and other cinemas in San Francisco, Berkeley, San Rafael, and Palo Alto, and features...
, Films des Femmes in France and INPUT ’98. To date it was aired in Germany, Sweden and Israel.
Ramleh (2001, 60 min, direction and coproduction)
Produced with the help of the Soros Documentary Fund, Ramleh is a social-political film about the lives of four women in the town of Ramleh, a Jewish- Arab town, and a powerful example to the disintegration of a country of displaced people torn by religious, national and cultural differences. The film was part of the Jerusalem International Film Festival, FIPA
Festival International de Programmes Audiovisuels
The International Festival of Audiovisual Programmes , founded in 1987 by Michel Mitrani , was first held in Cannes in October 1987....
2002, Munich, Prague, Istanbul, Milano, Mumbai, Kalamata, Human Rights Watch Film Festival in New York and others.
For My Children (2002, 66 min, production and direction)
This is personal film about the history and events in the life of one family of immigrants and refugees as seen through the prism of the first days of the new Intifada. The film is co-produced with Israel and ZDF
ZDF
Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen , ZDF, is a public-service German television broadcaster based in Mainz . It is run as an independent non-profit institution, which was founded by the German federal states . The ZDF is financed by television licence fees called GEZ and advertising revenues...
-ARTE
Arte
Arte is a Franco-German TV network. It is a European culture channel and aims to promote quality programming especially in areas of culture and the arts...
. So far the film took part in the Leipzig film Festival, MoMa Documentary Series, Boston & Washington Jewish Film Festivals, San Francisco International Film Festival, Munich Documentary, Visions du réel
Visions du réel
Visions du Réel is an international documentary film festival held in April each year in Nyon, Switzerland. Established in 1969 as the Nyon International Documentary Film Festival, the event adopted its current name in 1995....
documentary film festival in Nyon, Switzerland, INPUT 03, Istanbul Documentary, Berlin Cinematheque, Palestinian- Israeli Film Festival in Paris and Brussels and others.
Lemon Delicacy (2008, 20 min, experimental documentary)
People and details of life are captured at a Tunisian sandwich Kiosk, in the market of the town of Ramleh. The crowd of Jewish and Arab dislocated persons and refugees are a microcosm of Israel, exposed of its ideological clichés. Through the kiosk the director combines a reality represented by her and her memory of it. The film was part of an exhibit at the Petah Tikwa Museum of Modern Art in Israel, and premiered at the international festival DocAviv in Tel Aviv in April 2008.
Invisible
Invisible (2011 film)
Invisible is a 2011 Israeli film directed by Michal Aviad. It premiered at the 61st Berlin International Film Festival in February 2011 where it won the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury. The film is based on a series of rape-murders that occurred in Tel Aviv between 1977-1978...
(2011, 90 min, direction) AKA Lo Roim Alaich
Ronit Elkabetz
Ronit Elkabetz
Ronit Elkabetz is an Israeli actress and filmmaker. She works in both Israeli and French cinema. She has won three Ophir Awards and has received a total of seven nominations.- Biography :...
and Evgenia Dodina star in this story where two women are brought together over a shared trauma; they were both victims of a serial rapist twenty years earlier. Their characters are fictional but the rapist is real, having killed 16 women and girls in Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv , officially Tel Aviv-Yafo , is the second most populous city in Israel, with a population of 404,400 on a land area of . The city is located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline in west-central Israel. It is the largest and most populous city in the metropolitan area of Gush Dan, with...
between 1977-1978. Therefore actual victim testimonies are interlaced into the film.
Articles on the Movies (selection)
For articles in Hebrew see entry on Aviad in Wikipedia Hebrew.On Ever Shot Anyone
- Berman Emanuel, Rosenheimer Timna and Aviad Michal (2003). Documentary Directors and their Protagonists: A Transferential / Counter-Transferential Relationships? In Sabbadini Andrea (ed.) The Couch and the Silver Screen: Psychoanalytic Reflections on European Cinema (pp. 213–231) London: Brunner-Routledge.
- Zanger Anat (2005) Sweet Einat Strikes Back : Positions Feminines de la Camera en Temps de Guerre. In Euvrard Janine (ed.) Israeliens, Palestiniens que Peut le Cinema ? Paris: Editions Michalon. (pp 121–127).
- Zanger Anat (2005) Women, Border, and Camera. Israeli feminine framing of war .Feminist Media Studies, Vol. 5, Issue 3 , (pp 341–357)
On For My Children
- Polland Lisa (2004) For My Children by Michal Aviad Hawwa-Journal of Women of the Middle East & the Islamic World, Academic Publishers Brill. Vol 2, 272-278.
- Oachs Juliana (2004) Michal Aviad: For My Children Nashim: A Journal of Jewish Women’s Studies & Gender Issues, Indiana University Press. Number 7, 266-270
- Seja Nina (forthcoming) Exile, Liminality and Split Consciousness in Michal Aviad’s For My Children and Mona Hatoum’s Measures of Distance (15 p)
- Munk Yael (2005) La Maternite Comme Attitude Oppositionelle : sur Pour Mes Enfants (2002) de Michal Aviad. In Euvrard Janine (ed.) Israeliens, Palestiniens que Peut le Cinema? Paris: Editions Michalon. (pp: 235-239)
- Munk Yael (2006) Motherhood as an Oppositional Standpoint: Michal Aviad’s “For My Children” Gender in Conflicts : Palestine-Israel- Germany. Christina von Braun & Ulrike Auga. Berlin (ed) :LIT Verlag, (pp. 143–148.)
- Talmon Miri (forthcoming) Cameras in Contested Territories: War and Peace as Gendered Alternatives in Israeli Documentary Films.