Shaken, not stirred, martinis on the way to Israel?
Filed under: A New Reality, Business, General, Movies, Politics, Pop Culture
The headlines blared this week about Israel suspending all strategic dialogue with Britain in protest at its law on “universal jurisdiction,” which empowers courts to issue warrants against people accused of war crimes, including visiting foreign politicians.
But on the same visit that UK Foreign Secretary William Hague received that news, he and his Israeli counterpart Avigdor Lieberman had a strategic dialogue of a different kind that ended up producing a signed cooperation agreement in the area of cinema.
After 10 years of intense negotiations, Israel will become a favorite filming location for British films as production companies will get financial incentives and tax benefits from Israel to shoot in the country. And that could mean that major productions, like part of the next James Bond film, would be filmed in Israel. We’d better learn how to shake those martinis!
The implications for the cooperation agreement are huge for Israel. The British film is ranked third in the scope of production after the United States and India, and generates $8 million annually. According to a report in Ynet, two UK films about the British mandate period are slated to be filmed here and a British delegation is slated to visit Israel in the coming months to consider future collaborations.
And as far as the larger scope strategic dialogue, the day after Israel announced the suspension, Hague told Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu that Britain would act fast to amend a law. “The British government understands that we have a real problem and we are dealing with it,” spokeswoman Karen Kaufman told AFP.
Better call in Bond.
Nostalgia Sunday – Tel Aviv on Film
Filed under: A New Reality, Art, design, General, History and Culture, Israeliness, Life, Movies, Nostalgia Sunday, Pop Culture, Travel
The Steven Spielberg Jewish Film Archive at Hebrew University is a trove of valuable celluloid treasures — several hundred of which have been uploaded to YouTube. The archive ranges from 1911′s The First Film of Palestine to the present and include home movies, short films and full length features.
Tel Aviv was from the outset was seen both as the first Jewish city for the yishuv (the early settlement) and a center of Western culture and technology that would set an example for the entire Middle East. This thoroughly modern city was celebrated on film, as in The White City, a selection of clips shot from 1926 to 1964 and edited together in 1999 in honor of the city’s 90th anniversary.
There is also Tel Aviv in Colors shot in 1938 by an unnamed cinematographer.
And cameraman Fred Dunkel’s view of pre-state Tel Aviv in the 1940s.
Beautiful Tel Aviv in Winter was created in 1950 to mark the city’s 40th anniversary. It was shot by Baruch Agadati, legendary artist, choreographer, man about town and self-styled “Creator of the First Hebrew Sound Film”. Agadati may have made the first Hebrew talkie but this film is silent. Nonetheless, Beautiful Tel Aviv in Winter is a delight for anyone who loves the White City.
Afraid to go to sleep – Paranormal Activity hits US cinemas
It’s the surprise hit of the year. Audiences across the US are afraid to go to sleep after watching a horror film made by Israeli filmmaker Oren Peli. The low budget movie reportedly cost just $11,000 to produce, but reviewers are calling it the most scary film ever made. Think Blair Witch Project, only worse.
The movie, Paranormal Activity , was filmed in 2006 over a seven-day period. It was set in Peli’s own suburban tract home with a crew of just three including his then-girlfriend Toni Taylor, and best friend (also Israeli) Amir Zbeda.
The film was released in fewer than 200 theaters, but raked in $7.1 million in one weekend – a record for a limited release film.
The film, about a couple who think their house is haunted, has now been picked up by Paramount Pictures . It bills itself as “the first-ever major film release demanded by you.”
Peli is not your usual blockbuster movie type director. He dropped out of school at 16, to set up his own software company. Three years later he immigrated to the US with Zbeda and began work developing animation and video game programs.
He got the idea for the film when he moved into a new home and found the sudden quiet of suburbia disturbing. The house was new and still settling, and at night he could hear the house shifting and groaning.
He wrote a script, fixed up his house a bit, held a casting session in Hollywood, and hey presto, shot a movie. He edited it on his own home PC, and then submitted it to Screamfest – a boutique festival for cult horror in LA.
The film was released in September with limited late-night showings at just 13 college towns, but the ball started rolling and the film became a web sensation on Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook. Critics also jumped on board giving excellent reviews.
Originally Paramount planned to reshoot the film with better-known actors, but studio heads – including Steven Spielberg – decided it could stand as it was, with only a few tweaks.
Peli is now onto his next movie, a thriller called Area 51, but in the meantime Paramount Pictures releases Paranormal Activity at cinemas across the US on Friday. Get ready for some sleepless nights.
Foto Friday – Nigeria-Tel Aviv
Filed under: A New Reality, Art, coexistence, Food, Foto Friday, General, Immigrant Moments, Israeliness, Life, Movies, Music, Travel
The Embassy of the Federal Republic of Nigeria celebrated the Tel Aviv Centennial this week with a festival of arts, culture and cuisine. The festivities, which will culminate on Sunday, included Nigerian gourmet meals prepared under the direction of Chef Charlie Fadida, executive chef of the Tel Aviv Sheraton hotel, together with the dynamic Janet Olisa, wife of the Nigerian Ambassador and a team of Nigerian culinary experts. This came in addition to performances, at the annual Jaffa Nights festival, of traditional African music, song and dance performed by troupes from Nigeria.
The festival also included the opening of a photography exhibition, “Nigeria Through the Eyes of A Passerby”, by Victor Politis. An award-winning photographer and entrepreneur, Politis is founder and CEO of PRI, an international project development and financial advisory company with a focus on emerging markets. His business travels have also afforded him the opportunity to explore his passion for photography and documenting an ever- globalizing world. More about Politis can be found here.
The Nigerian Festival Week includes a film festival featuring the best of “Nollywood“. The Nigerian movie industry, it transpires, is the third largest in the world in terms of number of films produced annually. I did not know that! The festival is held under the auspices of the Tel Aviv Cinematheque, the Nigerian Friendship Association and other organizations from Israel and overseas.
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