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TAU STUDENTS PRODUCED 'STAGGERING' FILMS, SAYS EGOYAN
SHERI SHEFA
Canadian Jewish News
http://www.cjnews.com/index.php?option=com_co ntent&task=view&id=16945&Itemid=86
May 21 2009
Critically acclaimed Canadian filmmaker Atom Egoyan lent his name to
the 2009 Toronto Jewish Film Festival late last month at a screening
of two films associated with Tel Aviv University's world-renowned
film program.
Atom Egoyan
The Canadian Friends of Tel Aviv University (TAU) and the TJFF, which
ended on April 26, hosted a reception and screening at the Cineplex
Odeon Sheppard Grande, with Egoyan as the special guest.
Before the two films - one a short, by TAU alum Elite Zexer titled
Take Note, and the other, a full-length film by award-winning filmmaker
and TAU film professor Eitan Green titled It All Begins At Sea - were
screened before a packed movie theatre, the focus of the evening was
decidedly on the Israeli school's film program.
Egoyan, last year's winner of the Dan David Prize (a $1-million prize
awarded for outstanding contributions in the fields of science,
humanities and the arts) for his film Ararat, about the Armenian
genocide, spoke about his experience at TAU.
He said while he was there last year to receive the award, he spent
some time with the school's film students.
"This campus, for those of you who haven't been there, is
exceptional. It's beautifully designed. It makes you feel like this
is the hub of intellectual life in the country, and it was really
thrilling to be there," said Egoyan, adding he's visited Israel a
number of times since 1988.
"The calibre of the shorts that I saw from the student group was
staggering," he said.
Having spent a lot of time in film schools around the world, Egoyan
said he noticed that TAU's film school produces filmmakers who have
very distinctive styles.
"There was no overall style that the instructors imposed upon their
students, and Israel is, of course, an extraordinarily complex country
and many of the shorts are dealing with the realities of the country,"
said Egoyan, who also presented a trailer for his latest film,
Adoration, which was inspired by a true story about a Palestinian
man who planted a bomb on his pregnant Irish girlfriend before she
boarded an El Al flight.
"I would say that this is not only one of the most important schools
in the country, but one of the most important schools in the world,"
Egoyan said.
Green, who teaches script writing, film directing and film analysis
at TAU, said he is proud of Zexer, who wrote and directed a 14-minute
film about a newly arrived Russian immigrant and Israeli soldier who
struggles to assert her authority as a boot camp commander.
He said that not all the film students at TAU will become great
writers or directors, but at the very least, the students will be
better able to appreciate film.
"We created a better audience for the arts, better audience for the
movies and that is as important," said Green, who won the Innovation
Award at the 2008 Montreal World Film Festival for It All Begins
At Sea.
His 90-minute dark comedy is split into three scenes that focus
on the lives of a young Israeli family, the Goldsteins - Yehuda,
a furniture salesman; his wife, Dina, and their son, Udi.
It's a semi-autobiographical family drama about the vulnerability of
being a parent and a coming-of-age story about love and mortality.
In the first scene, The Sea, Dina and Udi almost drown after they
are caught in an undertow off a beach in Ashkelon.
The second scene, The Wall, is set six years later. Udi, is 12 years
old and on a school field trip when he falls off a short cliff and
cracks his head open.
In the third scene, Home, Udi is two years older and fully recovered,
and his parents are expecting another child, a baby girl. They've just
moved into a new apartment that has a view of the hospital that his
parents are constantly in and out of due to Dina's difficult pregnancy.
Egoyan, who introduced Green's film, said it is "such an emotional
piece of work, it is also adventurous, it's playing with structure,
you'll see amazing shifts in tone, which are conducted so masterfully,
and it is really a very mature, masterful piece of work."
SHERI SHEFA
Canadian Jewish News
http://www.cjnews.com/index.php?option=com_co ntent&task=view&id=16945&Itemid=86
May 21 2009
Critically acclaimed Canadian filmmaker Atom Egoyan lent his name to
the 2009 Toronto Jewish Film Festival late last month at a screening
of two films associated with Tel Aviv University's world-renowned
film program.
Atom Egoyan
The Canadian Friends of Tel Aviv University (TAU) and the TJFF, which
ended on April 26, hosted a reception and screening at the Cineplex
Odeon Sheppard Grande, with Egoyan as the special guest.
Before the two films - one a short, by TAU alum Elite Zexer titled
Take Note, and the other, a full-length film by award-winning filmmaker
and TAU film professor Eitan Green titled It All Begins At Sea - were
screened before a packed movie theatre, the focus of the evening was
decidedly on the Israeli school's film program.
Egoyan, last year's winner of the Dan David Prize (a $1-million prize
awarded for outstanding contributions in the fields of science,
humanities and the arts) for his film Ararat, about the Armenian
genocide, spoke about his experience at TAU.
He said while he was there last year to receive the award, he spent
some time with the school's film students.
"This campus, for those of you who haven't been there, is
exceptional. It's beautifully designed. It makes you feel like this
is the hub of intellectual life in the country, and it was really
thrilling to be there," said Egoyan, adding he's visited Israel a
number of times since 1988.
"The calibre of the shorts that I saw from the student group was
staggering," he said.
Having spent a lot of time in film schools around the world, Egoyan
said he noticed that TAU's film school produces filmmakers who have
very distinctive styles.
"There was no overall style that the instructors imposed upon their
students, and Israel is, of course, an extraordinarily complex country
and many of the shorts are dealing with the realities of the country,"
said Egoyan, who also presented a trailer for his latest film,
Adoration, which was inspired by a true story about a Palestinian
man who planted a bomb on his pregnant Irish girlfriend before she
boarded an El Al flight.
"I would say that this is not only one of the most important schools
in the country, but one of the most important schools in the world,"
Egoyan said.
Green, who teaches script writing, film directing and film analysis
at TAU, said he is proud of Zexer, who wrote and directed a 14-minute
film about a newly arrived Russian immigrant and Israeli soldier who
struggles to assert her authority as a boot camp commander.
He said that not all the film students at TAU will become great
writers or directors, but at the very least, the students will be
better able to appreciate film.
"We created a better audience for the arts, better audience for the
movies and that is as important," said Green, who won the Innovation
Award at the 2008 Montreal World Film Festival for It All Begins
At Sea.
His 90-minute dark comedy is split into three scenes that focus
on the lives of a young Israeli family, the Goldsteins - Yehuda,
a furniture salesman; his wife, Dina, and their son, Udi.
It's a semi-autobiographical family drama about the vulnerability of
being a parent and a coming-of-age story about love and mortality.
In the first scene, The Sea, Dina and Udi almost drown after they
are caught in an undertow off a beach in Ashkelon.
The second scene, The Wall, is set six years later. Udi, is 12 years
old and on a school field trip when he falls off a short cliff and
cracks his head open.
In the third scene, Home, Udi is two years older and fully recovered,
and his parents are expecting another child, a baby girl. They've just
moved into a new apartment that has a view of the hospital that his
parents are constantly in and out of due to Dina's difficult pregnancy.
Egoyan, who introduced Green's film, said it is "such an emotional
piece of work, it is also adventurous, it's playing with structure,
you'll see amazing shifts in tone, which are conducted so masterfully,
and it is really a very mature, masterful piece of work."