Jerusalem Film Festival announces ‘We Are One’ lineup
The Jerusalem Film Festival is one of 21 international festivals from 35 countries.
By HANNAH BROWNJerusalem Film Festival opening event at Sultan's Pool, July 28, 2018(photo credit: NOAM PREISMAN)
The Jerusalem Film Festival released its lineup for the We Are One: A Global Film Festival, sponsored by Tribeca Enterprises and YouTube, which will take place online from May 29-June 7. It also announced that the Jerusalem Film Festival will take place this year from August 20-30 at the Jerusalem Cinematheque.The Jerusalem Film Festival announced earlier this spring that it would postpone this year’s festival, which was originally scheduled for July 16, so the announcement of the August 20 opening date is great news for Israeli film buffs. Organizers announced that the festival will observe all the rules from the Health Ministry.Dr. Noa Regev, the CEO of the Jerusalem Cinematheque and the Jerusalem Film Festival, said, “the decision to hold the festival in this year’s special circumstances stems from a deep commitment to our audience, to the filmmakers and to their new works that have not yet reached the movie screen.” She said the festival would feature 10 days of movies in theaters and outdoors, and would offer prizes of one million shekels for the competitions.The Jerusalem Film Festival is one of 21 international festivals from 35 countries – including the Cannes Film Festival, the Toronto International Film Festival and the Sundance Film Festival – that were invited to co-curate We Are One, which will offer 100 films from around the world.The Israeli program will feature Late Marriage by Dover Koshashvili. The film, which was released almost 20 years ago, has become an Israeli classic. It tells the story of a student (Lior Ashkenazi) from a Georgian family that tries to break up his romance with a divorced woman (the late actress Ronit Elkabetz).The television series Losing Alice, starring Ayelet Zurer, will also represent Israel. The show, which will be released in June in Israel on HOT, is a neo-noir psychological thriller that stars Zurer as a filmmaker who becomes obsessed with a younger woman (Lihi Kornowski), in a story inspired by Goethe’s Faust.A third Israeli work, Love Chapter 2, focuses on the work of choreographer Sharon Eyal and her collaborator, Gai Behar, with their L-E-V dance troupe.We Are One will include conversations and master classes with filmmakers, including one by Israeli director Nadav Lapid. Lapid will talk about his latest film, Synonyms – which won the Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2019 – and the American adaptation of his Israeli film The Kindergarten Teacher.The full lineup of We Are One has not yet been released but among the notable new films will be Ricky Powell: The Individualist, a documentary about the famous street photographer that features interviews with Natasha Lyonne and LL Cool J; the online premiere of Eeb Allay Ooo!, an offbeat satire about professional “monkey repellers,” and winner of the Mumbai Film Festival’s Golden Gateway Award; and the world premiere of Iron Hammer, a documentary feature directed by Joan Chen about the Chinese Olympic volleyball star Jenny Lang Ping, a trailblazer who made a name for herself around the globe. Audiences will also have access to more than 50 narrative and documentary shorts.The festival will host a number of talks by filmmakers, both archived from past festivals and new discussions. Among these will be Francis Ford Coppola with Steven Soderbergh, Song Kang-ho and Bong Joon-ho, Guillermo del Toro, Jane Campion and Claire Denis.VR selections will feature Alteration, a sci-fi narrative starring Bill Skarsgard, as well as additional titles with John Legend, Oprah Winfrey and Lupita Nyong’o. There will also be special musical performances, including a 30-minute DJ set by Questlove.Tribeca Enterprises and Tribeca Film Festival co-founder and CEO Jane Rosenthal said, “We Are One: A Global Film Festival will offer audiences an opportunity to not only celebrate the art of film, but the unique qualities that make each story we watch so memorable.”YouTube chief business officer Robert Kyncl said, “One of the beautiful things about films and other visual content is the ability to tell stories and bring people together, no matter where they live or where they’re from.”For more information about We Are One and to watch films, go to weareoneglobalfestival.com and youtube.com/weareone.
