Reality cinema

Documentaries are actually better than they used to be - more varied, nuanced and professionally made. See for yourself at the 10th Docaviv.

By HANNAH BROWN
When people say, "They don't make 'em like they used to," they're talking about feature films, not documentaries. Documentaries are actually better than they used to be - more varied, nuanced and professionally made. See for yourself at the 10th Docaviv, the Tel Aviv International Documentary Film Festival, which runs from April 3-12 at the Tel Aviv Cinematheque. There are movies on every subject and for every taste there. Rock and roll lovers will want to see Martin Scorsese's concert documentary on the Rolling Stones, Shine A Light, which is being shown in a special screening. Israel is a country with a lot of raw material for documentary filmmakers to sink their teeth into and getting accepted to the Docaviv Israeli Competition is extremely difficult. One Israeli film has already won a major prize abroad: Brides of Allah (Shahida), directed by Natalie Assouline, which received the Foreign Critics' Prize at this year's Berlin Film Festival. The movie is composed of interviews with would-be female suicide bombers and women who helped suicide bombers and are now serving time in Israeli prisons. Other films in the Israeli competition include movies about the second Lebanon War; a new chapter in the Sarah Aharonson saga; a look at the many owners of one VW beetle; problems facing Bedouin women in polygamous families, and much more. The International Competition also covers a lot of ground, with films from countries all over the globe, including Brazil (Manda Bala, a film about corruption in the slums); the Czech Republic (Citizen Havel, a look at the country's renowned artist/statesman), and China (the timely Up the Yangtze, about rural citizens left behind by modernization). Special programs include a retrospective of South Korean documentaries; a program devoted to the work of director Nicolas Philibert, who has made films such as Etre et Avoir, a fascinating look at a rural school teacher; and a retrospective of films produced by Participant Media, including An Inconvenient Truth, Chicago 10 and Darfur Now. The Special Events feature meetings with documentary directors and producers from Israel and abroad, including Diane Weyermann, the executive vice president of Participant Media and Simon Kilmurry, director of the POV division at PBS in America. Tickets will go quickly. Go to the Website at www.docaviv.co.il for more information.