Home is where the tent is

The 2016 edition of the annual DocAviv documentary film festival, which will take place at various venues around Tel Aviv from May 19 to 28, is chock-full of intriguing works. The range of topics is expansive, and the films come from all over the world. As most of us know, the Israeli film industry has come on in leaps and bounds in the last decade or so, but the local documentary side of the art form has been around and kicking for longer. That may, in part, be due to the fact that there is ne'er a dull moment in these parts – although it might be nice to have a lull or two once in a while – and there is a seemingly endless supply of stories and engaging raw material just waiting to be turned into a piece of video creation. The social protests of 2011 shed a powerful spotlight on the issue of affordable housing here, but Oren Cahanovitc was way ahead of the crowd. In 2010, then in his early twenties, Jerusalem-born Cahanovitc was a student at the University of Haifa. Confronted with the usual pressing financial juggling act, he decided to take an off-kilter route to ensuring he had a roof, of sorts, over his young head and somewhere to call home. The latter is the title of a fascinating and heartwarming documentary made by Asaf Lavi Harel. It follows Cahanovitc's efforts to skirt around the constraints of the monetary merry-go-round, when he decides to live in a tent among the rich flora and fauna of the upper reaches of Mount Carmel, within spitting distance of the university he attends. It is a captivating documentary, and there is no hint of preaching to the unconverted, and no finger-wagging at the rest of us who choose to live a more or less conventional lifestyle, with all that entails, in terms of creature comforts and day-to-day demands. In Home we see a young man trying his best to make a fist of it outside the realms of normative living routines. Cahanovitc, who is now a popular Jerusalem tour guide (more information about that pursuit can be had at http://www.travelingisrael.com/) who also works in Berlin – toward the end of the film we see him tying the knot with his German girlfriend, Nora – simply goes about his business. He rigs up all manner of conveniences in his self-styled homestead, from a sink to a delightful shower getup, and he fashions a desk and other homey items. He is, after all, a student and, as he notes in the film, he has responsibilities, too, besides enjoying a relatively stress-free existence away from the rat race. “I have papers to write and lots of obligations to meet,” he says soberly. Harel came on board a little way down the line. Cahanovitc had been doing his own videoing for a year or so before arriving at the inescapable realization that he needed a professional hand on the documentation tiller. Initially, the young breakaway meant to keep his unconventional lifestyle a secret from his peers at university, and also from most of his family. In one shot we see some fetching potted plants that Cahanovitc got from his grandfather. “I told him I wanted them for my balcony,” says the youngster, adding that he didn't exactly fill his benefactor in on the wider locational niceties of his residence at the time. But, as time progressed, Cahanovitc decided he wanted to spread the word about his alternative living arrangements. “I found out about Oren after I saw a report on him on Channel 10 TV,” says Harel. “I was fascinated by what I saw.” As fate would have it, around that time Cahanovitc decided he needed to engage the services of someone who knew what they were doing, to capture his story properly, and he was put in touch with Harel by a mutual friend. The filmmaker admits to being somewhat ambivalent about Cahanovitc's adventure at the time, although he says he has come a long way in the interim. “I am the type of person who would never do what Oren did,” admits Harel, adding that his professional role enabled him to benefit from a rewarding vicarious experience. “That's what really excited me about this project. I could get so much from what Oren did and how he lived, through my work with the camera and the editing afterward.” Home is clearly a labor of love, both in terms of Cahanovitc's refreshing and eye-opening endeavor during his time on Mount Carmel, and in the way both he and Harel convey that to the viewer. All told, Cahanovitc spent two years there in one stretch, while he roamed between Haifa, Jerusalem and Berlin from 2012 to 2015. “He went to Germany to work and be with Nora, and he worked as a tour guide in Jerusalem, but then he'd find he missed the tent and he'd come back here for a while,” explains Harel. The film is also liberally sprinkled with humorous slots and asides. Cahanovitc's makeshift work desk, for example, sports an old, gray cord telephone which, of course, is not connected. Cahanovitc's alternative lifestyle eventually becomes the subject of quite a lot of media attention, especially around the time of the social protests, and his granddad also gets wind of the youngster's “strange” habitat. In one amusing scene the concerned-looking grandfather asks Cahanovitc if he at least has a generator so he can watch TV. In an earlier slot, Cahanovitc speaks unaffectedly about how a friend wondered why he had opted for such a weird way of living, when he seemed “so normal.” “Here's the trick,” says Cahanovitc, putting on a T-shirt. “You see, I am wearing a T-shirt and jeans. I look normal,” he adds with a laugh. In the end, as was to be expected, the authorities decree the diminutive encampment to be unacceptable, and Cahanovitc duly pulls the place down. At the time, he was set for physical and professional pastures anew, both in Jerusalem and Berlin, so it was not too much of a bind for the young man. Harel says he learned a lot from making the documentary, and that it is an eye-opener for all and sundry. “I didn't believe a film could have so much power to impact on people. Anyone who has seen it has taken a lot from it.I certainly did.” Home will be screened at the Tel Aviv Cinematheque at 5 p.m. on May 25. For more information: www.docaviv.co.il/

Home is where the tent is

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