Hostages, flamingos and the politics of Jerusalem stone to feature at DocAviv fest

The DocAviv documentary film festival, hosted by the Tel Aviv Cinematheque for the 27th year and held in various locations around the city, will take place on May 22-31, featuring Israeli film premieres, discussions with local and international filmmakers, and a new category, “World in Conflict.”

The International Competition lineup includes an opening event screening of “Holding Liat,” the Berlinale Documentary Film Award winner by American filmmaker Brandon Kramer. The film provides an intimate observation of Liat Atzili’s family as they navigated her November 2023 release from captivity in Gaza two months after she was abducted by terrorists during the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack.

Another contender is the 2025 Oscar-winning documentary “2000 Meters to Andriivka,” about a Ukrainian platoon on a mission to liberate a village from Russian invaders, in which filmmaker Mstyslav Chernov aims to show the world what modern warfare looks like.

There are also films about an ailing gold miner, a homeless person living in Rome’s Termini Station, and a Pennsylvania community’s fight over its public school system.

This year’s musical documentary program includes “Googoosh: Made of Fire” about how the Iranian Revolution abruptly halted the successful career of local pop singer and cultural icon Faegheh Atashin, known as Googoosh.

In “One to One: John & Yoko,” viewers are taken back to New York of the 1970s, a turbulent time for John Lennon and Yoko Ono.

A more local film is “King of Schlock,” about Beit Shemesh-dwelling musician Lenny Solomon, who won the hearts of modern Orthodox Jews in the US with his Jew-y cover songs.

Other arts and culture films include artist Ai Weiwei’s directorial debut, “Turandot.” The Chinese artist had his own Israel Museum solo show in 2017.

“Disaster is My Muse” examines the life and work of the cartoonist Art Spiegelman, who created the seminal Holocaust graphic novel “Maus.”

Viewers can also take a fast-paced, funny journey across Britain with “I Am Martin Parr,” tracing the work of the photographer who has been documenting his country since the 1970s. Meanwhile, fashionistas can get their fix with “Thom Browne: The Man Who Tailors Dreams,” a portrait of the fashion designer who transformed gray business suits into a statement.

The Panorama program offers new releases, including “Home is the Ocean” about a Swiss family of eight living their life on the sea, and “Connected,” about the unlikely bond between Augie Fabela and Dmitry Ziminan, an American tech entrepreneur and a former high-ranking Soviet scientist.

“Flamingos: Life After the Meteorite,” about the leggy birds’ struggle for survival and procreation on the shores of the Yucatan Peninsula, will be shown in the open air of the Migdalor Cinema on May 27, near the Tel Aviv port, just after sunset.

The films being screened for Docaviv’s Oscar-qualifying Shorts competition include “Temporary Identity,” a film that follows the struggles of asylum-seeking students in South Tel Aviv as they navigate their place in society.

Other short films include “The Guy Who Got Cut Wrong,” a humorous look about a botched circumcision; “Lift Lady,” a portrait of an elderly woman who runs a commuter elevator in an old Tbilisi apartment complex; and “Trapstarz,” about three youngsters making trap music, a sub-genre of hip-hop.

During the festival, the Yad Vashem Award for an outstanding Holocaust-related documentary will be presented on May 27 to Oren Rudavsky, director of “Elie Wiesel: Soul on Fire.”

The film includes testimonies and rare interviews with Wiesel’s wife and son, reflecting the moral dilemmas that the writer, Holocaust survivor, and Nobel Peace Prize winner faced throughout his life.

The award will be presented by Yad Vashem chairman Dani Dayan at a special event before the screening.

Other international guests at DocAviv include Lucie Kon, head of the BBC’s Documentary Strand; Alex Szalat from the Arte France Documentary department; Alissa Simon, of the Palm Springs Film Festival and a film critic for Variety; and Christian Beetz, CEO of the German documentary company Beetz Brothers Film Production.

Festival highlights will include a May 25 open-air screening at the Suzanne Dellal Center of “Seasons of Dance,” that brings dancers together with Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons.”

There will also be a panel discussion on May 27 at the Tel Aviv Cinematheque with Dr. Marik Stern and filmmaker Danae Elon about the latter’s film, “Rule of Stone,” in collaboration with the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute and with other panelists, about the long-term impact of Jerusalem architecture.

The Saturday, May 31 screening of episodes from Kan’s “Saving the Wildlife,” about a team of veterinarians from an Israeli pet hospital and a crew of pets, will include a meetup with the starring animals and a discussion with the animal doctors and pet owners.

Other events include screenings joined with master classes, such as photographer Alex Farfuri delving into the work of street photographers after the May 25 screening of “I Am Martin Parr,” and doodle artist Binsky painting a mural live following the May 27 screening of “The Trouble With Mr. Doodle.”