Love, loss and dancing: National Library hosts documentary fest
Docu.Text event brings Jerusalem five days of film screenings that illuminate Israel and Jewish culture
Jessica Steinberg, The Times of Israel's culture and lifestyles editor, covers the Sabra scene from south to north and back to the center
The Docu.Text Festival, a collaboration between the National Library of Israel and the DocAviv film festival, will take place August 17-22, featuring documentary films from Israel and the world.
The screenings will be accompanied by discussions and meetings with filmmakers, performances, group meditations, and in one case even folk dancing inspired by one of the films.
The festival opens with the gala premiere of the documentary film “Yehoram Gaon,” telling the story of the singer and actor considered one of the pillars of Israeli culture. Gaon himself will be on stage to answer questions.
Docu.Text will also screen “We Will Dance Again,” an award-winning Yariv Moser film that premiered at the opening of last year’s festival, documenting the survivors of the October 7, 2023, Hamas terrorist attack at the Nova desert rave.
Another film is “Waiting for Him,” which tells the story of two young women who lost their partners in the Gaza war and follows their struggles with bereavement and raising their children.
Several films related or loosely connected to the Holocaust are being screened, including “Kichka: Telling Myself,” the story of illustrator and comics artist Michel Kichka, the son of a Holocaust survivor.
The festival will screen four documentaries featuring women of distinction: one following 96-year-old dancer Naomi Polani; another about Ada Sereni, head of the immigration branch of the Haganah paramilitary; a third telling the history of actress Hannah Rovina and her daughter, Ilana Rovina; and a fourth about actress Ella Armony and her mother, singer Dafna Armoni.
The film “Necropolis” takes viewers on a journey through Jerusalem’s central cemetery, moving between the cemetery above and the ongoing excavation of more burial space below.
On a lighter note, “Hora” looks at the culture of Israeli folk dancing and asks whether the age-old pastime will survive. The Reuveni Brothers, a duo who paved the way for Mizrahi singers, have their story told in “The Kings of Cassettes – The Reuveni Brothers.”
The festival will close on August 22 with a screening of “Marianne and Leonard: Words of Love,” the poignant and tragic love story of Leonard Cohen and his muse Marianne Ihlen, whom he met in 1960 on the Greek island of Hydra.
The outdoor screening will be followed by a live performance of Leonard Cohen’s best songs by Ivri Lider and the Camerata.
For tickets and information, go to the Docutext site.
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