Ra'anan Alexandrowicz ( he, רענן אלכסנדרוביץ', born August 29, 1969,

Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

) is a director, screenwriter and editor. He is known for the documentary ''The Law in These Parts'' (2011), for which received the Grand Jury Award at the Sundance Film Festival, a Peabody award, and numerous other prizes. His earlier documentaries, ''The Inner Tour'' (2001) and ''Martin'' (1999), were shown in the Berlin Film Festival's Forum section and MoMA's New Directors / New Films series. Alexandrowicz's single fiction feature, '' James' Journey to Jerusalem'' (2003), premiered in Cannes

Directors' Fortnight The Directors' Fortnight (french: Quinzaine des Réalisateurs) is an independent selection of the Cannes Film Festival. It was started in 1969 by the French Directors Guild after the events of May 1968 resulted in cancellation of the Cannes festiv ...

and at the

Toronto International Film Festival The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the largest publicly attended film festivals in the world, attracting over 480,000 people annually. Since its founding in 1976, TIFF has grown to become a perman ...

and received several international awards. He also directed the 2019 documentary film ''

The Viewing Booth ''The Viewing Booth'' is a 2019 documentary film directed, co-produced and co-edited by Ra'anan Alexandrowicz. An international co-production of Israel and the United States, the film features a Jewish American college student named Maia Levy. Le ...

''. Alexandrowicz's films have been released theatrically in the United States and Europe, and broadcast by

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...

Arte Arte (; (), sometimes stylized in lowercase or uppercase in its logo) is a European public service channel dedicated to culture. It is made up of three separate companies: the Strasbourg-based European Economic Interest Grouping ARTE, plu ...

, the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...

...

Education

Sam Spiegel Film and Television School The Sam Spiegel Film and Television School is a film and television school in Israel that was founded in 1989. It was renamed in honor of Sam Spiegel in 1996, with the support of the Sam Spiegel Estate. The school has been the subject of some 19 ...

short film A short film is any motion picture that is short enough in running time not to be considered a feature film. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes ...

Kraków Kraków (), or Cracow, is the second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city dates back to the seventh century. Kraków was the official capital of Poland until 1596 ...

Łódź Łódź, also rendered in English as Lodz, is a city in central Poland and a former industrial centre. It is the capital of Łódź Voivodeship, and is located approximately south-west of Warsaw. The city's coat of arms is an example of cant ...

Career

Dachau concentration camp

''The Inner Tour

'The Inner Tour is a

road movie A road movie is a film genre in which the main characters leave home on a road trip, typically altering the perspective from their everyday lives. Road movies often depict travel in the hinterlands, with the films exploring the theme of alienatio ...

which portrays the story of a group of Palestinians, who join a three day sight-seeing bus tour through the state of Israel. Whether on a beach, in an archaeological site, a historical museum, or a nightclub, the protagonists experience the country they are sight-seeing in a different way than anyone else would. And through these dozens of eyes looking out of the bus windows, a new, unique portrait of Israel is created. Released in the midst of the second Intifada, the film created controversy in Israel but finally was screened on Israeli television. Outside Israel, ''The Inner Tour'' was regarded as a rare document of the deepest roots for this painful conflict and was screened in dozens of festivals around the world ( Berlin Film Festival, Sundance Film Festival, New Directors/ New Films, Hot Docs and IDFA) and aired on several television channels (Sundance Channel, Arte, BBC). In 2003 he wrote and directed the full-length feature film '' James' Journey to Jerusalem'' in the series "Geography Lesson", that premiered in Cannes' 'Directors’ Fortnight' and at the Toronto International Film Festival and received severa
international awards
A cannily droll mix of social commentary and modern fable follows the adventures James, a devout wide-eyed young man from the imaginary village of Inchongua attempting a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Jailed by the immigration authorities upon his arrival in Tel Aviv, this contemporary Candide is miraculously bailed out by a shady small-time businessman only to become part of his migrant labor pool. Undeterred, James perseveres in his religious quest, until he gets a taste of fortune by exploiting his employer's friends and colleagues for his own profit. Alexandrowicz filters an astute exploration of the economic, moral and spiritual hypocrisies of Western society through an evocative portrait of modern Israel's cultural and generational divisions. Alexandrowicz has an ongoing collaboration with composer and singer

Ehud Banai Ehud Banai ( he, אֵהוּד בַּנַּאי; born March 31, 1953) is an Israeli singer and songwriter. Biography Ehud Banai was born in Jerusalem. His father was the actor Yaakov Banai, one of the Banai siblings. The family moved to Givatayim ...

, who won the

Ophir Award The Ophir Awards ( he, פרס אופיר), colloquially known as the Israeli Oscars or the Israeli Academy Awards, are film awards for excellence in the Israeli film industry awarded by the Israeli Academy of Film and Television. The award, named ...

for music for ''James' Journey to Jerusalem''. He has directed music videos for Ehud Banai. In 2003 Alexandrowicz joined Taayush, a grassroots volunteer network of Palestinians and Israelis to counter the Israeli nationalist reactions aroused by the Second Intifada. As political activist Alexandrowicz encountered something that had been invisible to him up until then: the existence of a parallel legal system that applies only to Palestinians living under Israeli military occupation since 1967. In his work ''

The Law in These Parts ''The Law in These Parts'' (Hebrew: שלטון החוק) is a 2011 Israeli documentary film, written and directed by Ra'anan Alexandrowicz, about the court system operated by the Israel Defense Forces in the West Bank. It won the Best Documentary aw ...

'', Alexandrowicz set out to explore the question ‘How can a modern democracy impose a prolonged military occupation on another people while retaining its core democratic values?’. The film is based on over 5 years of research of military court files, which Alexandrowicz translates into film by creating a cinematic courtroom. In a unique studio set-up he brings together interviews with the military judges, heads of the Military Advocate General, headed by Meir Shamgar as a Judge Advocate General in 1967 designed the legal infrastructure of the military rule, images of legal files, and historical footage that show the enactment of these laws upon the Palestinian population. The film won the Best Documentary Prize, the Van Leer Institute in

Jerusalem Film Festival The Jerusalem Film Festival ( he, פסטיבל הקולנוע ירושלים, ar, مهرجان القدس السينمائي) is an international film festival held annually in Jerusalem, It was established in 1984 by the Director of the Jerusal ...

and the Jury Prize for Best Documentary at the Sundance Film Festival. At the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival, ''The Law in These Parts'' won the "Special Jury Prize – International Feature"; in 2013 Alexandrowicz received the Peabody award, and many others more. In Israel the film had a broad educational audience. It was screened in high schools, police units, to lawyers, public defenders and prosecutors among many others. While on such speaking tours, Alexandrowicz began to wonder about the nature of documentary work that aspires to change reality. In '50 Years of Documentation' (Alexandrowicz, 2018) is an analysis of the unique nature of political documentation with film. ''

'' recounts a unique encounter between a filmmaker and a viewer — exploring the way meaning is attributed to non-fiction images in today's day and age. In a lab-like location, Maia Levy, a young Jewish American woman, watches videos portraying life in the occupied West Bank, while verbalizing her thoughts and feelings in real time. Maia is an enthusiastic supporter of Israel, and the images in the videos, depicting Palestinian life under Israeli military rule, contradict some of her deep-seated beliefs. Empathy, anger, embarrassment, innate biases, and healthy curiosity — all play out before our eyes as we watch her watch the images created by the Occupation. As Maia navigates and negotiates the images, which threaten her worldview, she also reflects on the way she sees them. Her candid and immediate reactions form a one-of-a-kind cinematic testimony to the psychology of the viewer in the digital era.

References

External links

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PBS Interview
{{DEFAULTSORT:Alexandrowicz, Ra'anan 1969 births Writers from Jerusalem Israeli filmmakers Living people Artists from Jerusalem