{"id":23960,"date":"2017-04-28T03:55:35","date_gmt":"2017-04-28T10:55:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=23960"},"modified":"2017-04-26T12:23:12","modified_gmt":"2017-04-26T19:23:12","slug":"a-night-for-your-imagination","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2017\/04\/28\/a-night-for-your-imagination\/","title":{"rendered":"A night for your imagination"},"content":{"rendered":"

In The Fifth Season<\/em>, Shadi Habib Allah focuses on Palestinian writer and teacher Ziad Khadash, who wants his students to know what freedom feels like. (photo from Vancouver Jewish Film Centre)<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The Sir Jack Lyons Charitable Trust Student Film Prize is awarded annually to two students from Jerusalem film schools. Selected by a jury, the winners receive a monetary prize and the opportunity to present their films and meet industry professionals in Canada. This year, Shadi Habib Allah and Alex Klexber are coming to Vancouver and Toronto with their award-winning short films.<\/p>\n

The event Celebrate Jerusalem, hosted by the Jerusalem Foundation with the Vancouver Jewish Film Centre, will take place at Congregation Beth Israel on May 8, 7 p.m. It will feature the screening of Habib Allah\u2019s The Fifth Season<\/em> and Klexber\u2019s HaYarkon Street<\/em> and a Q&A with both filmmakers. It will also feature the screening of Avi Nesher\u2019s The Wonders<\/em>, a \u201cmystery, comedy, psychological thriller, political intrigue and romance\u201d all rolled into one.<\/p>\n

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Shadi Habib Allah (photo from VJFC)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Born in Nazareth, Habib Allah received his bachelor\u2019s from the Jordan University of Science and Technology, where he studied architecture. He began his studies at the Sam Spiegel Film and TV School in 2015, and the 15-minute The Fifth Season<\/em> is his first-year film. In it, Palestinian writer and teacher Ziad Khadash wants his charges to know what freedom \u2013 physical and intellectual \u2013 feels like.<\/p>\n

At first, Khadash just wants his class to be over; he has lost his enthusiasm for teaching. He asks his students at Amin al-Husseini boys school in Ramallah to write about the difference between summer and winter, not really caring what the assignment might bring. But, for whatever reason, when a student asks why there are only four seasons, not five, Khadash becomes inspired.<\/p>\n

Having grown up in Jalazone refugee camp, Khadash knows what it means to not be free. He notes that his mother, 68, has not ever seen the sea \u2013 his students will be more fortunate. He leads them in a mini-rebellion at the school, in which they state, \u201cWe come here as a creative generation, a democratic generation, to take over the school, to take it over for a few minutes \u2013 a cultural, intellectual, creative takeover, not a violent, armed takeover.\u201d Their demands include \u201cno more school uniforms,\u201d \u201ctear down the school wall,\u201d \u201ca monthly field trip to the beach,\u201d \u201cthe right to express ourselves freely in class.\u201d<\/p>\n

Khadash is an odd bird \u2013 for example, he doesn\u2019t believe in marriage, as it leaves no room for the imagination \u2013 but he seems like a good person, a positive role model for his students.<\/p>\n

About The Fifth Season<\/em>, the Lyons film prize jury wrote, \u201cThe film brings to the screen a teacher and educator with a unique educational approach, which the director manages to translate into a complex and rich cinematic language. Effective editing weaves together narration with staged and illustrative scenes that represent the film\u2019s protagonist, who wishes to release his students from the shackles of reality and thought, using unlimited imagination.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe visual boldness, and the expression of freedom and liberty as universal values by cinematic means, indicate that a promising talent is evident in this debut film.\u201d<\/p>\n

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In HaYarkon Street, Alex Klexber tries to recreate his childhood memories of the neighbourhood in which he grew up. (photo from VJFC)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Childhood is also the focus of Klexber\u2019s four-minute film HaYarkon Street<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Born in Ukraine, Klexber is now a fourth-year animation student at the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design. He moved with his parents to Israel at the age of 6 and grew up in Rishon Lezion, south of Tel Aviv. His short film recalls his younger days \u2013 with images drawn both from his memory and from his artwork of those early years.<\/p>\n

With animation and other techniques, Klexber tries to recreate the HaYarkon Street neighbourhood of old, and it is both fun and touching to watch. Viewers will most certainly remember their own youthful sketches and wonder from where some of those ideas came.<\/p>\n

\u201cKlexber\u2019s short film movingly combines the world of imagination and reality,\u201d wrote the film prize judges. \u201cHe manages in a few minutes to create a unique world, rarely seen in Israeli cinema. With sensitivity and imagination, the director depicts a specific memory of his, but the theme and approach are universal. This is a personal story related to the Israeli experience of immigration and affinity to the place. The simple name given to the film is in fact the basis for a host of memories, ambitions and dreams.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe prize is awarded to the film in order to encourage the director to continue exploring this world.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Alex Klexber (photo from VJFC)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

According to his bio, Klexber \u201ccreated his first stop-motion short, Junkyard Episodes<\/em>, while attending high school and also started making live action YouTube videos with his friends that became popular in Israel.\u201d During his army service, in his free time, he \u201ccontinued making YouTube videos and animation shorts, including the short film The Paintbrush<\/em> (2010), that combined live action and stop motion.\u201d And, he \u201ccomposed original music on all his videos and short films.\u201d<\/p>\n

Celebrate Jerusalem also features, appropriately, a film that casts the city as one of its main characters, The Wonders<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, Jerusalem was a great city for film noir, for something that explored the darkest side of the human experience while trying to reach for the higher element of the human experience,\u201d said Nesher in an interview at London, England\u2019s 2014 Seret film festival, where The Wonders<\/em> screened.<\/p>\n

The Wonders<\/em> ponders the secular \u2013 via graffiti artist and bartender Arnav \u2013 and the (un)holy \u2013 Rabbi Shmaya Knafo, the leader of a cult-like group, who is kidnapped. Among the other characters are \u201ca hard-boiled investigator,\u201d \u201ca gorgeous mystery woman\u201d and Arnav\u2019s former girlfriend. Animation helps bring to life Arnav\u2019s active imagination and the film blurs the lines between fact and fiction.<\/p>\n

Celebrate Jerusalem is a free event. To register, visit vjff.org\/events\/event\/the-wonders<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In The Fifth Season, Shadi Habib Allah focuses on Palestinian writer and teacher Ziad Khadash, who wants his students to know what freedom feels like. (photo from Vancouver Jewish Film Centre) The Sir Jack Lyons Charitable Trust Student Film Prize is awarded annually to two students from Jerusalem film schools. Selected by a jury, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":23950,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[787],"tags":[7006,7005,2511,7007,2734],"class_list":["post-23960","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tv-film","tag-alex-klexber","tag-jack-lyons","tag-jerusalem-foundation","tag-shadi-habib-allah","tag-vancouver-jewish-film-centre"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23960","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23960"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23960\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23950"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}