Tel Aviv Diary: Karen Alkalay-Gut

The Carmel Market was crazier than ever today – the heat was incredible and the place was full of tourists. Because we began with a beer at Papa’s, we bought twice as much as we’d planned, but now we’re going to make Gevetch for dinner. And a nice carrot-ginger soup. So nothing is wasted.
And the pizza we had at Papa’s will keep me.

Miscellaneous

Blogging can be dangerous. Look at Karim Amer

A Film Unfinished
Directed by : Yael Hersonski
Produced by : Noemi Schory & Itai Ken Tor

At the end of WWII, 60 minutes of raw film, having sat undisturbed in an East German archive, was discovered. Shot by the Nazis in Warsaw in May 1942, and labeled simply “Ghetto,” this footage quickly became a resource for historians seeking an authentic record of the Warsaw Ghetto. However, the later discovery of a long-missing reel complicated earlier readings of the footage. A FILM UNFINISHED presents the raw footage in its entirety, carefully noting fictionalized sequences (including a staged dinner party) falsely showing “the good life” enjoyed by Jewish urbanites, and probes deep into the making of a now-infamous Nazi propaganda film.
A FILM UNFINISHED is a film of enormous import, documenting some of the worst horrors of our time and exposing the efforts of its perpetrators to propel their agenda and cast it in a favorable light.
IN THEATERS
08/18/10 – New York, NY – Film Forum
08/20/10 – New York, NY – Lincoln Plaza
08/27/10 – Encino, CA – Laemmle Town Center
09/24/10 – Baltimore, MD – Charles
09/24/10 – Boston, MA – Landmark Kendall Square
09/24/10 – San Diego, CA – Landmark Ken
09/24/10 – Washington, DC – Landmark E Street
10/01/10 – Berkeley, CA – Landmark Shattuck
10/01/10 – Mill Valley, CA – Cinemark Sequoia
10/01/10 – Phoenix, AZ – Camelview
10/01/10 – Pleasant Hill, CA – Cinemark CineArts
10/01/10 – San Francisco, CA – Landmark Opera Plaza
10/01/10 – San Francisco, CA – Landmark Opera Plaza
10/01/10 – San Jose, CA – Cinemark Santana Row
10/15/10 – Palm Desert, CA – Cinemas Palme d’Or
10/15/10 – Philadelphia, PA – Landmark Ritz at the Bourse
10/22/10 – Columbus, OH – Wexner Center
11/05/10 – Dallas, TX – Angelika
11/05/10 – Denver, CO – Landmark Chez Artiste
11/05/10 – Houston, TX – Angelika
11/05/10 – Miami, FL – Intracoastal 8
11/05/10 – Sunrise, FL – Sunrise 11
1st Prize for best documentary,,Documentary Competition, Jerusalem Film Festival
1st Prize for best feature documentary, Hotdocs, Toronto
Editing Prize, Sundance film Festival 2010
Script award, Silverdocs, Washington D.C

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Khut0kKn-c8

Exhausted by the hectic day, with a thousand things to do for tomorrow morning, I wasn’t happy about waiting three hours in the torturous chairs of the optomologist. And opposite us were a very old couple, who seemed to remember nothing. They admired Ezi’s sandals and asked where they came from, and this started us on an internet search for the store. The woman sat with pen poised to write the address down, even though the sandals could be bought anywhere. Trying to remember their immediate past so they could share it with us, the woman touched her cheek and shook her head. They seemed so out of it. Until we got back into a more clear time – When he was 14, he said, his mother took him to the Lodz train station and said, “Child, save yourself.” That was the last time he saw her. She was killed soon after, and he was taken in by the partisans and remained in the service of the Russians until Malenkov…no Gomulka…let them out. When he showed me the watch he was given by Putin I was more than convinced that all the stories of heroism he had told me in the hours we waited for the doctor were not only true, but incomplete.

I have found this experience to be characteristic of the elderly in Israel. Once you get past the senility, there is a rich and heroic past.

If you are not religious, what is shabbat to you? To me it’s holy. Even if there’s no divinity, no religion, no synagogue. Even if I do nothing different.

Where did that come from, you ask? Something inside. That’s all.

A few days ago we met with a friend who is one of the curators in the Israel Museum. The excitement at the renovations was palpable. And today, in the Times there is a review that proves it will be a very exciting place. Looks very modern and multicultural and I’m looking forward to seeing it soon.