Eyal Sivan is one of the Israeli filmmakers who have most openly questioned and tackled the political use of memory in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Through his sharp, courageous vision, he uses filmmaking as a tool to question the world, probe its dogmas and reveal the mechanisms of oppression. The aesthetics of resistance mark his films, which focus on the representation and manipulation of genocide.
His first film, Aqbat-Jaber (Passing Through) is a no-holds-barred look at life in Palestinian refugee camps. It won the Grand Prix du Cinéma du Réel from the Georges Pompidou Centre and has received wide acclaim and numerous further awards at film festivals all over the world.
Sivan avoids reducing his films to mere testimonies and rejects the canons of television documentaries. He explores the cracks in the declarations and appearances captured by the camera, dissolving reality from within until it seems an illusion. Israland, for example, looks at Israel during the first Gulf War - whilst the country was gripped by the paranoia of chemical-weapon attacks, in the desert they were busy building a theme park.
L'Alternativa will be offering 6 programmes of work to offer us a different reality to what we see on the news.
Supported by the French Institute in Barcelona
FILMS
Saturday 11st^
Agabat-Jaber, vie de passage. France. OVS Spanish. 81'. Beta SP. 1987
Sunday 12nd
Izkor, les esclaves de la mémoire. France. OVS Spanish. 97', 1991
Monday 13rd
Agabat-Jaber, paix sans retour?. France. OVS Spanish. 61'. Beta SP. 1995
Tuesday 14th
Jérusalem(s), le syndrome borderline. Belgium. 64'. Beta SP. 1994
Wednesday 15th and Friday 17th
Israland. France. OVS Spanish. 58'. Beta SP. 1991
Thursday 16th
Route 181, fragments d'un voyage en Palestine-Israel. France, Belgium, Germany, United Kingdom. 270'. Beta SP. 2003