Casting a Giant Shadow

Description

Film came to the territory that eventually became Israel not long after the medium was born. Casting a Giant Shadow is a collection of articles that embraces the notion of transnationalism to consider the limits of what is "Israeli" within Israeli cinema.

As the State of Israel developed, so did its film industries. Moving beyond the early films of the Yishuv, which focused on the creation of national identity, the industry and its transnational ties became more important as filmmakers and film stars migrated out and foreign films, filmmakers, and actors came to Israel to take advantage of high-quality production values and talent. This volume, edited by Rachel Harris and Dan Chyutin, uses the idea of transnationalism to challenge the concept of a singular definition of Israeli cinema.

Casting a Giant Shadow offers a new understanding of how cinema has operated artistically and structurally in terms of funding, distribution, and reception. The result is a thorough investigation of the complex structure of the transnational and its impact on national specificity when considered on the global stage.

Sujets

• Jewish
• HISTORY
• Histoire
• Película fotográfica
• Jews
• Cinema of Israel
• Jewish studies
• History of the Middle East
• Middle East
• History of film
• Film

Informations

• Publié par: Indiana University Press
• Date de parution: 06 juillet 2021
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780253056429
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

CASTING A GIANT SHADOW
NEW DIRECTIONS IN NATIONAL CINEMAS
Robert Rushing, editor
CASTING A GIANT SHADOW
The Transnational Shaping of Israeli Cinema
Edited by
Rachel S. Harris and Dan Chyutin
INDIANA UNIVERSITY PRESS
This book is a publication of
Indiana University Press
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1320 East 10th Street
Bloomington, Indiana 47405 USA
iupress.org
2021 by Indiana University Press
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences-Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992.
Manufactured in the United States of America
First printing 2021
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Harris, Rachel S. (Rachel Sylvia), 1977- editor. | Chyutin, Dan, editor.
Title: Casting a giant shadow : the transnational shaping of Israeli cinema / edited by Rachel S. Harris and Dan Chyutin.
Other titles: New directions in national cinemas.
Description: Bloomington, Indiana : Indiana University Press, 2021. | Series: New directions in national cinemas | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020043822 (print) | LCCN 2020043823 (ebook) | ISBN 9780253056382 (hardback) | ISBN 9780253056399 (paperback) | ISBN 9780253056429 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Motion pictures-Israel. | Motion picture industry-Israel. | Motion pictures and transnationalism-Israel. | Nationalism in motion pictures.
Classification: LCC PN1993.5.I86 C38 2021 (print) | LCC PN1993.5.I86 (ebook) | DDC 791.43095694-dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020043822
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020043823
In loving memory of Michael Chyutin (1941-2019)
CONTENTS
Foreword
Israeli Cinema Beyond the National: An Introduction / Rachel S. Harris and Dan Chyutin
I My Israel: Transnational Imagining in a Time of High Nationalism
1 I Have a Great Passion for Americans : The Juggler and the Question of National Cinema / Dan Chyutin
2 Longing for Hollywood: Israeli Beauties on International Film Stages in the 1950s and 1960s / Julie Grimmeisen
3 New Frontiers: Creating a Nation through the Israeli Western / Rachel S. Harris
4 The Rust of Time: The Apparition of Memory in David Greenberg s Sha ar Ha guy (1965) and Much shar Bli Rosh (1963) / Shmulik Duvdevani and Anat Dan
II Palestinian Cinema Made in Israel
5 Transnational Imaginings in Salt of This Sea (2008) and Villa Touma (2014) / Ariel M. Sheetrit
6 Here and There, Now and Then: Nations and Their Relations in Recent Palestinian Cinema / Mary N. Layoun
7 Five Broken Cameras and the Metonymic Sixth Camera: Time, Narrative, and Subjectivities in Emad Burnat and Guy Davidi s 5 Broken Cameras / Yaron Shemer
III To See with Foreign Eyes: Catering to the Expectations of a Transnational Audience
8 Moments of Innocence and Fracture: Fantasy and Reality in Two Documentary Visits to Israel / Ohad Landesman
9 Two Israelis in the Mecca of Motion Pictures : Golan, Globus, and Cannon Film s Transnational Enterprise / Zachary Ingle
10 A Chance to Hear Some Hebrew : American Jewish Film Festivals and the Transnational Flow of Israeli Film / Josh Beaty
11 Perpetuating Victimhood as a Jewish Identity?: The Case of Popular Israeli Cinema Today / Yaron Peleg
IV Denationalizing the Local and Projecting into the Global: Disrupting Israeliness through the Transnational
12 Of National Homes and Despotic Symbols: Network Narrative Films, Global Cities, and Crossings of Local Paths / Nava Dushi
13 Fantasies of Other Desires: Homonationalism and Self-Othering in Contemporary Israeli Queer Cinema / Boaz Hagin and Raz Yosef
14 Hagar Ben-Asher s The Slut as the First Israeli Transnational Feminist Film Text / Yael Munk
V Bringing the Global into the Local: Transnational Encounters in Contemporary Narrative and Form
15 Encounters and Interspaces: The Place of Germany and Germans in Israeli Cinema / Tobias Ebbrecht-Hartmann
16 Blood, Sweat, and Tears: The Rise of Israel s New Extremism / Neta Alexander
17 The Exchange: Reinventing Israeliness through Koreanness / Pablo Utin
List of Contributors
Index
FOREWORD
S ITTING AT THE J ERUSALEM INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL, WE noted the wide array of foreign influences that appeared in Israeli films showcased at the event and the significance the festival has always had in displaying international film to an Israeli audience. Milling around among the film scholars and general audience were also industry professionals, film stars, and international judges and distributors. What was a general observation about the transnational nature of Israeli cinema became a larger conversation about the long history of diversity in Israeli cinema and the way it has drawn on and been influenced by foreign participants within its own film industry but has also exported film stars, producers, and directors internationally-all the while being mindful of showcasing Israel through its cinema to an international audience. This book is the result of drawing others into our musings and trying to find a way to discuss Israeli cinema, which in many ways has been impacted by the inherently national mission, its changing politics and history, and its true shaping by transnational forces.
We would like to thank Indiana University Press for its long-standing support for this project and the anonymous reviewers for their helpful insights.
The book is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Michael Chyutin for his wisdom, kindness, and love of travel that inspired a local boy to think globally.
CASTING A GIANT SHADOW
ISRAELI CINEMA BEYOND THE NATIONAL
An Introduction
Rachel S. Harris
Dan Chyutin

I had first heard of the Land of Israel in 1925 and, at once, I realized the importance of letting the world know the special timbre of the country, its unique scenery and quality. . . . The solution, in my opinion, was the production of films and I at once got in touch with various companies in that field. It was my intention to establish an independent film center in the Jewish territory of Palestine. 1
Margot Klausner s first foray into the film industry was with Land of Promise (1933), a propaganda documentary she co-funded that represented not only the Jewish settlement in Mandatory Palestine but also the historic and religious diversity of the country. While aiming to capture an authentic view of local realities, the film was conceived from the outset as catering to international audience s tastes. The internalization of these transnational concerns for both Jewish audiences who could be motivated to contribute to the Zionist projects and world audiences who could be made sympathetic to Jewish causes, particularly the desire for a national homeland in Palestine, shaped both the production and reception of Land of Promise . As Klausner discusses in her memoir, The Dream Industry , the realization of this film depended upon support from multiple institutional actors, investors, and artists. Her first documentary was only made possible because of the interest shown by the European Zionist Congress, who had learned of the enthusiasm of Leo Hermann, the general secretary of the Israeli fundraising organization Keren Hayesod, toward such a project. As the head of the official Zionist fundraising body, he had no film experience but understood that propaganda might serve fundraising purposes. Spurred by the enthusiasm of his sister Emily, he worked with the American company the Fox Film Corporation, which was interested in making three sixty-minute information films about the region. In the process of becoming 20th Century Fox, the studio was willing to send technicians- a chief cameraman and a sound technician, with the recording system, as well as an assistant photographer with camera 2 -on condition that they would be provided with a local director, suitable script, production director, and local financing in Palestine. Klausner, who put up a sizable portion of the initial funds, accompanied the documentary to the Venice Biennale in 1935, where it won the competition. But she was not there to receive the award, having already left to screen her film to Jewish philanthropists elsewhere in Europe.
Fifteen years later, as the new State of Israel was coming into being, Klausner founded its first film studio, the Israel Motion Picture Studios in Herzliya, and went on to serve as its chair and director until shortly before her death. The studio relied on the technical and artistic know-how of international filmmakers, cameramen, editors, and technicians and the purchase of equipment and film stock from abroad in order to be able to develop a local film industry. Yet its transnational nature did not stop there but rather extended to a vision that saw film as a medium for representing the Zionist vision abroad. Her aspirations are inscribed on the studio s cornerstone: It is the aim of the founders of these Studios to draw the attention of the nations towards our way of life in Israel through the aid of movies, an art which has such a great influence in the world and reaches into all countries; to disclose to all peoples throughout the generations our spiritual and social ideas; to lead them to understand the history of Israel since the time we became a nation until this