Amos Gitai | IFFR

Amos GITAI (1950, Israel) is the son of architect Munio Weinraub and has himself a PhD in Architecture from Berkeley. He began making experimental short films in the early 1970s, and during the Yom Kippur War documented his experiences with a Super-8 camera. After the war, he began directing short TV documentaries. In 1980, his documentary feature House was released, but the film was rejected by Israeli television. After the equally controversial Field Diary (1982), Gitai could no longer work in Israel and moved to Paris, where he lived for 10 years. In 1989, Berlin-Jerusalem was nominated for a Golden Lion in Venice. In 1993, he returned to Israel, where he made a trilogy on cities: Things (1995), Day After Day (1998), and Kadosh (1999), which was nominated for a Palme d’Or. In 2005, he received an Achievement in Film Award at the Israel Film Festival, and in 2008 he was awarded a Leopard of Honour at Locarno. He received the Légion d’honneur in 2017 and West of the Jordan River was nominated for the Cannes Golden Eye award.

Filmography

(selection) Details of Architecture (1972, short doc), Black Is White (1972, short), Textures (1972, short), La Géographie selon l'homme moderne et le contrôle de l’environnement (1972, short doc), Souk/Dialogues de Femmes (1972, short doc), Windows in David Pinksy no. 5 (1972, short doc), Souvenirs d'un camarade de seconde Aliya (1972, short doc), Fire Eats Paper, Paper Eats Fire (1973, short), Medabrin al ecologia/Talking About Ecology (1973, short doc), Shosh (1973, short), Arlington U.S.A. (1974, short doc), Images of War 1, 2, 3 (1974, short doc), Ahare/Images after War (1974, short doc), Maïm/Water (1974, short doc), Memphis U.S.A. (Faces) (1974, short doc), Memphis U.S.A. (Suite) (1974, short doc), Pictures in the Exhibition (1974, short doc), The International Orthodontist Congress (1974, short), Blowing Glass (1974, short doc), Lucie (1974, short), My Mother at the Sea Shore (1975, short doc), Charisma (1976, short), Dimitri (1977, TV short), Hagvul/Border (1977, TV short doc), Political Myths (1977, short doc), Shikun/Public House (1977, TV short doc), Shirim be Afula/Singing in Afula (1977, TV short doc), Betoch hamaim/Under the Water (1977, TV short), Architectura (1978, TV short doc), Wadi Rushima (1978, TV short doc), Bikur Carter be' Israel/Carter’s Visit to Israel (1979, TV short doc), Cultural Celebrities (1979, short), Meoraot Wadi Salib/Wadi Salib Riots (1979, TV short doc), Bayit/House (1980, TV short doc), In Search of Identity (1980, short doc), American Mythologies (1981, doc), Wadi (1981, short doc), Yoman sade/Field Diary (1982, doc), Ananas/Pineapple (1983, doc), Bangkok-Bahrein/Bangkok-Bahrain: Labour for Sale (1984, doc), Reagan: Image for Sale (1984, doc), Esther (1985), Brand New Day (1987, doc), Berlin-Jérusalem/Berlin-Jerusalem (1989), Naissance d'un golem : Carnet de notes/Birth of a Golem (1990), Golem, l'esprit de l’exil/Golem, the Spirit of Exile (1991), Wadi, dix ans après/Wadi, Ten Years After (1991, doc), Gibellina, metamorfosi di una melodia/Metamorphosis of a Melody (1992), La Guerre des fils de lumière contre les fils des ténèbres/The War of the Sons of Light Against the Sons of Darkness (1993), Le jardin pétrifié/The Petrified Garden (1993), Dans la vallée de la Wupper/In the Valley of the Wupper (1993, doc), Queen Mary ’87 (1993, doc), Au nom du Duce/In the Name of the Duce (1994, doc), Give Peace a Chance (1994, doc), Devarim/Things (1995), Zirat ha’rezach/The Arena of Murder (1996 doc), Milim (1996, doc), Munio Weinraub Gitai Architect (1909-1970) (1996, short doc), Guerre et pair à Vesoul/War and Peace in Vesoul (1997, doc), Kippour; souvenirs de guerre/Kippur, War Memories (1997, doc), Yom yom/Day After Day (1998), Tapuz/Orange (1998, doc), Bait be Yerushalayim/A House in Jerusalem (1998, doc), Zion, Auto-Emancipation (1998, doc), Kadosh (1999), Kippur (2000), Wadi Grand Canyon 2001 (2001, doc), Eden (2001), Surgeon General’s Warning (2001, short doc), September 11 - 11’09''01 (2002, co-dir, segment: Israel), Mabatim, Israel 2002 (2002, co-dir, doc, segment: Times are Bad), Kedma (2002), Alila (2003), Bem-vindo a São Paulo (2004, co-dir, doc), Promised Land (2004), Free zone (2005), News from Home / News from House (2006, doc), Chacun son cinéma ou Ce petit coup au coeur quand la lumière s'éteint et que le film commence (2007, co-dir, segment: Le Dibbouk de Haifa), Disengagement (2007), Plus tard, tu comprendras/One Day You’ll Understand (2008), Carmel (2009), La Guerre des fils de lumière contre les fils des ténèbres/The War of the Sons of Light Against the Sons of Darkness (2009), Roses à credít (2010), Lullaby to My Father (2011), Architecture en Israël : conversations avec Amos Gitai (2013, doc), Venice 70: Future Reloaded (2013, co-dir, doc), Ana Arabia (2013), Tsili (2014), Words with God (2014, co-dir, segment: The Book of Amos), Rabin: The Last Day (2015), West of the Jordan River (2017, doc), A Tramway in Jerusalem (2018), A Letter to a Friend in Gaza (2018, short), Laila in Haifa (2020)

More info:
Amos Gitai
Wikipedia, Amos Gita