October 27th, 2007, 8:30 pm, ticket 7 €
Lecture with film clips (in English)
Eiszeit Kino
"From Erotica to Pornography in Israeli Cinema", by Yair Hochner
In this lecture we will examine the history of Israeli cinema, and the way Israeli directors handle the treatment of women and minority groups in Israeli society. By reviewing the history of Israeli cinema we can better understand the atmosphere of the small Israeli pornographic amateur industry that exists mostly on the web.
The presentation reviews Israel's early days as a conservative and patriotic society with movies that encourage collectivity along with the slogan: "It's good to die for our country". The movies encourage the civilians to recruit to the army, get married and bring a new generation to the young country.
During the sixties and especially in the seventies more individual filmmakers emerged and movies about private lives of regular Israelis with their own problems were made. Movies like "Peeping Toms" or in its Israeli original name "Metzitzim" (1972) that dealt with the broken identity of the Israeli chauvinist men, became huge hits.
More and more filmmakers showed the Israeli men not in the army but rather as regular horny men. However, instead of criticizing Israeli chauvinism they glorify it. Movies like "Lemon Popsicle" (1978) or "Dizengoff Street 99"(1979) were mostly remembered for their very daring sexual content.
Today more directors in Israel are trying to explore the border between art and pornography. The most scandalous director is Dover Koshashvili - the rough director of "Late Marriage" (2001) and "A Gift from Heaven" (2003).
2007 is a year with a change, when the courageous student, Hagar Ben Asher with her acclaimed short "Pathways" ("Mish'Olim") broke new grounds with very strong sexual contents that is exactly the opposite of what was ever done in the history of Israeli cinema.
The session will begin with the first nude scene in the history of Israeli cinema, with Menahem Golan's "Dalia and the Sailors" (1964), until the current days with a few short scenes from pornographic Israeli movies and few short clips from Israeli cinema. The lecture will conclude with a screening of the short movie "Pathways"(19 min).