An old box is opened. Dust spreads allover. Inside there are dozens of small yellow boxes. They have all been marked 'Yitzhak' by hand. These are 8 mm films, each film is three minute long. Together they comprise almost 10 hours of old footage: films from a different and somehow forgotten world - the sixties -the faces, the flowers, the empty landscapes of the recently born Israel. Some would say these were "the years of innocence".
Filmed by Yitzhak
A Film by: Limor Pinhasov
(Israel, 2009, 50 Minutes, Color, Hebrew, English subtitles)
An old box is opened. Dust spreads allover. Inside there are dozens of small yellow boxes. They have all been marked 'Yitzhak' by hand. These are 8 mm films, each film is three minute long. Together they comprise almost 10 hours of old footage: films from a different and somehow forgotten world - the sixties -the faces, the flowers, the empty landscapes of the recently born Israel. Some would say these were "the years of innocence".
What can we learn about that man today? How did he perceive the objects caught by his camera? His friends, his family, his first trips oversee? The Queen of England riding her horse, the game parks of Africa, the empty streets of Tehran? How much did he enjoy the actual task of filming? What part did it have in his life? What do the people who were filmed back then think and feel today when they see, for the first time, how they were caught by the moment 30 years ago?
Can we, as observers, relate today to the man who shot those films? Is it relevant at all, that the man who held the 8 mm camera was once the beloved prime minister of Israel?
QUOTES
• "We are faced with the astounding movie Filmed by Yitzhak which premiered on YES DOCO... edited by Limor Pinhassov, these segments of films can not even be valued in gold... The viewer feels as if he has slipped a coin into a time machine and is allowed to peak through a magnifying glass straight into the heart and the soul of a man who, we had always thought, didn't believe in exposure". - Yediot Ahronot
• "Yuval Rabin says that usually only the photographers themselves are interested in their films and that for others watching the films is a 'sort of punishment'. This time it is a present... The result shows the natural talent of an otherwise introverted man who opened up with his camera and expressed himself... Pinhassov herself was able to say a lot in her minimalistic ways, surely a great achievement". - Haaretz
• We learn of another facet, an unknown facet, of Rabin's legacy, shown in Limor Pinhassov's excellent film". - Ma'ariv
AWARDS, FESTIVALS & SCREENINGS
• Jerusalem International Film Festival
• Washington DC Jewish Film Festival
• Consulate General of Israel to New England
• Palm Beach Jewish Film Festival
• Israeli consulate, NYC
• San Diego Jewish Film Festival
• Burns Film Center, NY
• Stockholm Jewish Film Festival
• Miami Beach Jewish Film Festival
• PKF- Rome Israeli Film festival
• East Bay JCC 2015