Outstanding Creativity:
The documentary produced by students from Rabin School in Gan Yavne about a woman suffering from cerebral palsy who wins all her personal battles against all odds, won first prize for a documentary film at the Jerusalem Film Festival.
The festive ceremony took place at the end of July at The Lab in Jerusalem, a campus that offers a stage for young creators from across the country, awarding prizes to the talented youngsters, among whom were four 12th graders from Rabin School in Gan Yavne. They were competing against 15 other schools for the title of best documentary film.
This is the 18th year that the Van Leer Youth Festival has been part of the world film festival held every year in Jerusalem. The ceremony was attended by the Chief Inspectors for the teaching of Media and Cinema, Ms. Balin and Mr. David Waldman, and other key figures from the world of film such as Lea Van Leer, Haim Elbom, Ada Ushpiz and Riki Shelach.
The winning documentary was created by a particularly talented foursome: Dorin Menashe, Eldad Nahmias, Orin Tayeb and Sapir Bitan, as part of their studies in the media studies track at the school, under the supervision of teacher Amiram Romem.
The film, entitled “Things I wanted to say”, tells the story of Lilach, a young woman born with CP. Lilach is a fascinating character, coping with her limitations in a way that can only inspire admiration. Today, Lilach is attending university, after marrying and giving birth to a beautiful daughter. The film accompanies her through her second pregnancy and the producers join in the great excitement at the celebration of her new son’s Brit Mila. In the film Lilach says she has something she wants to say to the world and that this film is her way of doing just that.
In addition to the excitement of winning first place for a documentary film, the four students also received an honorable mention for best script. According to their supervisor, this is the first year that a documentary has ever received an honorable mention for the script. The next day, the students were even more thrilled to be invited, together with the school principal, Mr. Haim Eisner, to be guests of honor at the closing ceremony of the Van Leer Festival. The students met with actor Moshe Ivgi and received hearty applause from everyone there.
Director Dorin and producer Eldad spoke of how thrilled they were to win. They had no such expectations, but during the festival its organizer and one of the judges approached them and mentioned that their film was good and even moved them to tears. “Naturally, when someone says something like that, you start hoping. When we got the prize for the school we were very happy and felt a real esprit de corps”, recalls Dorin.
This prize is a further rung on the ladder of success for this track, which also came second in the Journalists’ Award at the Dimona Festival, and a screening of the film “Let the whole world know!” on Channel 1.
We wish them all great success in the future!