"(Gitai's camera) has become a third eye, that of conscience."-Le MondeAn act of censorship led Israeli television director Amos Gitai to become a filmmaker, but it was anger that fueled his pursuit. House, a portrait of a home through interviews with its successive owners-Algerian, Palestinian, Israeli-had been commissioned by Israeli television. When it was suppressed, Gitai determined to turn to independent filmmaking and greater creative freedom. For over twenty-five years, he has engaged in the complications and contradictions of the Middle East, and of Jewish identity and history, using documentary, fiction, and essay forms. Gitai has traced his genesis as a filmmaker to his military service in the 1973 Yom Kippur War. "There was a lot of anger in me, coming out of that war. And it was also political. People of that generation were really furious with our political leadership's lack of responsibility. I distilled that anger into cinema." Whether tracing a fruit from field to factory (Pineapple), investigating cheap labor in Thailand (Bangkok Bahrain), or examining the history of a house or valley (A House in Jerusalem; Wadi, Ten Years Later), Gitai's politically sophisticated documentaries lucidly use a particular object or place to reveal the interrelationships of social life. Similarly, his fictional City Trilogy (Devarim, Yom Yom, Kadosh) and Diaspora Trilogy (Esther, Berlin-Jerusalem, Golem-The Spirit of Exile) function as allegories about Jewish life, and are filled with irony, potent metaphors, and occasional comic touches. In the hands of cinematographers Henri Alékan, Renato Berta, and Nurith Aviv, Gitai's camera gives people time-to reveal their disparate views, to enact daily rituals, to observe and be observed. The results may be contemplative, intrusive, or disquieting, but at the core of Gitai's films is a persistent commitment to posing questions and to portraying and airing differences, even when it is not easy.Kathy Geritz, PFA Associate Film CuratorGitai received a doctorate in Architecture from UC Berkeley. His first film to address the political situation in Israel received an Eisner Prize at Berkeley in 1975.Presented in association with San Francisco Jewish Film Festival and the Consulate General of Israel, San Francisco. Special thanks to Kevin Gallagher, Ray Privet, John Gianvito, Janice Plotkin; Jessica Rosner and Gary Palmucci of Kino International; Donny Inbar, Cultural Attache, San Francisco, and Kim Cooper, Director of Cultural Affairs, Chicago, Consulate General of Israel, for their generous assistance in organizing this series. The title of our series is taken from Robert Sklar's article on Gitai in Film Comment, January/February 2001. Notes by Kathy GeritzTuesday July 3, 2001
