Sweet Sweet Mud

A little news in cinema this week. The Israeli film “Sweet Mud” won the jury prize for world cinema at the Sundance Film Festival last Saturday. You can see the movie trailer here. Congrats guys!

More from HA’ARETZ:

Israel’s ‘Sweet Mud’ wins World Cinema drama prize at Sundance

By Goel Pinto, Haaretz Correspondent, Reuters, and Haaretz Service

Sundance Film Festival juries on Saturday gave the top International prize to the Israeli movie “Sweet Mud.”

Dror Shaul’s film, which tells the story of a boy dealing with his mentally ill mother on a kibbutz in the 1970s, won the World Cinema jury prize for best drama.

“Sweet Mud,” a co-production of teams from Germany, France, and Japan, was also elected as the Israeli nominee for the best foreign film category of the Oscars, but did not make the list of five finalists for the award.

Continue reading Sweet Sweet Mud…

Israeli VC Gaining Ground

The last few years have seen a tremendous increase in the quantity and importance of venture capital funds around the US. It began to explode with the hi-tech boom in the 90s, but even as the start-up trend has slowed a bit, venture capital firms are still out there, taking small entrepreneurs and helping them create tremendously successful businesses. They’re growing in number and significance, and have become a major force in world of small businesses. Some major examples of the successes of venture capital investment are Google and YouTube – companies you may have heard of.

Well, if you’ve ever read anything about Israel, including this blog, you’re probably well aware that passion for hi-tech and entrepreneurial skill flows through the blood of Israelis. You may not have known, though, that we’re there in the world of VC, too.

Though Israel’s VC sector is only about 15 years old, three Israelis just made Forbes’ list of the top-100 international venture capitalists – the ‘Midas List’. Schlomo Kalish of Jerusalem Global Ventures made the list, followed by Erel Margalit of Jerusalem Venture Partners and Yossi Sela of Gemini Israel Funds. They were ranked at 39, 69, and 89, respectively.

Stay tuned for more Israelis taking the fast track to the top.

Thanks to YNET News for breaking the story.

Never Again

Today the UN General Assembly observes the International Day of Commemoration in memory of the victims of the Holocaust at United Nations Headquarters.

From their website:

“Denying historical facts, especially on such an important subject as the Holocaust, is just not acceptable. Nor is it acceptable to call for the elimination of any State or people. I would like to see this fundamental principle respected both in rhetoric and in practice by all the members of the international community.” - UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon

Rejecting any denial of the Holocaust as a historical event, either in full or in part, the General Assembly adopted by consensus a resolution (A/RES/60/7) condemning “without reserve” all manifestations of religious intolerance, incitement, harassment or violence against persons or communities based on ethnic origin or religious belief, whenever they occur…

Continue reading Never Again…

Happy 70th Israeli Philharmonic

The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra (IPO) is no stranger to New Yorkers, on the contrary, their concerts at Carnegie Hall sell out every time. But 2007 is a special year for the IPO as the orchestra celebrates its 70th birthday. The IPO was established 12 years before Israel’s statehood, on December 26, 1936 as the Palestine Orchestra, and changed its name with the establishment of the State of Israel. What makes the IPO unique is that it is not an exclusively “Israeli” orchestra; musicians from various ethnic, national and religious backgrounds have been joining its ranks throughout the years, making it a symbol of unity and peaceful coexistence.

Continue reading Happy 70th Israeli Philharmonic…

Be Our Friend

We all know that Israel sometimes has a tough time making friends. Not because we do not try or because we are not a friendly nation. On the contrary, mostly we are just misunderstood or subjected to misguided and pre-conceived notions.

We have our faults and character flaws, as does every nation, and we are multi-dimensional and complex as every other nation as well. Truth be told, we can recount numerous instances when a critic is surprised to learn about our achievements, generous hospitality, winning sense of humor, depth of emotion, and of course, our striking good looks. But we digress.

Ultimately, we’d just like a fair chance to get to know you, and for you to get to know us, before deciding to be our friend or not. So please, take a moment to check out our MySpace and join our friends list, and send us comments, and check out our favorites, and let us know what you’d like to learn and discover about us.

We can assure you that we value our friendships, and if you give us a chance, you will not be disappointed.

New Amos Oz Book

Every time a new Amos Oz book hits the shelves, it is news not only in Israel but worldwide. Newsweek writes, “Eloquent, humane, even religious in the deepest sense, [Oz] emerges as a kind of Zionist Orwell: a complex man obsessed with simple decency and determined above all to tell the truth, regardless of whom it offends.”

Well, in the beginning of March a new Amos Oz is coming out. The title in Hebrew is “harouzei ahyayim veamavet” which in English can be translated as “Rhyme/ Bead of Life and Death”. Oz is making clever use of the word “harouzei” which in English means both rhyme and bead.

The novel is about one night in Tel Aviv in the beginning of the 1980s. According to Oz’s editor Ronit Weiss- Burkowitz, “it is a refreshing and surprising book that deals with the virtue of observation.” Oz started writing this book three years ago but just managed to finish it. (Well, I am sure promoting one of his best novels “A Tale of Love and Darkness” has taken up a lot of his time. We strongly recommend reading it. You’ll get a great sense of Israel’s history through one its master storytellers).

A few things about the plot of the new book: the hero is a writer whose name is never shared with us and the events cover a time span of 8 hours. In the beginning of the book, the author meets the audience at a cultural center in Tel Aviv, but on his way there he roams around the streets of Tel Aviv and in his imagination he constructs the lives of the people he sees. He gives them life; he gives them names and biographies.

We hope the publisher makes quick work of the English translation.

For the original article in Hebrew click here

Esti is Ugly

Some people say beauty is skin deep, but that ugly is to the bone. Well last Sunday, actress America Ferrera won a Golden Globe Award for playing the title character in the hit TV series Ugly Betty, and muted the point all together. It doesn’t matter what people say when you’ve got a globe. However, what makes any of this relevant, is that three years before Ugly Betty premiered, Israeli TV viewers had Esti Ha’mechoeret (Ugly Esti), which starred Riki Blich.

Ugly Betty and Ugly Esti are based on a 1999 Colombian telenovela (Latin American-formatted soap opera), Yo Soy Betty La Fea (I am Betty the Ugly). After that show’s success in Colombia and other Spanish-speaking countries, its format was sold to production companies around the world, including the Israeli company Dori Media Group Ltd.

I guess ugly translates well.

Kravitz Rocks Even if He Won’t Play

Another bit from YNET today:

“Singer Lenny Kravitz, one of America’s most popular rock stars, has announced he will make his first visit to Israel in the summer, Israel’s leading newspaper reported Thursday.

The 42-year-old singer will visit as a tourist, and has not decided if he will perform here during the visit.

During the Jewish-African American reception earlier this week, Kravitz told Israel’s consul general in New York, Aryeh Mekel, that he will be arriving in Israel in the next two-to-three months to visit friends in Tel Aviv.

Kravitz was born in New York, grew up in Los Angeles, and at the end of the 1980s returned to New York. He is the son of Roxie Roker, who played Helen Willis on the 1970s sitcom “The Jeffersons” and Jewish television producer Sy Kravitz”

Sorry for all the Ynetting recently. Not that we have anything against the newspaper, not at all- it is a superb publication- but we’ve just been feeling lazy lately, and well, you know how that is…

Anyway, at least we hooked you up with the sexy video, right?

Israeli Hit on HBO

Good news in TV land from YNET everyone:

HBO has ordered 40 episodes of “In Treatment,” a half-hour drama starring Gabriel Byrne.

Based on the popular and critically acclaimed Israeli series of the same name (”BeTipul” in Hebrew), “Treatment” centers on a therapist (Byrne) who is calm, smooth, insightful and non-confrontational with his patients but turns into a testy, self-doubting individual full of barely concealed anger when he is a patient seeing his own shrink.

In the pilot stage, HBO ordered five episodes of “Treatment.” The series pickup brings the total to 45 half-hours, the same as the original Israeli series.

It is not clear how HBO will schedule “Treatment.” In Israel, the show aired five nights a week for nine weeks, with every episode focusing on one of several families and their weekly therapy session.

“Treatment” is executive produced by writer-director Rodrigo Garcia (HBO’s “Carnivale,” “Big Love”), who wrote and directed the pilot and will serve as showrunner. Mark Wahlberg (HBO’s “Entourage”) will also serve as an executive producer.

Getting It Together With Design

If it organizes my notoriously messy life, and is endorsed by Oprah Winfrey, then I am down with it. What am I talking about? Well, I would like you to meet the ‘Doorganizer’.

I am what you might call a serious faffer. Everyone is ready to leave the house (after waiting ages for me to get ready), and I’m in a fluster searching for keys, wallet, cell phone, usually working up a bit of a sweat because I’ve preemptively put on my jacket; ‘Just a second, I need one minute, sorry! Did anyone see my….?’

Well, from what I hear, the Israeli design company Monkey Business may have apparently got just the thing for me.

And who could say it better than Oprah? The description of the doorganizer in O magazine reads: “This extremely smart organizer holds bills that need mailing, keys, grocery lists… and there’s even a flap in back for stashing a book or your DVD rentals. Hang it on the front door knob to keep one step ahead of every mini-crisis”.

A Tel-Aviv based family business, Monkey Business, makes all sorts of practical, yet funky and affordable simplify-your-life design products. There is the ‘Dolica The Sheep You Keep’, a plastic sheep shaped container that holds cotton buds and cotton wool, and a Plughole Ashtray that looks like a drain stopper. Designer Oded Friedland, who was recently honored as one of three promising Israeli designers by Israeli business journal The Marker in their January 07 Design and Business issue, has a simple goal: to “make the ordinary extraordinary”.

Our friends at Israel21C have got the scoop….