Sheerly Avni is a writer and editor living in Mexico.
Sheerly Avni
By Sheerly Avni
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Culture Meet The Man Who Has Revolutionized Israeli Cinema
Every year, Colorado’s prestigious Telluride Film Festival celebrates a hero of cinema who preserves, honors and presents great movies. This year that honor went to Katriel Schory, beloved president of the Israel Film Fund. The award was well-deserved. As president of the IFF since 1999, Schory has long been considered the secret force behind his…
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Film & TV Why We Need Superheroes — Especially Wonder Woman
“Wonder Woman” is the biggest hit of the year, the savior of Warner Brothers and the greatest boon to the chattering classes since Trump’s election. Only four days into its release, it’s brought in 200 million dollars and almost as many reaction pieces. Is it too feminist? Is it not feminist enough? Gal Gadot is…
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Culture How Richard Gere’s ‘Norman’ Became The Unlikeliest Cinema Hero
You already know Norman Oppenheimer. He’s the guy no one can remember inviting to the party, and yet here he is, handing out business cards and offering to put you in touch with one of his many well-heeled connections. Or he’s pressed against the velvet rope on a rainy night, insisting he’s with the band….
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Culture For The Director Of ‘Settlers,’ The Failure Of Israel Is Not An Option
For a brief shining moment towards the end of “The Settlers,” director Shimon Dotan gives us the chance to imagine what the Holy Land might look like, in a parallel, better universe. The speaker is 38-year-old Yossi Fruman, a young rabbi living in the settlement of Tekoa B’. “This land belongs to God, not to…
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Culture Nato Green and San Francisco Activists Give Nancy Pelosi a New Spine — Literally
Perhaps even more disheartening than the prospect of a Trump-induced apocalypse is the reaction of the Democratic party as it stampedes towards that Apocalypse, in what often looks like a desperate race to see who can capitulate first and farthest to the new regime. Americans are being asked to “reunite a divided country,” “end the…
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Culture Ben Ehrenreich Throws Stones at Conventional Wisdom About Israel
In the classic American film noir “Out of the Past,” the wayward mob mistress and the private eye hired to drag her back home are, inevitably, flirting in a casino in Mexico. “Is there a way to win,” she asks, sultry and musical, pretending that she’s talking about the gambling tables. “No,” the doomed chump…
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Culture ‘Tikkun’ Director Avishai Sivan Talks Breaking Taboos and Portraying the Orthodox
On Avishai Sivan’s website, the 39-year-old Israeli filmmaker has also posted almost two decades worth of the many rejection letters he’s received. It’s both a testimony to the extreme difficulty some institutions have had connecting with his provocative oeuvre and an impressive list of the most prestigious foundations and festivals in the world, including Cannes,…
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Film & TV The Jewish Education of an African Cinema Master
The great Senegalese filmmaker Ousmane Sembene, who died in 2007 at the age of 84, chose cinema as his primary medium almost by default. A former dock worker who is now affectionately referred to as the “father of African cinema,” Sembene had already published several successful novels when he decided, at the age of 40,…
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