Sapir Brings Cinema to Negev Evacuees.

While thousands of families from the Western Negev shelter in temporary locations, Sapir College plans to bring to them new and innovative cultural events.

So, this year, the School of Audio and Visual Arts will take its 22nd annual Cinema South Film Festival on the road, visiting evacuee communities around Israel. From March 2nd to 27th, the itinerant cinematic event will screen in locations ranging from Eilat to Herzliya, from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv, and from the Dead Sea to Rahat. Entrance is free of charge for displaced families from the Gaza Envelope.

This year’s Film Festival is tempered by pain and longing. Postponed due to the October 7th terror attacks, Cinema South will memorialize its friends and supporters who lost their lives in those tragic events, including Ofir Libstein, head of the Shar Hanegev Regional Council who was killed defending Kibbutz Kfar Aza, Sapir faculty member Yahav Wiener, murdered while protecting his wife and daughter in Kfar Aza, and Lior Waitzman, the talented soundtrack designer and Sapir alumni who was murdered in Sderot. The event will launch with the premiere of Asaf Asulin’s fantasy-drama Horse with No Name.  It will return home to the Sderot Cinematheque for a concluding event – broadcast live but with no audience – featuring awards ceremonies and RFP announcements for the 23rd Cinema South festival, already scheduled for November 2024.

Prof. Nir Kedar, President of Sapir College, and Prof. Sami Shalom Chetrit, Chair of the School of Audio and Visual Arts, believe that life in the Western Negev will emerge from pain and loss, stronger than ever. To help make that happen, the show must go on!

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