Jan 11, 2011
Artist Development
The San Francisco Film Society announced today that Israeli director Ido Haar will be in San Francisco for the Film Society’s inaugural artist-in-residence program, February 21-March 5. Haar’s schedule will feature programs in each of the Film Society’s core areas-education, exhibition and filmmaker services-including visits to Bay Area high school and college classrooms, a screening of Melting Siberia, a master class and mentoring of SFFS FilmHouse residents. The residency is funded by a grant from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
“We are extremely grateful to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for making this residency program possible,” said Joanne Parsont, SFFS director of education. “It is a great opportunity for us to engage a talented international filmmaker with programming in many different areas of the Film Society and to connect him and his work with our constituencies, from high school and college students to FilmHouse residents and the filmgoing public. In our first partnership with the Jacob Burns Film Center, we were excited to select Haar as our first artist-in-residence for his compelling body of work and his strong desire to share his knowledge with emerging filmmakers and students.”
For Complete Artist-In-Residence information visit sffs.org/artist-in-residence.
Haar has worked extensively in the Israeli television industry, directing, shooting and editing social, political and cultural documentaries. His first feature documentary Melting Siberia, tracing his mother’s courageous quest to reunite with the Russian father who abandoned her mother shortly before her birth, was released theatrically in Israel and screened at film festivals worldwide. His next film 9 Star Hotel, a devastating cinema vérité portrait of nomadic young Palestinians who illegally cross into Israel, seeking work as day laborers, won the best documentary award at the Jerusalem International Film Festival and was broadcast on PBS’s P.O.V. series in the US. Haar has edited the television documentaries License to Art and Chava Alberstein as well as several episodes of the original Israeli TV series In Treatment. The Israeli Ministry of Science and Culture selected him for the Art of Cinema Award in 2008. In 2009 Haar was a lecturer at the Minshar Art School & Center and International Filmmaker-in-Residence at the Jacob Burns Film Center in Pleasantville, New York. He studied at the Sam Spiegel Film & Television School in Jerusalem.
On Saturday, February 26, 11:00 am-2:00 pm, Haar will teach a master class on Israeli Political and Social Documentaries at the Ninth Street Independent Film Center, 145 Ninth Street. Haar takes the approach of a reporter/anthropologist in films such as 9 Star Hotel and Melting Siberia. This unique master class will provide an overview of current trends in Israeli documentaries and give students an opportunity to discuss and understand the work of Haar and his peers. The class will be preceded by a complimentary coffee and bagel reception for Haar and all enrolled students.
Haar’s moving personal documentary Melting Siberia (Saba Sibir, Israel 2004) will play Wednesday, March 2 at 7:00 pm at Viz Cinema, 1746 Post Street. Haar’s mother was born in the Soviet Union. She was still in her mother’s womb when her father, a high-ranking officer in the Red Army, abandoned her mother and disappeared. Haar, who bears a close resemblance to his grandfather, decides to locate his lost relative and arrange to have him meet his daughter for the first time. The distance between Siberia and Israel, and father and daughter, is instantly shortened by one telephone call, a dramatic interchange that sets an inevitable course of events in motion. The film traces the painful journey from abandonment to reconciliation. In English, and Hebrew and Russian with subtitles. 72 min. Peter Stein, executive director of the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival, will moderate a Q&A with Haar after the screening followed by a reception with the filmmaker at Viz Cinema Café.
The Film Society’s education department has scheduled numerous other programs during Haar’s residency including speaking with several classes of Hebrew-language students at the Jewish Community High School of the Bay, addressing Janis Plotkin’s Israeli Cinema class at San Francisco State University and a special training class for Film Society interns.
Under the auspices of Filmmaker Services, the Film Society’s programs designed to foster creativity and further the careers of independent filmmakers, Haar will also serve as a mentor and teach a class to the residents of FilmHouse, the production offices for independent filmmakers.
For screeners and interviews contact hilary@sffs.org
For photos and press materials visit: sffs.org/pressdownloads
Tickets for Master Class $50 year-round SFFS members, $60 general; Melting Siberia $15 year-round SFFS members, $20 general. Box office opens February 1 for members and February 8 for the general public: online at sffs.org or call 415-561-5000 for information.
Presented in partnership with the Jacob Burns Film Center with the support of a grant from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences.