AMOS GITAI - director

Amos Gitai was studying architecture, following in his father’s footsteps, when the Yom Kippur War interrupted his studies and it was the use of his Super8 camera, whilst flying helicopter missions that led to his career as a filmmaker. Based in Israel, the United States and France, Gitai has produced an extraordinary, wide-ranging, and deeply personal body of work. In around 40 films – documentary and fiction, Gitai has explored the layers of history in the Middle East and beyond, including his own personal history, through such themes as homeland and exile, religion, social control and utopia. His trademark style includes long takes with scarce but significant camera movements and a devilishly clever sense of humour.
In the late 70s and early 80s, Gitai directed numerous documentaries, including HOUSE and FIELD DIARY. During the same era, Gitai received his Ph.D in architecture from the University of California – Berkeley. Following the controversial reception to FIELD DIARY, Gitai moved to Paris in 1983, where he was based for the next ten years and during this period continued to travel widely directing such documentaries as PINEAPPLE – a humorous odyssey about the growth and marketing of pineapples. He also made BRAND NEW DAY – a film that followed Annie Lennox and the Eurythmics as they toured Japan.
During this period he began directing fiction and historical films about the experience of exile. These films include the Venice critic's prize-winning BERLIN JERUSALEM and the extraordinary trilogy on the Jewish legend of Golem.
In the mid-90s Gitai moved to Haifa and began the most fertile, productive period of his career to date. Over 10 years, Gitai made some 15 films, both documentary and fiction. The 1995 feature DEAVARIM marked the return to his country and his reunion with the light and landscape of Tel Aviv. The first film in Gitai's trilogy of Israeli cities, DEVARIM was followed by YOM YOM (shot in Haifa) and KADOSH (shot in Mea Shearim, the Jerusalem district of Orthodox Jews). Other fiction features followed: 2000’s KIPPUR, 2001's EDEN, 2002’s KEDMA, 2003’s ALILA and 2004’s PROMISED LAND.
Gitai’s work has been the subject of major retrospectives, notably at Centre Pompidou (Paris), NFT and ICA (both in London), and cinematheques in Madrid, Jerusalem, Paris, Sao Paolo, Tokyo and Toronto. Future retrospectives are scheduled later this year at New York’s Lincoln Center and Berlin’s Kunstwerk.

1980         HOUSE – documentary

1981         WADI – documentary
                IN SEARCH OF IDENTITY – documentary
                AMERICAN MYTHOLOGIES – documentary

1982         FIELD DIARY – documentary

1983         ANANAS (Pineapples) – documentary

1984         BANGKOK-BAHRAIN (Labour for Sale) – documentary

1985         ESTHER – feature

1987         BRAND NEW DAY – musical documentary

1989         BERLIN-JERUSALEM – feature
                BIRTH OF A GOLEM – docu-drama

1991         GOLEM, THE SPIRIT OF EXILE – feature
                WADI, TEN YEARS LATER – documentary

1992         METAMORPHOSIS OF A MELODY – documentary/theatre

1993         QUEEN MARY – documentary
                THE PETRIFIED GARDEN - feature
                THE WAR OF TH ESONE OF LIGHT AGAINST THE SONS OF DARKNESS
                  – documentary/theatre
                IN THE VALLEY OF THE WUPPER - documentary
                KIPPUR WAR MEMORIES – documentary

1994         IN THE NAME OF THE DUCE – documentary
                GIVE PEACE A CHANCE – documentary

1995         DEVARIM (Things) – feature

1996         THE ARENA OF MURDER – documentary
                MILIM (Words) – theatre /documentary

1997         WAR AND PEACE IN VESOUL – improvised docudrama

1998         A HOUSE IN JERUSALEM – documentary
                ZION, AUTO–EMANCIPATION – documentary
                YOM YOM (Day After Day) – feature

1999         KADOSH - feature

2000         KIPPUR - feature

2001         EDEN – feature
                WADI GRAND CANYON – documentary

2002         KEDMA – feature

2003         ALILA – feature

2004         PROMISED LAND – feature

2005         FREE ZONE - feature