The official name of the upcoming Cinema South Festival, "Cinema South: In First Person Perspective", was chosen because of our intention and sincere desire use the festival program to tell our story - the story of the communities of the south, Sderot, kibbutzim and settlements of Shaar Hanegev and Eshkol - from a personal and local point of view. Through the local story, the broad Israeli story unfolds in the course of this difficult time for Israel and the Israelis, 13 months into the Iron Swords War and since the worst disaster that has ever befallen the men and women of this place.
Through the films and events chosen to be included in the program of the upcoming festival you can see the Israeli spectrum breaking into thousands of fragments, each of which is a small story that makes up the whole: the fracture that has not yet been healed among the residents of the kibbutzim, and will not be healed until the return of their loved ones; the physical and mental wound that opened up in the heart of the city of Sderot after the tragic and heroic events that took place at the police station and throughout the city; the divided identity of the residents of the Bedouin diaspora, between their relatives in Gaza and their physical home in Israel; the struggle of the families of the hostages that brings up an underground discourse between the parts of society in Israel; the role of cinema as a mirror and a catalyst for social and political processes, and more.
"In First Person Perspective", the main content category of the upcoming Cinema South Film Festival, puts the southern creators and the southern story at the center, and seeks to tell the world from a local point of view what brought us to October 7th, what we became in the wake of this terrible date, and who we want to be from now on - through the upsetting and brave films in the program and in the presence of the filmmakers.
