Erez Laufer

Segregated, highly surveilled, heavily filmed and intensely guarded: H2 uncovers the ways in which a single neighborhood in Hebron fuels the entire Israeli-Palestinian conflict. 54 years of military occupation, told through the story of a one-kilometer long street.

Filmed over four years, this documentary focuses on the impacts of gentrification as gay white professionals move into a largely black working-class neighborhood in Columbus, Ohio.

The director follows a Sunni Arab doctor as he prepares to run for the early 2005 elections in Iraq.

In Tel Aviv, activists gather weekly to demonstrate their opposition to the war in Gaza with a silent vigil for the children killed in Israeli attacks.

In the male dominated society of Iran, Farahnaz Shiri, the first female bus driver in Tehran, has made her own little society in her bus. In Iran there are different sections for men and women on public buses. Women should enter buses from the back door, which is separated from men’s entrance, and should sit or stay in a limited zone at the end of the buses which is separated from men’s zone. But in Mrs. Shiri’s bus everything is vice-versa. She is the governor and the only law maker of her own little society. In her bus, men must enter from the backdoor entrance and must sit or stay in the limited zone at the end of the bus. Mrs. Shiri is struggling to prove herself in this society and resisting a series of injustices that she faces as a woman in the Iranian society.

Friends since high school, 20-somethings Kaleil Isaza Tuzman and Tom Herman have an idea: a Web site for people to conduct business with municipal governments. This documentary tracks the rise and fall of govWorks.com from May of 1999 to December of 2000, and the trials the business brings to the relationship of these best friends. Kaleil raises the money, Tom's the technical chief. A third partner wants a buy out; girlfriends come and go; Tom's daughter needs attention. And always the need for cash and for improving the site. Venture capital comes in by the millions. Kaleil is on C-SPAN, CNN, and magazine covers. Will the business or the friendship crash first?

James, giving himself 12 months before he has "a license to kill himself," sets off to the Amazon rainforest with hopes of finding a shaman who can save his life.

Nine o'clock on Monday morning, August 18, 1969: while the work force was starting the day, Jimi Hendrix was taking the stage at Woodstock. While hundreds of thousands had already left, 25,000 people remained to see this incredible performance. Hendrix, along with drummer Mitch Mitchell and bassist Billy Cox, offered masterly renditions of the songs of the recently disbanded Experience ("Hey Joe," "Foxey Lady"), and gave a preview of the blues-based Band of Gypsys ("Izabella," "Hear My Train A Comin'"), as well as Jimi's era-defining rendition of "The Star Spangled Banner." Though the weekend had witnessed some landmark performances by other great artists, this performance from Hendrix is regarded by many as the defining moment in a festival ripe with defining moments.

A fascinating documentary focusing on backstage realities of art and business during the British synthesizer band's 1988 American tour.

A film featuring the veteran soul music artists and music of Stax Records. It tells the story of soul, a musical genre that was to have a major influence on other styles of music for decades. Ten legends of soul talk about the beginnings and still show at their concerts today that, despite their advanced age, they have lost none of the energy and joie de vivre that defines this music.

Outposts have become a major tool for taking control of land in the occupied West Bank and displacing Palestinian communities. These communities face escalating daily violence, threats and when they simply can’t take it anymore – displacement. Over 60 Palestinian communities have been displaced since October 7. Israeli activists come in daily shifts, armed only with their phones, to document, confront settlers, and stand in solidarity as the Palestinian communities struggle to remain on their land.

Lea Tsemel, a Jewish-Israeli lawyer, defends Palestinians: from feminists to fundamentalists, from nonviolent demonstrators to armed militants. As far as most Israelis are concerned, she defends the indefensible. As far as Palestinians are concerned, she’s more than an attorney, she’s an ally. «Advocate» follows Tsemel in real time, including the trial of a 13-year-old boy — her youngest client to date.

Keep On Rockin', aka Little Richard: Keep On Rockin' (USA video title) is a film of a 1969 Little Richard concert at the Sweet Toronto Peace Festival, originally released in 1970. Richard performs a number of his greatest hits, including "Good Golly Miss Molly," "Long Tall Sally," and "Tutti Frutti." The film is in color.

A pioneer in the world of rock-'n'-roll guitar, Chuck Berry has created a legacy that spans decades. Berry performs some of his greatest hits and all-time favorites in this concert video that was filmed on September 13, 1969 at 'Toronto Rock'n'Roll Revival.' The Concert includes the songs "Rock and Roll Music," "Long Live Rock and Roll," "Johnny B. Goode," "Promised Land," "Carol," "Hoochie Koochie Man," "Maybellene," "Too Much Monkey Business," "Reelin' and Rockin'," "Sweet Little Sixteen" and "In the Wee, Wee Hours."

Woodstock Diary was originally broadcasted on U.S. TV in August 1994 - in honor of the 25th anniversary of the event. Later it was released on DVD with remastered 5.1 sound. It includes performances not shown in the Woodstock movie but not exclusively. Between the songs there are recent interviews with the producers / organizers of Woodstock Joel Rosenman, John Roberts, Michael Lang, the stage announcer Wavy Gravy and Lisa Law (a member of the Hog Farm who helped out at the festival).

The story of the people of the Blue Nile and Nuba Mountains in Sudan, showing how they deal with civil war. Traditionally music has always been part of daily life in these areas, but now, it has a new role in a society challenge by war.

The Jewish National Fund's Blue Boxes were a global fundraiser to purchase land in Israel. Weaving a co-founder's diary entries with his descendants' memories, Blue Box investigates the myths that constructed a national icon.

It took the Israeli secret service four years to get their hands on right-wing terrorist organisation, the Jewish Underground. After carrying out several attacks on Muslims in the early 1980s, the group plotted to blow up the Dome of the Rock. Director Shai Gal reconstructs the events in the form of a detective story with dramatisations and interviews with key figures, including the perpetrators, who claim they have nothing to hide. With a chilling contemporary relevance, director Gal reveals the ties between members of the Jewish Underground and the Israeli political sphere are stronger than ever.

"Write Down, I am an Arab" tells the story of Mahmoud Darwish, the Palestinian national poet and one of the most influential writers of the Arab world. His writing shaped Palestinian identity and helped galvanize generations of Palestinians to their cause. Born in the Galilee, Darwish's family fled during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War and returned a few years later to a ruined homeland. These early experiences would provide the foundation for a writing career that would come to define an entire nation.

MOURNING IN LOD, takes a microcosmic look at the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through Musa, Yigal, and Randa — three people whose fates become inextricably linked in a vicious cycle of violence. Lod/Lydd is a “mixed” city inhabited by Arabs and Jews who live side by side in a strained coexistence. In May 2021, two of these three people lost their lives and and one regained hers — thanks to an unlikely organ transplant. The outpouring of love, anger, forgiveness and sorrow that follows in their wake is a ray of light that offsets a collective state of mourning with no end in sight.

US director Samuel Fuller once compared filmmaking to a battlefield – an observation which proves itself above and beyond whilst watching Erez Laufer’s documentary, Total Loss – in which he follows the making of director Gur Bentvich’s film, Total Love (2000) on location round the world – from Tel Aviv and Amsterdam to Rishikesh and Goa. Beyond the cross-continent physical journey, Laufer also chronicles the emotional-artistic journey undertaken by director Bentvich, screenwriter Etgar Keret, the principal cast featuring Maor Cohen and Tinkerbell, and the rest of the production crew. At the heart of the film is the task of “guerilla conditions” filmmaking vs. the anarchy and flurry of surprises that reality keeps springing on the crew, including volatile weather, over-the-top actors and the countless constraints imposed on the production by the Indian authorities. This is a film about filmmaking, friendship, and creation.

20 years after his assassination, Yitzhak Rabin himself tells his dramatic life story.

Angelina-Duah Fares, a Druze woman, attempts to enter the Israeli fashion world, but traditions clash with her efforts to choose her way in life.

A fringe theater group that brings the stories of gay people in Israel to the stage takes on the Edinburgh Theater Festival in Scotland.