(Jewish Group) The Israel Film Archive collects more than a century of Israeli historical footage...

[Behind the Aegis]

The Israel Film Archive collects more than a century of Israeli historical footage online. Here are the highlights.

For years, only those with special permission could visit the climate-controlled repositories of the Jerusalem Cinematheque to see the moving pictures held in the Israel Film Archive. But following a massive digitization effort, anyone with an internet connection can now watch the footage.

“We’re at the fun part where we can share this treasure with the public,” says Noa Regev, director of the Jerusalem Cinematheque. Following a $10 million project that began in 2015 to preserve, restore and digitize its audiovisual collection, the archive can now be streamed via a website that launched in Hebrew in late 2020 and added English-language subtitles in October.

Divided into two sections, the website includes a paid on-demand category, “The Artistic View,” containing 300 Israeli feature films, and a free “Historical View” area with digitized versions of rare films; every newsreel created in Israel from 1927 through 1972; home movies; and family collections.

“The Historical View” exposes, in mostly black-and-white film with scratchy patina, the life of the region across elections and wars, tree plantings and commercials for 1920s beauty salons. There are also full versions of historic footage you may have seen as blips in documentaries, like the Declaration of the State of Israel.

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[Budi]

1. Impressive task! I can't wait to have a look.

Thank you for posting this

Understanding the deep personal value to such a collection, its very generous that the whole world should now have access.

Wow!
The news of such a proud gift is really exciting, indeed.



From the link:
"Only around 30% of the archive’s celluloid and video materials have been digitized so far; Regev estimates that within five years the full archive will be available. “People keep discovering more materials,” she adds, hedging that as the archive constantly grows it may never be fully available online. “The most fascinating materials are the ones brought down from someone’s boydem [Yiddish for ‘attic’], both in Israel and abroad.”

Fascinating read on this history ~ thanks

[Behind the Aegis]

2. Agreed!

I like history and love old photos and videos. I had a class in HS on the history of China, and one of the filmstrips was composed of really old found footage and it was so interesting. My husband and I have been watching some of those types of videos on YouTube and they are so interesting, especially the children all trying to mug for the camera! Selfies before it was cool! LOL!