Mizrahi Documentary Filmmaking

Tuesday, November 15, 2022

Coffman Memorial Union - President's Room

11:45 - 1:00pm

Rafael Balulu is currently at work on a documentary film about the Abuhatzeira family, a prominent Moroccan family of rabbis, focusing on the Baba Sali and the Baba Haki from their youth in Morocco to their rise as leaders in Israel. In this conversation with Prof. Daniel Schroeter, Balulu will speak about the archival and narrative challenges of the project, will share preliminary footage, and will discuss his cinematographic work within the broader contemporary context of cultural, academic, activist, and political production by third generation Mizrahim.

Rafael Balulu is an award-winning filmmaker and a leading figure in contemporary Mizrahi and Israeli culture. He is the director of a number of documentary films about Mizrahim and Jews of the Arab World, including A Song of Loves, R. David Buzaglo, and Levantine, Jacqueline Kahanoff. Balulu has produced, written, and directed projects for television and eight shorts which won international prizes. Among them – Such Eyes which won the NYC Shorts, Batman at the Checkpoint, which won the Berlin Today Award at the 62nd Berlinale, and We Were a Sterile Bomb which won Best Short Animation at the Jerusalem International Film Fest.