Osnat Trabelsi

Osnat Trabelsi (in Hebrew: אסנת טרבלסי; born December 21, 1965) is an Israeli film producer.[1] She is known for producing documentary films on political topics, especially those involving Palestine, the Mizrahi experience in Israel, women's issues, colonialism, racism, and more; and for melding her business with activism, promoting filmmaking in the geographical and social periphery of Israel, and creating access to Palestinian cinema.[2]

Osnat Trabelsi
אסנת טרבלסי
BornDecember 21, 1965
Ashdod
NationalityIsraeli
Alma materTel Aviv University
OccupationFilm producer
Years activeSince 1992

Biography

Family background

Trabelsi was born and grew up in Ashdod, in the south of Israel. Her mother, Rina, immigrated to Israel from Iraq, via Tehran, and lived in a shanty-town allotted to Mizrahi immigrants in Hadera. She later moved to Ramat Gan. Her father, Mordechai, immigrated from Tunis as part of a youth program, and studied in an agricultural school. He later reunited with his family, who came to Israel at a later time, and lived with them in the moshav Beit Hagadi, also in southern Israel. Upon their marriage, Trabelsi's parents moved to Ashdod, where their children were born. Trabelsi is the eldest of four, two boys and two girls.[3]

In 2011 Trabelsi adopted a daughter.[4]

Production career

When she was 21, Trabelsi pursued film studies at Tel Aviv University.[5] She produced the annual Tel Aviv International Student Film Festival, which has become extremely well-regarded in film circles in Israel over the years.[6] When she graduated, she went on to work as a production coordinator on feature films, the first of which was Eran Riklis' Cup Final (1991). Additional films followed, including Rami Naaman's The Flying Camel (1994) and Riklis' Zohar (1993). On the latter film set, in 1992, she met Juliano Mer-Khamis, and the two embarked on a collaboration to create a film about Mer-Khamis' mother, Arna, who ran a children's theater in Jenin. However, Arna Mer-Khamis died in 1994 and film remained unfinished.[3] Later, in 2002, when news of the fate of some of the then-children who were part of the theater project came to light, the two created the film Arna's Children, produced by Trabelsi and directed by Mer-Khamis, following Arna's political and human rights activism and the stories of the children involved, three of whom died in various circumstances of resistance to the occupying Israeli army. The film won the Best Documentary Award at the Tribeca Film Festival.[7]

After working on several feature films, Trabelsi worked for 10 years as an executive producer for commercials. She produced advertisements for Israeli mega-brands such as Milky, Castro, El Al and Tnuva, while also producing documentary films.

In 1999 she founded Trabelsi Productions, and her first project was a Tnuva campaign in the Palestinian Authority. Until the outbreak of the Second Intifada, her company produced several advertisements for the Palestinian Authority and for Palestinian and international companies.[5] The film Arna's Children was her first international production. The film won many awards in its screenings around the world, and garnered much appreciation. She then produced many other documentaries, most of which deal with political and social issues: the occupation of Palestine, women's struggles with various types of oppression, Ashkenazim and Mizrahim,[8] drugs, and the Holocaust. In 1999, she produced Yigal Burstein's film Smoke Curtain – Three Days with Ariel Zilber; The film documented musician Ariel Zilber, as he recorded his first Arabic-Hebrew CD.[9] In 2002 she produced the film Behind the Fence for the BBC, directed by Inigo Gilmour, which was the first film to be made about Israel's Separation Wall.[10]

In 2007, her film Ashkenaz was released. The film dealt with the way the hegemonic Ashkenazi culture is "unmarked" or invisible in Israel, whereas every other group is "ethnic" and a minority, even though numerically Ashkenazim are not the majority.[11] When she approached the New Israel Fund for backing, she requested that the film be included in its minority track program. The request met with confusion and even antagonism, which Trabelsi had anticipated and perhaps wanted to trigger, to prove the point of the film, that Ashkenazim do not believe themselves to have an ethnicity, they are just "regular" – and accordingly, there is no such thing as "Ashkenazi cinema", although the funders, recipients, and filmmakers in Israel are overwhelmingly of Ashkenazi origin.[11] The film was made without the support of the New Israel Fund, and the incident remained an example used in further activism and as part of her thesis on ethnic relations and power structures in Israel.[12]

In 2010, she produced Erez Miller's debut film, 443, depicting what Miller calls "The Apartheid Road" between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. In 2013, her film The Sound of Torture gained international acclaim and awards.[13]

Activism

After many years of trying to "pass" in Ashkenazi culture, Trabelsi began exploring her own identity as a Mizrahi woman after meeting Juliano Mer-Khamis, and being exposed to the Palestinian struggle and experience. She herself grew up in a right-wing, occupation-supporting family, and was only able to return to her roots in this circuitous way.[2] After embarking on her personal journey in this regard, she became especially involved in exploring and drawing a connection between Mizrahi and Palestinian identities and experience in her work and in her activism as well, two areas that she sees as one and the same.[2] When she founded her production company, her stated mission was to create and promote films that are politically engaged with the injustices being perpetrated against Palestinians, as well and other social justice issues.[14]

In February 2000, Trabelsi and Daoud Kuttab initiated and led the international human rights film festival "Basic Trust" in Tel Aviv, Nazareth and Ramallah, with artistic directors Judd Neeman and George Khalife.[15] While planning a second festival, in September 2000, the Second Intifada broke out, and the festival was cancelled. Instead, Trabelsi worked on other major projects that year: The first was to help produce an event called The Empty Land in the Netherlands, based on the Zionist tenet of "A Land without people for a people without a land", providing an international perspective on Palestinian cinema, with film screenings accompanied by discussions. In addition, she produced in cooperation with the Institute for Modern Media a series of five human rights films, directed by Palestinians from the West Bank and Palestinian citizens of Israel. The series was called "Again".[16]

In 2000, she was also involved in an initiative to establish a public body called the "Social Forum for Broadcast Quality", which launched a public campaign against the establishment of another commercial TV channel and advocated for a quality channel based on the British Channel 4 model. The forum included organizations such as the Israeli Documentary Filmmakers Forum and the Mizrahi Democratic Rainbow Coalition and other social organizations, as well as individual activists including Vicki Shiran, Osnat Trabelsi, Yehuda Shenhav, Yossi Yonah, Judd Neeman, Amit Goren, Ephraim Reiner, Avner Ben-Amos and other artists and political activists. The struggle lasted for about a year until an agreement was reached with Ehud Barak's government to create an experimental channel, but in the end, the plans fell through with the beginning of the Second Intifada.

In 2001, together with director Avi Mograbi, she established a five-year project called "The Occupation Club," in which each month a film about Palestine was screened by Palestinian or international directors. These were films that cannot be seen on Israeli television. After each screening, a discussion was held on the film.[17]

During 2001–2004 she served as a member of the board of directors of the Documentary Filmmakers Forum.[18]

In 2003, together with Dr. Moshe Bahar, Tikva Levy and Avital Mozes-Haim, she created the "Films from the Dark Side" project, a series of twelve meetings on various socio-political issues, but from a Mizrahi, anti-establishment and anti-colonial perspective.[19]

In 2006, she organized and held a seminar in Mitzpeh Ramon devoted to the work of Joris Ivens. Since then, Trabelsi has organized an annual pitching workshop for film students in Sderot. In 2008, she co-founded the Department of Film and Media at the Arab College of Mar Elias in the Galilee. She also participating in an exhibition called "Women of Change" in which forty different women are photographed, each writing her own credo.

In 2007, Trabelsi was chosen by The Marker as one of 40 women making a difference in society.[18] She is also a member of the Public Council of Itach-Maaki Women Lawyers for Social Justice.[20]

Filmography
Year Title Role Notes
1991 Cup Final Production coordinator Narrative feature
1993 The Benny Zinger Show Producer Short
Zohar Production coordinator Narrative feature
1994 The Flying Camel Production coordinator Narrative feature
1999 Smoke Curtain – Three Days with Ariel Zilber Producer Documentary
2001 War Photographer Line producer: Palestine Documentary
2002 Behind the Fence Producer TV documentary
2004 Arna's Children Producer Documentary
Badal Producer Documentary
2005 Offside Producer Documentary short
2006 (S)Elections Producer Video documentary
Gaza: Another Kind of Tears Producer Documentary
Strawberry Fields Producer Documentary
Bhirot Producer Documentary
2007 Sadot Adumim Producer Documentary
Gole Sangam Producer Video documentary
Ashkenaz Producer Documentary
2008 Traffickers Producer TV mini-series documentary
GazaSderot Producer Web documentary series
Pizza in Auschwitz Producer Documentary
2009 Queen Khantarisha Producer Documentary
Jaffa, the Orange's Clockwork Producer Documentary
Poker Widows Producer Documentary
2010 Yellow Mums Producer Short
Food of the Earth Producer TV documentary series
443 Producer Documentary
2012 Powder Producer Documentary
2013 Sound of Torture Producer, Executive producer Documentary
2015 Arab Movie Producer Documentary
My Big Fat Cancer Wedding Producer Documentary
2016 Dinj Producer, Writer Documentary
2017 To Be a Dad Producer TV mini-series documentary
2018 From Russia With Love[21] Producer Documentary

Awards
Award-winning films produced by Trabelsi
Year Award Category Title Result
2001 Academy award Best Documentaryα War Photographer Nominated
2003 IDFA Best Documentary Arna's Children Won
2004 Hot Docs FIPRESCI award for Best First Documentary Feature Won
Tribeca Film Festival Best Documentary Feature Won
Prague One Wold Festival Won
2005 Dutch Academy Award Won
2006 In the Spirit of Freedom Strawberry Fields Won
Bologna International Film Festival Slow Food on Film Special mention
2008 Prix Europa Emerging Media Award GazaSderot Won
International Emmy Award for Best Documentary Best Documentary Nominated
Dok Leipzig Youth Jury Award Pizza in Auschwitz Won
IDFA Best of Fest Won
2009 Krakow International Film Festival Golden Dragon Won
Berdyansk Film Festival Grand Prix, Full-Length Documnetary Won
International Women's Film Festival In Rehovot Best Documentary Queen Khantarisha Won
2010 Jerusalem Short Film Festival Best Short Yellow Mums Won
South International Film Festival Best Documentary 443 Won
2012 DocAviv Best Debutβ Powder Won
Best Editingβ Won
2014[13] DocAviv Best Debutβ Sound of Torture Won
Prix Europa TV Iris Won
Ofir (Israeli Film Academy Award) Best Documentary Won
International Film Festival and Forum on Human Rights Special mention
Mexico City International Film Festival Silver Palm Won

Notes
^α Trabelsi was not the nominee, she was the Palestine-side producer.
^β Trabelsi not the recipient

References
  1. "יש הרבה גזענות בהתקפה על מירי רגב". גלובס (in Hebrew). 2015-06-16. Retrieved 2019-07-29.
  2. "Crossing Red Lines Through Red Fields". Haaretz. 2006-08-30. Retrieved 2019-07-30.
  3. "היא הלכה בשדות". www.haaretz.co.il. Retrieved 28 July 2019.
  4. "דרך אם – המסע שלי לאימוץ". Retrieved 2019-07-29.
  5. "בדרך אל האוסקר: המחזור המנצח של ארי פולמן בחוג לקולנוע באוניברסיטת תל אביב". הארץ (in Hebrew). 20 February 2009. Retrieved 28 July 2019.
  6. "Archive". הפסטיבל הבינלאומי לסרטי סטודנטים. Retrieved 2019-07-30.
  7. "Israeli Movie Arna's Children' Wins Best Documentary at Tribeca". Haaretz. 2004-05-11. Retrieved 2019-07-29.
  8. "אל תקרא לי אשכנזי". www.makorrishon.co.il. Retrieved 2019-07-29.
  9. "קולנוע - הדוקו הראשון של אסנת טרבלסי". www.habama.co.il. Retrieved 2019-07-29.
  10. "Behind the Fence". 2003-05-12. Retrieved 2019-07-29.
  11. Shemer, Yaron (2013-07-30). Identity, Place, and Subversion in Contemporary Mizrahi Cinema in Israel. University of Michigan Press. ISBN 9780472118847.
  12. Trabelsi, Osnat. 1/16/2003. “Mizrahi Self-Erasure in the Van Leer Institute.” (“Mehika Mizrahit Atzmit be’Makhon Van Leer.”) Kedma.
  13. "כופר נפש | NFCT". nfct.org.il (in Hebrew). Retrieved 2019-07-29.
  14. Hayward, Susan (2017-08-18). Cinema Studies: The Key Concepts. Routledge. ISBN 9781317214793.
  15. "About Us". Trabelsi. Retrieved 28 July 2019.
  16. "הקולנוענים מראים את המדינה במערומיה, ולא מבינים למה רודפים אותם". תוכניות ערוץ 10. Retrieved 28 July 2019.
  17. "שובו של הסרט ערבי". ynet (in Hebrew). 2010-05-23. Retrieved 2019-07-29.
  18. "המזרחית היחידה בצמרת הקולנוע הישראלי - קולנוע". www.haaretz.co.il. Retrieved 28 July 2019.
  19. "Osnat Trabelsi". IDFA DocLab. Retrieved 2019-07-30.
  20. "Public Council". איתך. Retrieved 2019-07-30.
  21. ""מרוסיה באהבה": מעורר מחשבה מטרידה על גורל ילדים נטושים". www.israelhayom.co.il. Retrieved 2019-07-29.
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