ShalomNewYork.com

“Then, as now, Ma’ale operated in a city-owned circa-1900 stone building near the border between East and West Jerusalem. In cramped quarters, with rudimentary electricity, plumbing and film equipment, no work was done on the Sabbath. Violence, sex and nudity in scripts were taboo. The students, who often came from West Bank settlements, were shaped less by Hollywood than secular Israelis were. “” Their work ranges from probing family dramas to Mr. Shapiro’s student film, a “settlement comedy” about a teenager, Eicha, who wants to change her unfashionable biblical name. “We’re bringing a new visual language to Judaism,” says Ma’ale’s director since 2001, Neta Ariel. That new language, which leans toward its founders’ political nationalism, is found both in Hebrew and English at www.maale.co.il.”
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