Denison: Israeli Filmmaker Eran Barak

Denison's Hillel welcomes filmmaker Eran Barak for a screening of his film "My Beloved Uncles," followed by a discussion and Q&A. "My Beloved Uncles" follows Barak's return to Pardes Katz after the disappearance of his uncle Israel Amerusi from the neighborhood some 65 years ago. In his search, he turns to his relatives: Uncle Gavriel, who was just released after 35 years in and out of prison; Uncle Aryeh, wallowing in thoughts on his mother's sofa; and Uncle Uri who makes a living collecting iron and looking for a relationship to rescue him from his loneliness. The film is a story of the broken dreams and disappointments of the people who remained in the neighborhood, left to suffer the pain of non-integration into Israeli society. A film director, photographer, cinematographer and visual artist, Barak's work examines the contexts and relationships between the photographed image, time and memory, while deconstructing the accepted discrepancies between dramatic and documentary film. His films "Bloomfield or Childhood Memory," "Hunting Time," and "My Beloved Uncles" have been programmed by film festivals and museums worldwide, including Toronto, Sao Paolo, Karlovy Vary, Anthology Film Archive NY, and the Haifa Museum for Modern Art. He graduated from the NB Haifa School of Design Academy with honors and earned his master's of fine arts from Tel Aviv University's Film and Television department.