Movies - The Sam Spiegel Film and Television School, Jerusalem

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The Sam Spiegel School Film and Television, Jerusalem, founded by the Ministry of Education and Culture and the Jerusalem Foundation in 1989, has become Israel's leading school of film and television, achieving international acclaim and standing.

Originally called The Jerusalem Film and Television School, it was renamed in 1996 to bear the name of the Academy Award-winning American Jewish producer Sam Spiegel, following his family’s decision to contribute annually to the school.

Located in the industrial area of Talpiot, Jerusalem, the school has a student body of some 170 students in three tracks:

• The Full Track – Training students in directing, screenwriting, cinematography, editing and production.

• The Screenwriting Track – Training students in writing for film and television

• The Entrepreneur-Producer Track – Training students for production in the entire realm of media.

The school is a non-profit public organization. The chairman of its board of directors is Erez Vigodman.

Founding director: Renen Schorr

Acting director, 2006: Noemi Shory

Head, Screenwriting Track: Ronit Weiss-Berkowitz

Head, Entrepreneur-Producer Track: Noemi Shory

Today, some 270 students have graduated from the Full Track. According to the school’s data, around 80% of its graduates currently work in key professions in the film and television industry.

Founding

In 1988, a student revolt broke out in the film department of the Beit Zvi School of Art in Ramat Gan (Tel Aviv), then the sole film school supported by the Ministry of Education and Culture. Charging that Beit Zvi gave preference to the acting track, the film students demanded self rule. The Education Minister at the time, Yitzhak Navon, (later to become Israel’s fifth president) established a public inquiry that supported the principles of the students’ position. He then decided to create an independent school for film and television, the first of its kind in Israel, to be directed by filmmakers. To this end, they consulted with mayors of different Israeli cities.

The mayor of Jerusalem, Teddy Kollek, and Ruth Cheshin, president of the Jerusalem Foundation, saw a window of opportunity to “bring the ocean to Jerusalem,” in their words. They committed to match government funding, and in June 1989 it was decided to establish the school in Jerusalem. In July 1989, Ruth Cheshin turned to renowned film director Renen Schorr for a blueprint on establishing the school, set to open its doors in just four months at the start of the school year, November 1989.

The establishment of the school in Jerusalem, far from the center of the film industry in the Tel Aviv region, raised strong opposition from many people and bodies in the film industry, who claimed that film schools must be located near the actual workplace.

The Early Years

At the onset, the academic program was three and a half years long. The school championed providing a broad professional foundation in all aspects of the film industry: writing, directing fiction, directing documentary, cinematography, production, editing, recording, and more. Emphasis was placed upon providing a theoretical and cultural foundation for its students, with a constant striving for excellence.

Unlike other existing films schools in Israel (the film department of Tel Aviv University and Beit Zvi, whose film department closed at that time) the Sam Spiegel School worked to classify the short film as a genre, identifying itself as a “story-telling school” and placed central importance on the hero in the story and the narrative. Similarly, the school stressed the focus of a director’s work, paraphrasing the words of Hitchcock: “The job of a director is not just to work with the screenwriter, the actors, the cameraman, the editor and the composer, but to direct the audience.” The pervading nature of Israeli films of this era was a distant one, estranged from the viewers and devoid of touching the emotions of the audience. The school was bound to transform the work of a director into an act of sensitivity, directed at reaching and stirring the viewer.

For its first three years, the Sam Spiegel School maintained a silence, refraining from screening its first films and exercises outside the school. This reflected the decision to first focus upon the institution’s direction and style as a school and a cinematic incubator.

In 1992/3, the school went public for the first time, participating in the Jerusalem Film Festival and a series of Graduate Film Showings in various cinemateques, presenting thirty of its films – first films and final projects of the first graduating class.

The public, the Israeli film community and the media were surprised by the uncommon style of the school’s films, and praised the school and its films (in the Israel Film Institute Competition for Short Films, the school’s films took 12 out of 13 awards). The one film that stood out among the first collection of movies was “Party Line,” directed by Ohav Flantz, whose new campy style aroused a good deal of attention. The film became synonymous with the school in its early days.

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