The projects and filmmakers selected to participate in the Incubator for Documentary Filmmakers in 2025:
The Challenges of Documenting Local History
(In alphabetical order of the titles of the projects)
Chubazi: Liav Tamuz
An ancient Afghan stick dance, its imprints erased from Bracha’s body, embodies the historical loss of Jewish cultures from Islamic backgrounds. The Afghan women of the family move through the intricate dance, oscillating between silencing and creative physical vitality, revealing familial conflicts that echo back in time.
Going the Distance: Ibtisam Mara’ana
When boundaries melt and pain unites – can a dream be born? Are women capable of walking together to the end?
Hezi Leskly: Shauly Melamed
The story of the queer poet and artist Hezi Leskly, who pioneered a new path in Israeli culture and passed away of AIDS.
It Is What It Is: Gal Rosenbluth
Through the lens of her Israeli-Palestinian love story, filmmaker Gal Rosenbluth uncovers her late grandmother’s hidden past as one of 3,000 “mixed” couples in Israel’s early years. Intertwining family archives and personal confessions, It Is What It Is explores the profound cost of crossing the love lines in the “Jewish State.”
Producers: Udi Nir and Sagi Bornstein UdiVSagi Productions
Life in the Promised Land: Yael Zimmerman
From a childhood filled with Zionist passion and an uncompromising ideology in a settlement in the Shomron (in the West Bank), to becoming a devout Breslov Hasidic woman living in Tel Aviv, not celebrating Independence Day or raising the Israeli flag—the filmmaker embarks on an intimate journey to understand how she drifted so far from the home in which she grew up, questioning absolute ideologies, belonging and alienation, exile and redemption, parenthood and home.
Mark 84: Rafael Balulu
Mark 84 is a one-ton American bomb used by Israel in airstrikes on Gaza, seen as a breaching of a “red line” in modern military culture. The film examines the bomb’s role as a symbol of power and control in the Israeli narrative, contrasted with its devastating impact on Gaza and its broader political and social consequences.
Producers: Emmanuel Berrebi, Rafael Balulu – BFILMS
Observation Camera: Talya Lavie, Michal Warshai Arluk, Tal Barda
A documentary series exploring the history of the IDF field observer role—which is staffed solely by women—over the past 25 years, culminating in the events of October 7.
Shooting Days: Moran Ifergan
A cinematic, urban feminine video diary about a woman and a country in crisis.
The Jordan Valley Crocodiles: Michael Alalu, Ohad San, Kobi Mizrahi
A microcosm of life in the West Bank is presented through an abandoned crocodile farm in Petza’el in the Jordan Valley and the people who run it, offering insight into themes of oppression, freedom, and hope.
Producer: Kobi Mizrahi (KM Productions)
The Sheriff: David Noy
In 1948, Captain Baruch receives the opportunity of a lifetime—to start over as the military governor of the captured Arab city of Acre. From there, the road to his election as the city’s first Jewish mayor is paved. However, his sheriff-like conduct leads to a rapid downfall—starting with corruption scandals, through party intrigues, to a plan for political assassination...
(Cinemax Prod. Ltd)