Gila - an Orthodox Jewish woman - struggles to find her own voice inside her family's crowded apartment. Her road to self-determination goes through a date with a deaf-blind man and a nightly journey by foot to visit her hooly mother at the tomb of Rachel the Matriarch ? the only holy site in Judaism centered around a female figure.
YUVAL SHAPIRAAn Israeli-Romanian, Brooklyn?Tel-Aviv-based director, writer, and editor, an alumnus of Berlinale's Talents Sarajevo and Reykjavik's IFF Talent Lab. My latest short film 'Gila Who Walks Alone,' takes place inside an ultra-orthodox community in Jerusalem. The project has participated in the 2018 edition of the European Short Pitch and has been selected for GoShorts Campus. It's co-produced by French film production company Marabout Films and Israeli Zoa Films and has received production grants from the CNC and The New Israeli Film Fund. It recently started its festival round and has already screened at Krakow International Film Festival, Riga International Short Film Festival 2ANNAS, and Manlleu Film Festival (winner of Best international film.)
Yuval is currently producing and editing "Shaman" the next Documentary series by director Avi Belkin ("Mike Wallace is Here", "No One Saw a Thing"). The show is produced by Longa Films, and will premiere on HBO in 2023.
Previously Yuval currently edited director Udi Aloni's upcoming feature film 'Why Is We Americans?' produced by Oren Moverman and Julie Goldman. He has recently worked with the NYC-based production company Moxie Pictures and on a feature documentary produced by Pulse Films, with Laura Poitras as an executive director.
Yuval has worked as a programmer in Israel's Visual Anthropology International Film Festival and was an apprentice to director Noam Murro - a 3 times winner of the American Director Guild Awards - whose latest project, Watership Down, is a BBC and Netflix co-production.
Yuval has completed his MFA studies (merit fellowship) at Emerson College. 'Babies,' his graduation film, won the school's FilmNation Production award for the best narrative movie and won Special Jury Prize at Festival International du Film d'Amiens, Mammoth Lakes International Film Festival, and Trinity International Film Festival. His previous short projects ? 'Beside the Point, Under it', 'The Birthday Party (for me)', and Tales of a ritual ? have screened internationally and are being taught in anthropology courses at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Yuval graduated with honors from Israel's national arts high school with a diploma in filmmaking. He completed a B.A. (cum laude) in 'Amirim', the flagship program of The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the leading research university in Israel. He has an M.A. (cum laude) in visual anthropology from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem; his thesis ? an exploration of ethnographic works that aren't based on documentation ? is based on his fieldwork in religious communities in Jerusalem; it is now required reading in several academic courses at the Hebrew University.
SelectionsKrakow International Film Festival
Manlleu Film Festival (Winner of Best International Film)
Riga International Short Film Festival
Tacoma International Film Festival
AwardsManlleu Film Festival (Winner of Best International Film)
