Around the Fire
2003, [1st version - 11:00 min]
[2nd version - 5:00 min]

The Bereshit music festival takes place in the Sea of Galilee on the eve of the Jewish New Year. The work of Elyasaf Kowner, filmed during the last Bereshit festival, shows how young generations of Israelis attempt to find their own path to reconstruct their cultural history. People seek fusion of rituals, myths, practices, by borrowing from various cultures and cults (tribal rites, shamanism, Buddhism, paganism, among others) and re-giving to human being and nature a central place. This path of syncretism, at the crossroads of multiculturalism, quest for spirituality, opening to different worlds and societies, can be seen as one possible collective, civil, alternative to the references imposed by the dominant political discourse – an escape from reality.

Text by Agricola de Cologne

Selected screenings:
Local Time #7, Tel Aviv Cinematheque, 2004
15, Haifa Museum, Haifa, 2005
PI Five Video Festival, Szczecin, Poland, 2005

Photography by Elyasaf Kowner
Edited by Elyasaf Kowner and Ben Ben Ron