Alma Har'el
| Alma Har'el | |
|---|---|
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| Born | Tel Aviv, Israel |
| Occupation | Film and music video director |
| Notable work | Bombay Beach, Fjögur píanó |
Alma Har'el is an Israeli-American music video and film director, best known for her documentary Bombay Beach, which took the top prize at Tribeca Film Festival in 2011, received a nomination for a 2011 Independent Spirit "Truer than Fiction" award, and has been taught in several universities, including Harvard’s Sensory Ethnography Lab and Film Center, as a genre redefining work.
Har’el is famous for her ability to artistically blur the lines between documentary and fiction, effectively utilizing choreographed dance sequences and inspired musical choices in a surreal, dream-like poetic meditation on life. Stephan Holden of The New York Times wrote about Har'el's film Bombay Beach: “[it] looks and feels like a fever dream about an alternate universe. Suffused with a sense of wonder, it hovers, dancing inside its own ethereal bubble”.
In 2016 she premiered her newest film "LoveTrue" at the Tribeca Film Festival. The film went on to win the Grand Prix Best Documentary Award at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.
She was recently named among the "Top 12 female filmmakers ready to direct a blockbuster" by Indiewire.
Flavorwire has called Har'el an "honest to goodness visionary," While No Film School adds, ""Every once in a while, an artist comes along who changes the way we think about film. Alma Har'el is one of those."
Born and raised in Israel to a Jewish family, Alma Har’el began her work as a photographer and a performer of live video mixing in music concerts.
One of Har’el’s most prominent projects as a VJ was a collaboration with the Balkan Beat Box, “a performance-meets-dance party that blends electronic music with hard-edged folk music from North Africa, the Middle East, the Balkans and Eastern Europe.”
Their first album included an 11-minute video titled: The Balkan Beat Box 1st show ever - Digital Diary of Alma Har’el. The video was edited by Har’el and features Har’el performing on stage and mixing live video art alongside the band. In an interview for Oyster Magazine she recalls: “I never studied film, so that (VJing) was my film school” [...] I wanted to feel as though I was playing videos like a musical instrument — editing them live, with people reacting. That still has a big impact on me to this day.”
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