Of all the flagship events unique to the city that took place in the past and are still taking place today, it seems that the film festival is the exception. This is because the connection between him and the city is not umbilical like in the case of other urban anchor events. For example, the holiday festival of the holidays celebrates coexistence in the city of Haifa, the stair race (which was canceled by Klish) glorifies one of its important topographical and design features, the sailing and sailing events, which have almost disappeared from the landscape this term, celebrate Haifa being a coastal city, the archipelago that was and is not a community Between the city and the Technion, and the bike races that have been and gone were a golden opportunity to market the views of the city.
But what special Haifa feature makes the film festival a miracle?
A central striker for a bench player
The Haifa International Film Festival was the first festival of its kind in Israel.
When his star passed, he was accompanied by a tremendous vision and motivation that were all aimed at strengthening the special cultural status of the city. The dragging of feet that has been happening in recent years with regards to strengthening the city’s cultural strength has led to the distancing of the vision and the decline of the city’s motivation to be the capital of Israeli culture.
Tzuk and Klish did not know how to realize the potential inherent in the festival and did not act in its light at all. And so there is no longer a substantial connection between the festival and the city. The city of Haifa is not a city of cinema. There is no film school, there is no film trend that broke the boundaries of anonymity and there is no film industry of any kind.
Even the attempt to place street furniture with a cinematic narrative in the center of Carmel did not pave the way for connecting the festival to the city. And so, the festival became a pioneer in its field and an expensive foreign bench player whose role in the urban system is no longer so clear.
The scenic disaster of the Carmel center
Every urban festival needs a suitable urban setting. The fact that the film festival was shrinking mainly into the center of Carmel should have made this task easier, but the reality is completely the opposite.
The visitors who will come to the festival in the center of Carmel will be exposed to the less beautiful face of the city of Haifa. The chains of lamps will indeed try to draw the eyes to the flickering lights, but in practice it will become clear to the constant visitors and Hifaites in general that the Carmel Center no longer constitutes the same high-quality decoration as before.
Municipal institutions such as the Mana Katz Museum and the Mainz Library are demonstrably closed, the Mother Garden is neglected and lacks luster, many milestones on the Louis Promenade have been lost and made the promenade dangerous to walk on, the Mania Shochat Garden has lost most of its trees, and it seems that every front yard in Haifa has become a back yard.
so what are we doing?
The tens of millions of shekels invested in the festival, from taxpayers’ money, should have long ago produced a very high value for the residents. But we seem to be off track at all.
In order to create such value, an event of this magnitude must be managed completely differently from the way it is managed today. Instead of being an expensive and one-time event, the festival should become the culminating event of an annual work process that touches as many parts and residents of the city as possible.
The clear example of similar behavior is found in the festival of the holidays. This festival (which Klish also tried to reduce and change its name to the “Winter Holidays Festival”) is a peak event in a work process that takes place throughout the year. This process not only has an infrastructure of community and cultural activity, but at its heart there is also an urban institution that ensures the continuity of this activity – Beit Hagafen. Although we have already been in better times for both Beit Hagafen and the festival, the infrastructure and constant efforts guarantee that it will be easier for the city to leverage the festival every year thanks to the deep connection that exists between it and the city.
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Building infrastructure for the film festival
In order to prevent the film festival from becoming an expensive flagship event and disconnected from the city, an infrastructure of significant activity should be created for it as well throughout the year.
A true film city should do many more events and outdoor screenings in diverse and accessible locations and in a wide variety of fields. The cinema’s activity should receive a deeper and more topical expression in the activity in the community centers, the municipal schools and the higher education institutions that exist in the city.
In light of this, the urban discourse should be academic, amateur and underground and form an integral part of the urban agenda. All this in order for the local forces to be the main engine of the festival. It is important to note that some of the things I mentioned here do happen in one way or another in the city, but everything is done under the radar, on a small scale and without attention from the city captains.
Renaissance to the center of Carmel!
And no less important, the Carmel center must be dealt with urgently. The one-time investment in cleaning and lighting the streets during the festival is the city’s most cynical statement about itself and it is another aspect of the shallow public relations discourse that characterizes the mayor’s office. Because in the end, the colorful lighting pushes away everything that you don’t want to look at for just one moment .
