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History
Introduction
Established in 1989 by the Jerusalem Foundation and the Ministry of Education and Culture, the Sam Spiegel School was the first school in Israel dedicated exclusively to film and television studies. It bears the name of legendary Sam Spiegel, producer of The Stranger, The African Queen, On the Waterfront and Lawrence of Arabia.
A non-profit organization, the school is independent, committed to quality and relentless in its pursuit of setting new standards for training young Israeli filmmakers. The school pursues a unique, story-centered approach to filmmaking that focuses on the short film as a legitimate film genre rather than a stepping-stone to full-length features.
The Establishment
In 1988, a student revolt broke out in the film department of the Beit Zvi School of Art in Ramat Gan, then the sole film school supported by the Ministry of Education and Culture. Charging that Beit Zvi gave preference to the acting track, the film students demanded self rule. The Education Minister at the time, Yitzhak Navon established a public inquiry that supported the principles of the students' position. He then decided to create an independent school for film and television, the first of its kind in Israel, to be directed by filmmakers.
After consulting the idea with mayors of different Israeli cities, the mayor of Jerusalem, Mr. Teddy Kollek, and Ruth Cheshin, president of the Jerusalem Foundation, saw a window of opportunity to "bring the ocean to Jerusalem", in their words. They committed to match government funding, and in June 1989 it was decided that the new school will open in Jerusalem. In July 1989, Ruth Cheshin turned to film director Renen Schorr for a blueprint on establishing the school, set to open its doors in just four months at the start of the school year, November 1989.
The establishment of the school in Jerusalem, far from the center of the film industry in the Tel Aviv region, raised strong opposition from many filmmakers and production companies throughout the Israeli film industry, who claimed that a film school must be located close to the actual workplace of other cinematic activities.
The Early Years
At the onset, the academic program was three and a half years long. The school championed providing a broad professional foundation in all aspects of the film industry: writing, directing fiction, directing documentary, cinematography, production, editing, recording, and more. Emphasis was placed upon providing a theoretical and cultural foundation for its students, with a constant striving for excellence.
Unlike other existing films schools in Israel (like the film department of Tel Aviv University and the Beit Zvi school) the Sam Spiegel School worked to classify the short film as a genre, identifying itself as a "story-telling school" and placed central importance on the hero in the story and the narrative. Similarly, the school stressed the focus of a director's work, paraphrasing the words of Hitchcock: "The job of a director is not just to work with the screenwriter, the actors, the cameraman, the editor and the composer, but to direct the audience." The school was bound to transform the work of a director into an act of sensitivity, directed at reaching and stirring the viewer.
For its first three years, the Sam Spiegel School maintained a silence, refraining from screening its first films and exercises outside the school. This reflected the decision to first focus upon the institution's direction and style as a school and a cinematic incubator.
In 1992/3, the school went public for the first time, participating in the Jerusalem Film Festival and a series of Graduate Film Showings in various cinemateques, presenting thirty of its films – first films and final projects of the first graduating class.
The public, the Israeli film community and the media were surprised by the uncommon style of the school's films, and praised the school and its films (in the Israel Film Institute Competition for Short Films, the school's films took 12 out of 13 awards). The one film that stood out among the first collection of movies was "Party Line", directed by Ohav Flantz, whose new campy style aroused a good deal of attention. The film became synonymous with the school in its early days.
The school succeeded in showing the work of its graduates on the new Channel 2, which began broadcasting in late 1992, and built a strategic partnership with one of its franchises, Tel Ad. Every year, from 1993 until its license period ended in 2005, Tel Ad broadcast nationally all of the graduate films in a specially-designed series, "Shorts at Midnight". Graduates of the school's first two classes were quickly absorbed into the television industry, thanks to the creation of Channel 2, among other factors, and the simultaneous development of cable network broadcasting.
In July 1993, the school showed its films in the Jerusalem International Film Festival. The panel of judges, including director of the London Film Festival Sheila Whittaker, director Dusan Makavejev, critic David Robinson, actor Haim Topol, and British producer Mark Shivas, were effusive in praise, stating that all of the school's entries in the competition were universal in their language and boasted excellent international potential.
In November, 1996, a milestone was reached when the renowned Museum of Modern Art in New York presented the school's first major retrospective. At the opening night ceremony, which was attended by former Jerusalem mayor Teddy Kollek, the Spiegel family, graduates of the school, an array of film producers and members of the New York film industry, the school's name was officially changed from the Jerusalem Film and Television School to the Sam Spiegel Film and Television School, Jerusalem.
Speaking at the event, MOMA Chief Curator Larry Kardish said of the school's films, "Although each is substantially different from the other, they all seem to share some significant and impressive characteristics. Whether fiction or documentary, narrative or experimental, they are all fresh, quirky, surprising and pithy. That they were well-made is to be expected, but that they also appeared to be effortlessly realized, naturally based in social realities, and psychologically sophisticated is out of the ordinary... The Sam Spiegel School is sending Israeli cinema in a new and exciting direction; its spirit is crossing borders, and its films are a most welcome presence invigorating the international scene. "
School Development
In the middle of the 1990s, after its first students met the challenge of becoming absorbed into the industry, the school identified the need for intensifying the professional skills of its many students who wished to work as directors. As a result, the period of curriculum study was extended from three and a half years to four and a half, a time- frame enabling students to glean further experience. The test of student acceptance into the Israeli industry led to the realization that there were a relatively limited number of screenwriters who weren't directors, as well as a very small number of entrepreneur producers in the fields of film and television.
In 1999, the school began a special two-year track for screenwriters, with the aim of creating a model for cooperation between screenwriters and directors, and with a specialization in writing for television. The Screenwriting Track is supported by the Sam Spiegel Foundation and the Beracha Foundation.
In 2004, the school inaugurated a special three-and-a-half year track for entrepreneur producers. The first of its kind in Israel, the program was created to prepare producers to initiate and lead projects in different media, work in cooperation with screenwriters and directors, and navigate the project through the stage of marketing and distribution in Israel and overseas. The Entrepreneur Producer Track is supported by the Rayne Foundation, the Beracha Foundation and the Sam Spiegel Foundation.
Each of the three tracks operates autonomously. The school aims for its students to reach a synergy of the tracks, leading to future cooperation beyond the school framework, based on it guiding principles and spirit
The 15th Anniversary
In 2005, to honor its 15th anniversary year, the school produced 10-film DVD of "The Best of the Sam Spiegel School," selected by 50 international leaders in the filmmaking field, including Pedro Almodovar, Paul Newman, Peter Jackson, David Mamet, Luc Basson, Wim Wenders, Samira Makhmalbaf, Peter Weill and others. This DVD was translated to 10 languages
The Sam Spiegel Film & Television School- Jerusalem has made bold, impressive marks on the Israeli and international cinema within an amazingly brief time. The school has played a key role in the local and international renaissance of the Israeli cinema, by virtue of its distinctive focus on a personal and sensitive dialogue with the audience.
The Sam Spiegel student films have consistently won international awards and broadcasted on major television channels in U.S.A., Europe, Australia and The Far East,, thus fostering the bond between young Israeli filmmakers and the international film festivals and industry. Our films are selected for around 100 film festivals each year, such as Cannes, Berlin, Venice, Clermont-Ferrand and more.
To date, JSFS has been awarded "The Best Film School" prize 14 different times in various student film festivals, as well as 240 significant international awards.
The school has been honored by retrospective tributes at more then 100 international film festivals among them Berlin, Rotterdam, Clermont-Ferrand, and in some of the world's finest museums such as The MOMA, New York.
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