Albi Institute influences the creative industries in Israel through pipeline programs that shift the context of creative production in Israel. With the realities of Israeli audiences and politics in mind, these programs seek to expand the space for critical voices in cultural production across fields and industries to thrive and be true vehicles for change.
Impact campaigns
ALBI will maintain a pool of rapid response resources for cultural interventions to take on and transform unpredictable moments each year. Some of our past involvements include
LYD
director: Rami Younis and Sarah Ema Friedland
producer: Sawsan Asfari, Fivel Rothberg, Sarah Ema Friedland and Rami Younis
This sci-fi documentary delves into Lyd, a city in Palestine/Israel, exploring its past, present, and potential futures. Voiced by Palestinian actress Maisa Abd Elhadi, Lyd narrates its rich history, from Palestinian thriving to Israeli occupation. Through archival footage and speculative animations, the film imagines an alternate reality free from trauma and violence.
Prophets Of Change
director: Assaf Ben Shetrit
producer: Assaf Ben Shetrit
Prophets of Change began in 2017 with the hope of capturing the lives and stories of eight Palestinian and Israeli musicians who refuse to accept their reality. The film was completed in the beginning of 2023, or so we thought.
By May 2024, the latest war had claimed countless innocent lives, inflicting immeasurable suffering and destruction. Yet, in the midst of this despair, these eight artists came together for the first time in Jerusalem. Over the course of four days, they wrote and recorded five songs, blending Arabic, English, Hebrew, and Yiddish with rap, rock, hip-hop, gospel, and heavy metal. Their collaboration became a powerful testament to the unifying force of music, a continuation of their shared beliefs and tireless efforts.
The impact campaign of "Prophets of Change" aims to foster dialogue and promote unity through the power of music. By partnering with global events and leveraging the influence of high-profile narrators: Forest Whitaker, JK Simmons, Sarah Silverman, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Leymah Gbowee, Ed O'brien and Perry Farrell. The goal is to spread a message of hope and inspire young people worldwide to overcome divisions and take action for a better future.
Two Kids a Day
director: David Wachsmann
producer: Yoav Roeh and Aurit Zamir
The film offers a rare glimpse into the video interrogations of four Palestinian children. The children's stories highlight a systematic method behind the arrests of minors in the West Bank, aiming to "break" popular uprisings in villages opposing the occupation. These arrests suppress resistance, with over 700 Palestinian minors detained each year. 95 percent of these minors live near settlements, linking their detention to the IDF's settlement protection. Interviews with a soldier involved in the arrests, a former deputy division head in the Israeli security agency, a human rights lawyer, and a former military prosecutor expand the personal story into a larger narrative.
Soon after his appointment, the Israeli Minister of Culture Miki Zohar, announced his intention to retroactively defund the film. In response, the film creators and the organization "Parents Against Child Detention" are screening the film throughout Israel, holding public discussions. The film has been screened many times since then, and continues to be shown frequently both in Israel and around the world.
H2: The Occupation Lab
director: Idit Avrahami and Noam Sheizaf
producer: Hilla Medalia and Paul Cadieux
H2 is the name given to the eastern part of Hebron – the only Palestinian city with a Jewish settlement in it. Here, along a one-Kilometer road, lies the holy Cave of the Patriarchs, where Jews and Muslims believe their common father, Abraham, is buried. Here the massacre of 1929, known as “year zero” of the conflict, took place; here the Jewish settlement movement was born, and here a policy of ethnic separation was first implemented by the military. Through rare archive footage and interviews with Hebron’s military commanders, H2: The Occupation Lab tells the story of a place that is both a microcosm of the entire conflict and a test site for the methods of control Israel is implementing throughout the West Bank.
2021 Oscars Campaign for Let it Be Morning, by Eran Kolirin
Let It Be Morning is a 2021 Israeli drama film directed by Eran Kolirin (The Band's Visit), based on the Hebrew-language novel Let It Be Morning by Palestinian-Israeli author Sayed Kashua. When the film swept at the Ophir Awards (the Israeli Academy), the director and producer chose to read speeches written by their Palestinian crew and cast-members in a show of solidarity. And through that sweep, it was selected by the Israeli Academy as the official entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 94th Academy Awards (Oscars). The film is almost entirely in Arabic (just a few short years after Israel passed the Nation-State Law which demoted Arabic from being an official language). The cast and crew are almost exclusively Palestinian citizens of Israel. We were proud to support the Oscars campaign, seeing it as an incredible opportunity to get a delicate and gorgeous piece in front of an increasingly polarized Hollywood, but also to challenge who can tell an Israeli story.
Flagship Artists
Impact Lab
Documentary Incubator
Palestinian Creatives Pipeline