The Island – A film by Adam Weingrod

January 16

A Screening of the Multi Award-winning documentary by Adam Weingrod // 7pm Thursday 16th Jan 2020 at the Birds Nest Café
// Presented by the film-maker in person

Trailer – https://vimeo.com/230609801
Film website – https://www.theislandfilm.org/

Adam Weingrod’s award-winning feature documentary is a stirring look at the inhabitants and workers of the St. Louis French Hospital—a Hospice for terminally ill patients—situated on the tense border between East and West Jerusalem. Employing a Frederick Wiseman-esque observational style, Weingrod’s soulful film inhabits this centuries old hospital over a period of two years as its workers tend to the critically ill inhabitants housed there, helping them to live out the remaining days of their lives with dignity.

While the film’s focus revolves around end-of-life care, it is far from dreary. Instead, finding great warmth, resonance and even joy in human interaction, even in this unlikeliest of places. This is a film that relishes the quiet moments of life, working from the assumption that these little moments—a shared laugh, an anecdote between workers, a hug, a routine act of kindness—build to something greater than the bigger milestones by which we often judge our lives.

The world outside the hospital is fraught with divisions, tensions and even war between the various religious and ethnic factions that inhabit the city. Within the walls of St. Louis French Hospital, Jews, Christians, and Muslims work together, finding meaning and camaraderie in their mission to bring comfort to those living out their final days. One exits this deeply moving film wishing that the caring dynamic on display inside hospital walls could be replicated outside its confines.

Award and Festivals:

Awards
Winner Best Debut film award – Verzio International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival | Hungary
Winner Dutch Golden Stone Award for best Documentary – SCENECS International Film Festival | Netherlands
Winner Out of Bounds Award – Outer Docs Film Festival | USA
Winner Best Student film award – The Israeli Documentary Filmmakers forum Awards | Israel
Winner Silver Remi Mid’ length Documentary – WorldFest-Houston International Film & Video Festival | USA

Festivals
2017 | Doc Aviv Film Festival | Israel
2017 | Near Nazareth Festival | Israel
2018 | Santa Barbara International Film Festival | USA
2018 | Ethnografilm Paris | France
2018 | The International Ethnographic Film Festival of Quebec | Canada
2018 | Thin Line International Documentary Film Festival | USA
2018 | Sehsuechte International Film Festival | Germany
2018 | Maryland Film Festival | USA
2018 | German (Göttingen) International Ethnographic Film Festival | Germany
2018 | Moscow Jewish Film Festival | Russia
2018 | WorldFest-Houston International Film & Video Festival | USA
2018 | Tel Aviv International Student Film Festival | Israel
2018 | Méditerranée Festival | Israel
2018 | SCENECS International Film Festival | Netherlands
2018 | Pärnu International Documentary and Anthropology Film Festival | Estonia
2018 | Ischia Film Festival | Italy | Opening Film
2018 | Southern Utah International Documentary Film Festival | USA
2018 | DokuBaku International Documentary Film Festival | Azerbaijan
2018 | Verzio International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival | Hungary
2018 | Outer Docs Film Festival | USA
2018 | Vancouver Jewish Film Festival | Canada
2019 | Kolkata International Film festival | India
2019 | Jaipur International Film festival | India
2019 | Mozi Motion Film festival | Netherlands
2019 | Jehlum Film Festival | India
2019 | Nepal Human Rights International Film Festival | Nepal