300 Films Now Available For Viewing On Internet Site Of Hebrew University's Steven Spielberg Jewish Film Archive

Jerusalem, May 15, 2005

Cinema fans and researchers can now view more than 300 films on the Internet site of the Steven Spielberg Jewish Film Archive at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. This is due to a major upgrading and expansion of the archive's "virtual cinema" digitization project.

http://www.spielbergfilmarchive.org.il/kv/index.html

http://w3.castup.net/spielberg/

The ongoing, five-year digitization project, begun in 2002, is aimed at providing access for the general public to the archive's extensive collections. It is funded by the American Friends of The Hebrew University in Los Angeles in honor of former Motion Picture Association of America Chairman Jack Valenti.

The films may be viewed by PC and MAC users with a minimum of Internet Explorer 6, Media Player 7, and broadband/ADSL Internet access. The films are viewable online through streaming video, a technological infrastructure provided by Israeli high-tech company CastUp.
In all, the Spielberg Jewish Film Archive has more than 10,000 film titles.

For further information: Jerry Barach, Dept. of Media Relations, The Hebrew University, Tel: 02-588-2904. Orit Sulitzeanu, spokesperson, 5882910, 052-608016

A Must-See Film about Jewish History
http://tinyurl.com/66ffor

Let My People Go (1971) Film
Yossi Goddard, IFS/MFA; Steven Spielberg Archive
The plight of Soviet Jewry attempting to emigrate to Israel during the 1960s-1970s.
Duration:  00:25:14 ; Language:  English

A number of interesting historical items are included in the latest additions to the “virtual cinema.”

Pass to Tomorrow (1945?) narrates the story of a Jewish American soldier’s visit to pre-State Israel after fighting on the North African front during WWII. Of particular interest is his tour of kibbutz Ein Gev. His guide on the kibbutz is a young Teddy Kollek, later mayor of Jerusalem, who passed away in January 2007. The film contains rare, color shots of Kollek on the kibbutz.

Melodies of Independence: The Gevatron (1988): tells the history of the Kibbutz Geva folk choir, the Gevatron, winners of the 2007 Israel Prize for lifetime achievement.

The Price of Peace (1967) documents the Six Day War. The film contains extensive footage of the unification of Jerusalem, scenes of East Jerusalem immediately after the war and soldiers and Israeli leaders praying at the Western Wall.

These films may be selected for viewing either through a new portal or through the Archive’s searchable online catalogue. The portal contains useful new features, such as a word search engine and a complete alphabetical listing of films by title, which facilitates faster and more efficient searching.