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Content |
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How should
people spend "time"?
A business executive, a taxi
driver, a young girl playing in the backyard, a swimmer competing for thousandths
of a second, a rabbi and a farmer - each have their own way of life and talk about
their own concept of time. The program also focuses on issues and the meaning
of time in Israel, which only has a 50 year history as a nation.
We say, "What is the point of
being in such a hurry?" and yet in society today, we fight for every minute and
every second. " Because we experience so much more in one day, people are growing
old faster," comments a young woman. Cooking with microwaves, how well do people
spend the time saved? Is a life where people can get seasonal fruit any time of
the year really more prosperous than it was in the past? The program raises these
questions the people of today face in common. With its history of suffering, repeated
terrorism and an ever-present fear of death, Israel's sense of time is different
from other countries. Through the careful intertwining of these perspectives,
the program strongly conveys the importance of living with dreams for the future. |
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Jury Comments |
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Time is an important
and topical issue in contemporary society, and it will become increasingly important
in the future. The program, "It's About Time", took a difficult, abstract subject
and put form to it. Not only did it successfully deal with a universal theme but
its specific relevance to Israeli society was clearly demonstrated.
It's About Time" is an outstandingly
innovative program. It operates on a variety of levels, incorporating many different
and contradictory perspectives which force the viewer to question how we lead
our lives on a day-to-day basis, and indeed to think about what we really want
out of life. There was particular creativity in the use of video and audio techniques,
not only to punctuate and pace the program, but also in the way they made subconscious
points about time.
It is rare to see a program that
can delight, provoke, cause to question, and entertain in such an original way.
The fact that it deals with one of the most abstract and intractable notions makes
it all the more worthy of this prize. This is a program that truly is ahead of
its time --- as well as being all about time. |
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Producer's Comments |
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Ms. Elona Ariel & Ms. Ayelet Menahemi, Producer & Director |
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As we established
our production company, Karuna Films, our goal was to make films that will go
beyond mere entertainment and contribute to human societies in our suffering world.
Receiving the Japan Prize Jurors' important recognition of the educational value
of 'It's About Time', makes all our efforts overmore worthy.
Education means change. When
one is taught something, a change takes place - knowledge arises, insight arises,
understanding arises. We believe that true learning, cannot be only acquired by
an intellectual understanding, but rather involve a direct personal experience.
This is what we try to achieve in the films we make. Not just passive viewing,
passive observation, passive learning, but real experience.
"It's About Time" refers to the
nature of Israelis, and human beings in general. Since the lives of Israelis are
enhanced, amplified, intensified, by the harsh reality they live in, they make
an interesting study-group for a universal phenomena such as time perception.
In times of conflict, one of the first things you may lose is perspective. And
when you don't have perspective, you lose balance. You are caught in an endless
chain of immediate reaction. In "It's About Time" we try to enable the viewer
to take a break, to stop for reflection, something we all need nowadays.
We are certain that the Japan
Prize Awards which was given to "It's About Time" , will help expose more and
more people to the film and hope it will motivate them to make better use of their
time. |
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