“Shorts in the Desert” is a project which produces short films whose source of inspiration and filming sites are the Negev-Arava’s spacious landscapes. Since establishment, this project’s objective has been to develop the region of the Negev and Arava and promote local filmmaking endeavors.
In the first phase of the project, a group of young filmmakers visits and tours the Negev Arava region with its vast open spaces, to become better acquainted with the area’s unique geographical landscapes and the people who populate the region. The ‘Inspiration Tour’ helps them draw inspiration to write short film scripts.
In the second phase of the project, approximately a month and a half later, the resulting scripts inspired from the ‘Inspiration Tour’ are submitted. The prominent scripts are selected to continue on to the production phase.
Upon conclusion of production and filming, the new films are screened in a worldwide premiere at The Arava International Film Festival.
During 2020, we established The Arava Film Fund, in collaboration with the Gesher Multicultural Film Fund and the Arava Community Center and with the support of Ministry of Culture and the Central Arava Regional Council. The project constitutes an additional and ongoing channel for filmmaking activities in the Central Arava region, while the international film festival and the ‘Shorts in the Desert’ project form the core of this activity and serve as an active greenhouse for developing and producing feature films, documentaries, animated films and international collaborations.
Mr. Eyal Shiray is the director of the Arava Film Fund.
Visit the project website: www.aravafilmfund.com
In the framework of the tenth edition of the international film festival, we are proud to present, in a worldwide premiere, ten new feature and documentary films, which were produced in the framework of the project in the past year.