Film reel
Film reeliStock

For the past 40 years, the Israel Film Archive has served cultural institutions, researchers, and filmmakers in Israel and abroad. In recent years, its staff has been hard at work setting up the infrastructure for an audiovisual digital archive, now publicly available for the first time.

The innovative internet platform, created by the Jerusalem Cinematheque - Israeli Film Archive, has been designed to share Israel’s rare cinema treasures with audiences in Israel and abroad.

The platform includes viewing options in VOD format, supplementary tools enriching the viewing experience, search possibilities by year, landmark, location, topic, public figures, and more. The platform is available free of charge in both Hebrew and English, with all visual content containing English subtitles.

In 2015, in order to deal with the deteriorating condition film copies and their obsolescence, the Jerusalem Cinematheque decided to lead the Archive into the 21st century, creating a digital revolution in the field of Israel's audiovisual heritage. The Cinematheque management reached out to a long list of partners, organizations, and foundations who agreed to support the project, including the Yaglom Family’s Diamond Fund, the Beracha Foundation, Mifal HaPayis – Israel’s National Lottery, the Ministry of Culture and Sport, the Jerusalem Development Authority, and the Ministry of Jerusalem and Heritage.

The Israeli Film Archive holds over 30,000 titles, recorded on two million meters of film, and 4,500 hours of productions made in Israel. The project costs 10 million USD and has a digital storage volume of about 6 petabytes (6 million gigabytes).

As part of the project, the Jerusalem Cinematheque saw the establishment of the first advanced professional laboratory in Israel transforming film reels into digital formats at international standards. Disintegrating film reels, often containing the only copy in the world of a particular film and unable to be projected until now, are now archived in 4k quality digital files, saving them from oblivion.

Now, after three years of research and a detailed mapping of historical information enabling high-resolution searches within the film clips, the next step of the venture is here: Making the films accessible to the general public through a unique online viewing platform that allows an artistic and historical look at Israel’s visual heritage.

The website includes two main sections:

The Artistic View – A selection of feature and documentary films made in Israel. The Historical View - ​​Time travel through Israel’s rich history through thousands of rare archival materials.

The Artistic View - ​​A unique platform for viewing Israeli cinema from 1928 until the present day. Hundreds of titles that could not be viewed previously, can now be seen thanks to the expansive collection preserved by the Archive (about 90% of the original copies of Israeli cinema). For the first time, the collection is leaving the film storage bins and reaching home screens in high quality.

Alongside the VOD option, the general public is also invited to dive into collections selected by the best curators in the field, shedding light upon various films and artists, including Lior Dayan’s commentary on his father's films, Amir Kaminer on the works of Amos Gutman and Amos Gitai, and more. The new platform will form an essential pillar of the veteran Jerusalem Cinematheque, making a substantial contribution to cinematic and cultural research, as well as refreshing and updating the canon, and encouraging new research.

In addition to the collection of Israeli feature films, encompassing most of the films made in Israel in analog formats (16 mm, 35 mm, Beta tapes, U-matic, and more), produced from the end of the 19th century to the present day, the Archive contains a collection of documentaries produced in Israel since the establishment of the State. These showcase such milestones in Israeli documentary work such as newsreels from 1927-1972, including the comprehensive Herzliya Studios Collection - Carmel Diaries 1935-1954, Carmel Diaries and Geva Diaries 1954-1972, Nathan Axelrod's diaries, and more.

The Historical View allows users to delve into historical moments over the years, with thousands of rare clips in high quality. Examples include: entertainment shows for soldiers in the Jordan Valley (1969), election of representatives to the 20th Zionist Congress (1937), the Jewish Brigade (1928), the Purim parade in Tel Aviv (1928), Rabbi Kook’s funeral in Jerusalem (1935), and many other exciting and diverse clips.

In addition, the collection includes films deposited by the State and various cultural institutions, including the Israeli Film Service Collection, the Maccabi Movement Archive, the Yad Tabenkin Archive, Yad Vashem, and more. As part of the project, the historical materials underwent a thorough re-cataloging process enabling future access. Over the years, the Archive has continued to renew, expand, and include new cinematic works.

Noa Regev, Director of the Jerusalem Cinematheque - Israel Film Archive, said: "We started working on the project 7 years ago, with the aim of transforming the Archive into a digital cultural institution accessible to everyone everywhere. We could not have imagined that on the day the site goes live, this vision would turn out to be so relevant.”

“I thank the wonderful staff of the Archive for their uncompromising pioneering work and our supporters and partners who have made it possible to present the treasures of the Archive to the general public for the first time. The new platform will no doubt serve students, researchers, filmmakers, culture and history buffs, and anyone looking to locate cinematic materials from their personal history.”

“With the launch of the online platform, the Archive fulfills its mission to preserve Israel's audiovisual heritage at international professional standards, and to preserve and promote Israeli cinema in Israel and around the world. There is still a lot of work ahead of us and we are excited about the discovery of unknown cinematic treasures, scanning many rare films, creating supplementary content, and fostering new collaborations and initiatives."

Rafi Peretz, Minister of Jerusalem and Heritage said: "We are pleased to take part in this important project that clearly fulfills the Ministry's role in the restoration and enhancement of national heritage. The digitization of content of historical and national importance allows the public to easily access the materials. I see great importance in fulfilling these roles in the field of cinema as well, and I am happy to be a partner in an initiative that will allow the Israeli audience direct and convenient access to its cultural treasures and historical heritage films that were hitherto inaccessible beforehand. "

Adv. Bnei Dreyfus, Mifal HaPayis CEO said: "Mifal HaPayis invests a lot of effort and resources to make the world of culture accessible to local municipalities all over the country. We are pleased to take a significant part in this all-important project that opens a window into the hidden treasures housed by the Jerusalem Cinematheque Film Archive. We thank all the partners who joined the cause, together with us, and allowed this project to take shape."

State Archivist Ruthi Abramovich, the Israel State Archives, said: “The Israel State Archives congratulates the Jerusalem Cinematheque on the launch of the new system, which will bring life back to old-fashioned films, including the Axelrod films. Improving the quality of old footage will encourage new audiences to watch it, preserve it, restore the old crown, and give it eternal life. Our national, social and communal memory lies in these films, and the Jerusalem Cinematheque, with the huge investment it invests in their rehabilitation, does the public a tremendous service.”

Dafna Yaglom on behalf of the DIAMOND CHARITY FOUNDATION said: “I am very proud of the work carried out and very happy with the end result. The platform is a public treasure that is accessible for the benefit of the general public. I look forward to hearing the comments and public opinions regarding the use of the site.”

Ami Ginegar, Chairman of Herzliya Studios, said: “Herzliya Studios, the oldest and largest production body in the country, was founded 71 years ago during which it accumulated a huge archive of videos that include films and newsreels documenting our culture and history before the establishment of the State. Access to materials is hard and expensive work, so I welcome the Jerusalem Cinematheque and am proud to be a partner in this important endeavor."

Dr. Tali Yariv-Mashal, Director of the Beracha Foundation, said: “The history of filmmaking in Israel is a treasure trove of images and moments that illustrate the historical processes of the entire region and Israel in particular. It is of great importance to make these materials accessible to the general public so that they can experience these historical moments. We are proud to be among the initiators and donors of this important project.”