The film festival under the restrictions Culture in Haifa 2020
Every year in Sukkot, the Haifa Film Festival is held, a festival that is a pilgrimage center for about 300 thousand people who come to participate, celebrate and take part in hundreds of screenings of films from all over the world, workshops and discussion circles with the best people who are the cornerstones of the final product that we see on This year, in accordance with the restrictions of the quarantine, the festival will be held entirely online.
This time, without stalls…
This year was not supposed to be any different from previous years. The original plan was to enjoy the festival experience in its entirety: street shows, booths and hundreds of films that are screened for an entire week. As part of adapting our daily lives to the routine of the corona imposed on us, the organizers of the festival realized that they had no choice but to think of an alternative plan.
Single card or tab
The outline that was decided to follow includes, for the first time, full online activity of the festival. Tickets will be available for purchase via the Internet, and all films, including foreign films and children's films, will be screened online without exception. "We are following the rules, they announced the closure and unfortunately everything will be online," BarbershopRabbi Dovi Hayon, Deputy Mayor of Haifa. This year, it will be possible to purchase a single ticket for a movie that can be watched via the computer or smartphone or a ticket for several movies.
We stayed with an online festival
Apart from the plan that was ultimately chosen, due to the current limitations, in which the festival will be transmitted online in its entirety, Hayon reports on two other plans that were prepared as possibilities for holding the festival in Haifa, in this deceptive period: the first, which was based on the assumption that the corona is already history, so that the festival takes place in its full format And the usual, like every year. The second outline, which was relevant until a few days ago, included partial activity, according to the size of the halls and the gathering guidelines, but without street performances. As mentioned, this option also fell through, in light of the decision to go into lockdown and we were left with the last option, a fully online festival.
A year full of challenges
There is no doubt that this year has put us in front of challenges that we have not encountered before. We had to learn and deal with the digital platform, which will probably stay with us for a long time. We can only hope that next year the festival will return in its original form, and that we will be able to enjoy a complete cinematic experience together.