Hilla Medalia

Bio

Peabody Award-winning, three-time Emmy nominated director and producer, Hilla has been awarded the Paris Human Rights Festival Jury Award, Golden Warsaw Phoenix, as well as the jury award at FIPA and more. Hilla’s latest production Censored Voices (2015, BBC, ARTE, VPRO, Sundance Institute), a documentary about hidden recordings from the Six Day War, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and screened at Berlinale – Panorama, Hot Docs, IDFA, and BFI London, among others.

Hilla has explored the fraught relationship between Jews and Palestinians in her film To Die in Jerusalem (2007, HBO), about two teens killed in a suicide bombing. Dancing in Jaffa (2013) is a more hopeful portrait, following ballroom dancer Pierre Dulaine as he returns to his hometown to teach 150 Jewish and Palestinian 11-year-olds how to move gracefully together. Web Junkie (2014), dealing with Internet Addiction in China, which she co-directed and produced, premiered at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival. The Go Go Boys (2014), the inside story of Cannon Films, Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus, premiered at the Cannes Film Festival.

Reflection

As a mother myself I know the light my child brought into my life and I could easily relate to the desire to have children. When we started looking for a woman to film, I met women with very emotional and touching stories. Yael’s story was very interesting and raised questions of great depth. Yael has two children and she yearns for a third. She knows in her rational mind that she should be grateful for what she has and that her family is perfect as it is, but her heart wants this child and she can’t let it go.

Although Yael is secular, she sought solace in prayer and visited Amuka – an ancient burial place where women pray for fertility. I was moved by Yael’s determination and willingness to reach out to a power greater than herself. In Amuka, a place of spirituality and sanctity, I was overcome by a great sense of hope. It was my first visit to the site. The beautiful surroundings and its stillness intensified the feeling that the prayers were being heard and the experience of seeing all these women coming there was very strong. I hope Yael and all the other women I met during this illuminating journey find the answer to their prayers very soon.