SAN FRANCISCO JEWISH FILM FESTIVAL | SFJFF 2010

As part of the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival's New Media Initiative, SFJFF offers a new short film to be viewed in entirety every month at SFJFF.ORG. This October 2009, our short of the month is Avi Ofer's Get the Picture, a delightful Israeli animation about a young girl who sees the world through fresh eyes thanks to a chance discovery. Ofer recently chatted with SFJFF about his filmmaking process, the challenges of animation, and why the best films still focus on the basics: telling a good, human story.

 What inspired you to make this film?

I had a long break in doing personal material in animation, and one of my greatest experiences during the past couple of years was in photography.  Animation and illustration was for me a very lonely and private process, just me and the paper\computer, and photography made me go and face reality. It was a difficult and important experience for me. I wanted to make a new personal film in which I could be more sensitive to the main character and every move and action reaction of it -- different from the symbolic characters in SANDBOX (SFJFF 2009) and less detached from my character. As usual, I don’t write a story or a script. The image I had in my head was the very long zoom lense scaring the duck in the lake. I had that before the actual concept of "capturing' the fish in the camera.

What was your greatest challenge during the filmmaking process?

I think I didn’t have many challenges technically, and made it the way I am used to. The challenge was making better character animation\acting\reacting, so people will hopefully be moved and taken with her. It is of course what most filmmakers want, and I think I got better at it compared to my previous work.

Any thoughts you’d like to share about screening this film in a Jewish context?

I am not sure there is a direct link in the film and a Jewish issue. I think it is another platform to give a chance to see the work. But I also see that as an Israeli and a Jew, I deal, of course, in personal and universal human stories like anyone anywhere in the world. Not just war, etc.

What film/media has inspired you lately?

It amazes me how classic filmmaking and storytelling and a really good human story -- is still the best, and so moving and uplifting and inspiring.

What do you do when you’re not filmmaking?

Work :). Happily lately most of my projects are animation and illustration, in my style and language of drawing. I ride my bicycle a lot, to move and think and see the city and people. I photograph a lot, and am now showing work in a big photography exhibition here in Tel-Aviv.

Lastly, gefilte fish: delicious, or disgusting?

Will never touch it, nor discuss it :)