currently screening

'Black Notebooks: Ronit' (2021) by Shlomi Elkabetz

Why this film?  Following up from the FFC screening  in April of the film Gett by Ronit Elkabetz and Shlomi Elkabetz, we are proud to be part of the Academy Award campaign and screen the documentary Black Notebooks (2021) by Shlomi Elkabetz the brother of the late Ronit Elkabetz actress and filmmaker and an icon in the Israeli film. 

Based on family archives and excerpts from the trilogy created by Ronit and Shlomi Elkabetz - BLACK NOTEBOOKS: RONIT invites us into the intimacy of a Jewish-Arab family, a family of uprooted exiles, in an imaginary story where a brother and sister revisit the past and the present to defy an implacable future.

Ronit Elkabetz was a beloved and critically acclaimed star of Israeli cinema (LATE MARRIAGE, THE BAND’S VISIT, GETT). Elkabetz’s versatility, beauty and magnetism prompted the New York Times, in 2008, to dub her “Israel’s Meryl Streep,” while other international critics compared her to an Almodovar heroine. She co-directed three films, including GETT, with her brother, Shlomi Elkabetz. In BLACK NOTEBOOKS: RONIT, his love letter to his sister and to cinema, Shlomi chronicles the making of their film GETT, as the siblings are faced with Ronit’s illness. Determined for Ronit to stay alive they embark on a journey, traveling the world with their film and attempting to change destiny. Ronit Elkabetz died in 2016 at the age of 51.

Black Notebooks premiered in Cannes Film Festival in the Official Selection  (2021) and won in the Israeli Academy Awards, Jerusalem Film Festival and is now running its Academy Awards Campaign for the best documentary.  

Shlomi Elkabetz is a Film Director, Screenwriter, Teacher, Actor and Producer. In 2011 he wrote, directed and produced "Testimony” that showed at the Venice Film Festival. Alongside his sister, Ronit Elkabetz, he created the trilogy: “To Take a Wife” (2004), “Seven Days” (2008) and “Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem” (2014); the films were all selected respectively to the Critics Week at the Venice Mostra; the Critics Week and the Directors Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival. In 2016 he produced “In Between” Directed by Maysaloun Hamoud, which had its international premiere at the San Sebastian Film Festival. In 2019 Shlomi starred in the leading role in HBO series “Our Boys”. His 2021 documentary, “Black Notebooks” won the 2022 Ophir Prize (Israeli “Oscar”) for best documentary. 

All Members can watch this film and engage in our FFC signature film chat. (we LOVE learning and challenging each other!). 

And because watching films is much more fun together we are having our FFC WATCH PARTY event on December 6th. We will all watch the film a day before the film discussion. During the film we will be able to post our thoughts, emotions and moments we love and there will be so much energy knowing we are all watching it at the same time. Everyone can also watch back the recorded Q&A with Shlomi Elkabetz.

Everyone on the FFC Pro membership gets access to an intimate Q&A and engage with the director Shlomi Elkabetz.

The FFC films are exclusively selected for members from internationally acclaimed filmmakers that have won awards and stunned the world.