Renen Schorr
Encyclopedia
Renen Schorr is a film director
, screenwriter
, film producer
. In 1989, he became head of Israel’s first independent, national school for film and television. He then founded the Sam Spiegel Film & TV School – Jerusalem, and has served as its director since that time.
, Prof. Sam Schorr, grandson of historian Dr. Alexander Schorr, descendent of Rabbi
Joseph Bechor Schorr, a 12th century Talmudic commentator from Orléans
, France. Sixth generation Israeli on the side of his mother, Lea Heller, the daughter of Rabbi Avraham Zeide Heller of Safed
. Second cousin once removed of filmmaker Arnon Z. Shorr.
Schorr, who grew up in Tel Aviv
, was attracted to the theater from a young age. He played the role of Artful Dodger in Habima's national production of Oliver!
and the Crown Prince in Giora Godick's troupe production of The King and I. During his army years he served as a military combat correspondent for the army's weekly Bamahane
. In 1974 he was nominated for the Sokolov Journalism Prize – for a series of articles about battles for the Golan Heights in the Yom Kippur War
.
Schorr studied filmmaking
at Tel Aviv University
and worked as an assistant to the prolific director Uri Zohar
. In 1979, with a grant from the Israel-America Cultural Foundation, he apprenticed in the U.S. as assistant director/observer to directors John Cassavetes
and Paul Mazursky
and worked in Los Angeles with Oscar-nominated screenwriter Steve Shagan
.
in 1987 to rave reviews and became a commercial success as well. It was screened in 30 international festivals including, Montreal
, Moscow, Toronto
, Chicago
, Los Angeles, Vienna
, Dublin, Hong Kong
. The film was released in the USA and Canada. Over the years, the movie has become a cultural icon, a kind of Israeli Hair
.
Late Summer Blues, set in Tel Aviv
during the summer of 1970 and based upon Schorr's own personal experiences, was written by Doron Nesher. It follows a group of seven high school seniors through the last weeks before being recruited into the IDF
. The characters explore their own identities and deliberate as individuals and a group about army duty and pacifism
. The film was written over a seven-year period from 1978-85. The controversial nature of the film resulted in its total rejection for funding from both public and private sources. Schorr managed to overcome all odds by nevertheless producing the film on an extremely low budget. To this day, the film has had an influence upon how young Israelis perceive the draft and the Establishment.
As a screenwriter and script editor
, Schorr wrote the screenplays for his short films, served as a script consultant to Uri Zohar
, and had a part in writing the screenplays for Paratroopers (1977, directed by Judd Ne’eman). He edited the screenplay for the international award winning film Broken Wings
(2002, directed by Nir Bergman).
The Loners (HaBodedim), the second full-length feature film directed by Schorr, debuted in November 2009. Inspired by true events that took place in an Israeli military prison in 1997, the film explores the plight of two young Russian immigrant soldiers who are falsely accused of treason. Schorr wrote the screenplay along with Guy Meirson, Moshe Zonder, and Nir Bergman.
The Loners was nominated for 11 Israeli Academy Awards, and was named winner of the Best Actor Award (Sasha Agronov) and Best Film Award at The South Festival (Sderot). It was chosen Winner of the Best Film Award, Open Doek Festival, Belgium Festival, and participated in such festivals as its international premiere in Pusan (S. Korea), Cape Town (South Africa), Seattle (U.S.A.), Cottbus (Germany), Tirana (Albania), London Jewish (UK), Toronto Jewish (Canada), Boston Jewish (U.S.A), and IsraFest L.A., N.Y., Miami (U.S.A).
From 1982–1985, Schorr served as the head of the film department at Beit Zvi, which was producing new, young directors. He forged innovative paths by teaching a concept that championed a change from the traditional filmmaking focus on "why" to the newer concept of "how."
In July 1989, Schorr was chosen to create the Jerusalem Film School, now the Sam Spiegel Film and Television School, Jerusalem, with the support of the Ministry of Education and Culture and the Jerusalem Foundation. He remains its director to this day.
In 1992, Schorr initiated the creation of another fund, the New Fund for Film and Television, which spearheaded a revolution in independent documentary filmmaking in Israel. Schorr's actions single-handedly resulted in the flourishing of the documentary, which had previously been an uninteresting, lackluster product of public television.
On the academic front, Schorr saw to it that Israeli film schools became members of GEECT, the European union of film schools. In 2000, he was chosen by 70 of his fellow school directors to serve as president of GEECT. During his four-year term, he initiated and organized numerous conferences about European cinema, aiming to define and characterize European cinema against American films, and to advance the standing of the entrepreneurial producer. Schorr worked with the European Film Academy under the presidency of German director Wim Wenders and championed the inclusion of Israel as a member of the Academy.
In 2001, Renen Schorr initiated and edited the prize-winning dramatic series Voices from the Heartland for the commercial TV channel. The enterprise served as a type of incubator for select young talents, graduates of various Israeli film schools. At a point where opportunities to work in the creative dramatic field were few and far between, Schorr created a supportive stage for these individuals to create their first dramatic fruits, paving the way for their entrance to the foreground of Israeli television and cinema. Voices From the Heartland went on to win six prizes in the Jerusalem Film Festival, 2001 and 2002, with most of its segments screened and winning prizes in Cannes and other major film and television festivals.
In 2008, Schorr initiated the establishment of Israel’s first municipal/regional film fund, the Jerusalem Film and Television Fund. The goal: to portray the city’s vibrant, unparalleled daily life—and transform its heavy governmental, stereotypical image—by stimulating the production of full-length films and television series on location in Jerusalem. Among the first films cultivated by the Fund is the award-winning “My Intimate Grammar,” directed by Nir Bergman and based on the novel by David Grossman.
Renen Schorr serves as head of the Jerusalem Film and Television Fund’s board of directors.
At the Sam Spiegel School, Schorr built a film community supportive of its students and graduates, "the solidarity of the individuals", as he termed it. He experimented with a worldview that aimed to juxtapose the "how" with the "what" via educational and directorial methods which changed the face of the Israeli short film. The school has become recognized as one of the leading film schools in the world, winning over 290 international prizes, among them 15 awards as the World's Best School, as well as recognition at over 160 international festivals, museums and film schools in 49 countries. Retrospective tributes to the school include the New York Museum of Modern Art (1996), Rotterdam (1997), Havana (1999), Berlin (2004), Melbourne (2004), the Hamptons (2005), and Jerusalem (2005).
In November 2009, the Sam Spiegel Film & Television School-Jerusalem celebrated its 20th anniversary. Among the special events to mark the milestone was the launch of the “Great Masters’ Visit” program, whose first guest artist was renowned director Wim Wenders. Later that year the school initiated the first Sam Spiegel Conference in Jerusalem, “A Vision for The Israeli Cinema.” Thirty key figures from the film world (including filmmakers, film scholars, and academics) revealed their vision for the Israeli cinema in the coming decade, creating a heated debate that will long be remembered in the annals of the nation’s cinema realm.
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
, screenwriter
Screenwriter
Screenwriters or scriptwriters or scenario writers are people who write/create the short or feature-length screenplays from which mass media such as films, television programs, Comics or video games are based.-Profession:...
, film producer
Film producer
A film producer oversees and delivers a film project to all relevant parties while preserving the integrity, voice and vision of the film. They will also often take on some financial risk by using their own money, especially during the pre-production period, before a film is fully financed.The...
. In 1989, he became head of Israel’s first independent, national school for film and television. He then founded the Sam Spiegel Film & TV School – Jerusalem, and has served as its director since that time.
Background
Son of a physicianPhysician
A physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...
, Prof. Sam Schorr, grandson of historian Dr. Alexander Schorr, descendent of Rabbi
Rabbi
In Judaism, a rabbi is a teacher of Torah. This title derives from the Hebrew word רבי , meaning "My Master" , which is the way a student would address a master of Torah...
Joseph Bechor Schorr, a 12th century Talmudic commentator from Orléans
Orléans
-Prehistory and Roman:Cenabum was a Gallic stronghold, one of the principal towns of the Carnutes tribe where the Druids held their annual assembly. It was conquered and destroyed by Julius Caesar in 52 BC, then rebuilt under the Roman Empire...
, France. Sixth generation Israeli on the side of his mother, Lea Heller, the daughter of Rabbi Avraham Zeide Heller of Safed
Safed
Safed , is a city in the Northern District of Israel. Located at an elevation of , Safed is the highest city in the Galilee and of Israel. Due to its high elevation, Safed experiences warm summers and cold, often snowy, winters...
. Second cousin once removed of filmmaker Arnon Z. Shorr.
Schorr, who grew up in Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv , officially Tel Aviv-Yafo , is the second most populous city in Israel, with a population of 404,400 on a land area of . The city is located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline in west-central Israel. It is the largest and most populous city in the metropolitan area of Gush Dan, with...
, was attracted to the theater from a young age. He played the role of Artful Dodger in Habima's national production of Oliver!
Oliver!
Oliver! is a British musical, with script, music and lyrics by Lionel Bart. The musical is based upon the novel Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens....
and the Crown Prince in Giora Godick's troupe production of The King and I. During his army years he served as a military combat correspondent for the army's weekly Bamahane
Bamahane
Bamahane is a Hebrew-language weekly magazine published by the Israel Defense Forces...
. In 1974 he was nominated for the Sokolov Journalism Prize – for a series of articles about battles for the Golan Heights in the Yom Kippur War
Yom Kippur War
The Yom Kippur War, Ramadan War or October War , also known as the 1973 Arab-Israeli War and the Fourth Arab-Israeli War, was fought from October 6 to 25, 1973, between Israel and a coalition of Arab states led by Egypt and Syria...
.
Schorr studied filmmaking
Filmmaking
Filmmaking is the process of making a film, from an initial story, idea, or commission, through scriptwriting, casting, shooting, directing, editing, and screening the finished product before an audience that may result in a theatrical release or television program...
at Tel Aviv University
Tel Aviv University
Tel Aviv University is a public university located in Ramat Aviv, Tel Aviv, Israel. With nearly 30,000 students, TAU is Israel's largest university.-History:...
and worked as an assistant to the prolific director Uri Zohar
Uri Zohar
Uri Zohar is a former Israeli film director, actor, and comedian who left the entertainment world to become a rabbi.-Biography:Zohar was born in Tel Aviv in 1934. In 1952, he graduated high school and did his military service in an army entertainment troupe. His first marriage ended in divorce.By...
. In 1979, with a grant from the Israel-America Cultural Foundation, he apprenticed in the U.S. as assistant director/observer to directors John Cassavetes
John Cassavetes
John Nicholas Cassavetes was an American actor, screenwriter and filmmaker. He acted in many Hollywood films, notably Rosemary's Baby and The Dirty Dozen...
and Paul Mazursky
Paul Mazursky
Paul Mazursky is an American film director, screenwriter and actor.-Personal life:He was born Irwin Mazursky in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Jean , a piano player for dance classes, and David Mazursky, a laborer. Mazursky was born to a Jewish family; his grandfather was an immigrant from...
and worked in Los Angeles with Oscar-nominated screenwriter Steve Shagan
Steve Shagan
Steve Shagan is an American novelist, screenplay writer, TV and Movie producer. He was born in 1927 in New York. He wrote the novel, the screenplay and also co produced, Save the Tiger, the 1974 movie, for which Jack Lemmon won the Best Actor Academy Award and Shagan was nominated for Best...
.
Films
Renen's main movie as a director, Late Summer Blues (1987), won the Silver Menorah award – for best film, best screenplay and best original score, as well as the prize for outstanding film in the Israel Film Festivals in New York and Los Angeles. The film opened the Jerusalem Film FestivalJerusalem Film Festival
The Jerusalem Film Festival is an international film festival held annually in Jerusalem, Israel. The festival was the brainchild of Lia van Leer, who inaugurated it on May 17, 1984...
in 1987 to rave reviews and became a commercial success as well. It was screened in 30 international festivals including, Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
, Moscow, Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
, Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, Los Angeles, Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
, Dublin, Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
. The film was released in the USA and Canada. Over the years, the movie has become a cultural icon, a kind of Israeli Hair
Hair (film)
Hair is a 1979 American film adaptation of the 1968 Broadway musical of the same name about a Vietnam war draftee who meets and befriends a tribe of long-haired hippies on his way to the army induction center...
.
Late Summer Blues, set in Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv , officially Tel Aviv-Yafo , is the second most populous city in Israel, with a population of 404,400 on a land area of . The city is located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline in west-central Israel. It is the largest and most populous city in the metropolitan area of Gush Dan, with...
during the summer of 1970 and based upon Schorr's own personal experiences, was written by Doron Nesher. It follows a group of seven high school seniors through the last weeks before being recruited into the IDF
Israel Defense Forces
The Israel Defense Forces , commonly known in Israel by the Hebrew acronym Tzahal , are the military forces of the State of Israel. They consist of the ground forces, air force and navy. It is the sole military wing of the Israeli security forces, and has no civilian jurisdiction within Israel...
. The characters explore their own identities and deliberate as individuals and a group about army duty and pacifism
Pacifism
Pacifism is the opposition to war and violence. The term "pacifism" was coined by the French peace campaignerÉmile Arnaud and adopted by other peace activists at the tenth Universal Peace Congress inGlasgow in 1901.- Definition :...
. The film was written over a seven-year period from 1978-85. The controversial nature of the film resulted in its total rejection for funding from both public and private sources. Schorr managed to overcome all odds by nevertheless producing the film on an extremely low budget. To this day, the film has had an influence upon how young Israelis perceive the draft and the Establishment.
As a screenwriter and script editor
Script editor
A script editor is a member of the production team of scripted television programmes, usually dramas and comedies. The script editor has many responsibilities including finding new script writers, developing storyline and series ideas with writers, ensuring that scripts are suitable for production...
, Schorr wrote the screenplays for his short films, served as a script consultant to Uri Zohar
Uri Zohar
Uri Zohar is a former Israeli film director, actor, and comedian who left the entertainment world to become a rabbi.-Biography:Zohar was born in Tel Aviv in 1934. In 1952, he graduated high school and did his military service in an army entertainment troupe. His first marriage ended in divorce.By...
, and had a part in writing the screenplays for Paratroopers (1977, directed by Judd Ne’eman). He edited the screenplay for the international award winning film Broken Wings
Broken Wings (film)
Broken Wings is a 2002 Israeli film directed by Nir Bergman and starring Orly Silbersatz Banai, Maya Maron, and Nitai Gaviratz.- Plot :The unexpected death of the family patriarch throws every member of the Ullmann clan off course. Widow Dafna takes to bed for three months and when she finally...
(2002, directed by Nir Bergman).
The Loners (HaBodedim), the second full-length feature film directed by Schorr, debuted in November 2009. Inspired by true events that took place in an Israeli military prison in 1997, the film explores the plight of two young Russian immigrant soldiers who are falsely accused of treason. Schorr wrote the screenplay along with Guy Meirson, Moshe Zonder, and Nir Bergman.
The Loners was nominated for 11 Israeli Academy Awards, and was named winner of the Best Actor Award (Sasha Agronov) and Best Film Award at The South Festival (Sderot). It was chosen Winner of the Best Film Award, Open Doek Festival, Belgium Festival, and participated in such festivals as its international premiere in Pusan (S. Korea), Cape Town (South Africa), Seattle (U.S.A.), Cottbus (Germany), Tirana (Albania), London Jewish (UK), Toronto Jewish (Canada), Boston Jewish (U.S.A), and IsraFest L.A., N.Y., Miami (U.S.A).
Activities
Together with the demands of his professional achievements, Schorr has taken a major role in changing and improving the Israeli cinema realm. As one of the builders of modern Israeli cinema, Schorr, together with Judd Ne’eman and Yeud Levanon, founded the Israel Film Fund in 1978. It revolutionized the industry by shifting public support from the Ministry of Commerce and Industry to the Ministry of Education and Culture, an act which recognized the cultural value of a film over its mere commercial worth. In addition, the Fund gave unprecedented empowerment to the director over the producer.From 1982–1985, Schorr served as the head of the film department at Beit Zvi, which was producing new, young directors. He forged innovative paths by teaching a concept that championed a change from the traditional filmmaking focus on "why" to the newer concept of "how."
In July 1989, Schorr was chosen to create the Jerusalem Film School, now the Sam Spiegel Film and Television School, Jerusalem, with the support of the Ministry of Education and Culture and the Jerusalem Foundation. He remains its director to this day.
In 1992, Schorr initiated the creation of another fund, the New Fund for Film and Television, which spearheaded a revolution in independent documentary filmmaking in Israel. Schorr's actions single-handedly resulted in the flourishing of the documentary, which had previously been an uninteresting, lackluster product of public television.
On the academic front, Schorr saw to it that Israeli film schools became members of GEECT, the European union of film schools. In 2000, he was chosen by 70 of his fellow school directors to serve as president of GEECT. During his four-year term, he initiated and organized numerous conferences about European cinema, aiming to define and characterize European cinema against American films, and to advance the standing of the entrepreneurial producer. Schorr worked with the European Film Academy under the presidency of German director Wim Wenders and championed the inclusion of Israel as a member of the Academy.
In 2001, Renen Schorr initiated and edited the prize-winning dramatic series Voices from the Heartland for the commercial TV channel. The enterprise served as a type of incubator for select young talents, graduates of various Israeli film schools. At a point where opportunities to work in the creative dramatic field were few and far between, Schorr created a supportive stage for these individuals to create their first dramatic fruits, paving the way for their entrance to the foreground of Israeli television and cinema. Voices From the Heartland went on to win six prizes in the Jerusalem Film Festival, 2001 and 2002, with most of its segments screened and winning prizes in Cannes and other major film and television festivals.
In 2008, Schorr initiated the establishment of Israel’s first municipal/regional film fund, the Jerusalem Film and Television Fund. The goal: to portray the city’s vibrant, unparalleled daily life—and transform its heavy governmental, stereotypical image—by stimulating the production of full-length films and television series on location in Jerusalem. Among the first films cultivated by the Fund is the award-winning “My Intimate Grammar,” directed by Nir Bergman and based on the novel by David Grossman.
Renen Schorr serves as head of the Jerusalem Film and Television Fund’s board of directors.
At the Sam Spiegel School, Schorr built a film community supportive of its students and graduates, "the solidarity of the individuals", as he termed it. He experimented with a worldview that aimed to juxtapose the "how" with the "what" via educational and directorial methods which changed the face of the Israeli short film. The school has become recognized as one of the leading film schools in the world, winning over 290 international prizes, among them 15 awards as the World's Best School, as well as recognition at over 160 international festivals, museums and film schools in 49 countries. Retrospective tributes to the school include the New York Museum of Modern Art (1996), Rotterdam (1997), Havana (1999), Berlin (2004), Melbourne (2004), the Hamptons (2005), and Jerusalem (2005).
In November 2009, the Sam Spiegel Film & Television School-Jerusalem celebrated its 20th anniversary. Among the special events to mark the milestone was the launch of the “Great Masters’ Visit” program, whose first guest artist was renowned director Wim Wenders. Later that year the school initiated the first Sam Spiegel Conference in Jerusalem, “A Vision for The Israeli Cinema.” Thirty key figures from the film world (including filmmakers, film scholars, and academics) revealed their vision for the Israeli cinema in the coming decade, creating a heated debate that will long be remembered in the annals of the nation’s cinema realm.
Films produced
- Off the Air (Yeud Levanon, 1981)
- Late Summer BluesLate Summer BluesLate Summer Blues is a 1987 Israeli film directed by Renen Schorr. It is a story about a group of Israeli teens in their last summer before army service. They all experience different conflicts about joining the army. One of them cannot join the army because he is diabetic. One of them does not...
(1987) - Blacks to the Promised Land (Madeleine Ali, 1992)
- Miss Entebbe (Omri Levy, 2003)
- James' Journey to JerusalemJames' Journey to JerusalemJames' Journey to Jerusalem is a 2003 Israeli film directed by Ra'anan Alexandrowicz and produced by Renen Schorr.- Plot :The film's plot focuses on an African teenager named James whom hails from the fictional African village Entshongweni, who goes on a pilgrimage journey, on behalf of his...
(Ra'anan Alexandrovitch, 2003) - Voices from the Heartland - dramatic series (2001, 2002)
Films directed
- After Duty (1977) (short film)
- The Battle of Fort Williams (1981) (short film)
- Wedding in Jerusalem (1985) (short film)
- Late Summer BluesLate Summer BluesLate Summer Blues is a 1987 Israeli film directed by Renen Schorr. It is a story about a group of Israeli teens in their last summer before army service. They all experience different conflicts about joining the army. One of them cannot join the army because he is diabetic. One of them does not...
(1987) - HaBodedim (2009)