Yousef Abo Madegem is the first Bedouin director to create a feature-length film. EID won the Best Feature Film Award at the 41st Jerusalem Film Festival. Upon its premiere, Abo Madegem remarked he had worked on the film for ten years, adding that he has ten children, “and this film is like my eleventh.” Baher Agbariya is a film producer and the founder of Majdal Films, a company dedicated to promoting independent, innovative cinema with international resonance. He began his career with Tawfik Abu Wael’s Atash/Thirst (FIPRESCI Award – Cannes), and has since produced works that screened and won awards at major festivals worldwide including Omar (Academy Award nominee), Personal Affairs (Official Selection – Cannes), Mediterranean Fever (Best Screenplay Award – Cannes), and The Sea by Shai Carmeli-Pollak — winner of the Ophir Awards for Best Film, Screenplay, Acting, and Music. His work is defined by a meeting point between the deeply personal and the universal, and by a profound belief in the power of human stories to transcend language, politics, and borders. Stephen Apkon / Co-founder and Executive Director, Reconsider Stephen Apkon is an award-winning filmmaker, and social entrepreneur. He is the Founder and former Executive Director of the Jacob Burns Film Center, a non-profit film and education center located in Pleasantville, NY. Stephen is the Director and Producer of Disturbing the Peace and There Is Another Way. He is also an Executive Producer of Fantastic Fungi, Planetary, and Backyard Wilderness, and Producer of I’m Carolyn Parker, and Enlistment Days, and Co Producer of Presenting Princess Shaw. He is the author of The Age of the Image: Redefining Literacy in a World of Screens, published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux – foreword by Martin Scorsese. Stephen lives in the Hudson Valley with his partner Marcina, their dog Osa, and the flora, fauna and fungi they share this corner of the planet with. Arash Azizi is a historian. He is a Postdoctoral Associate and lecturer at Yale University and a contributing writer at the Atlantic. He is the author of “Shadow Commander: Soleimani, the US, and Iran’s Global Ambitions” (2020) and “Iran’s New Revolution: Women, Life, Freedom” (2024). Shai Carmeli Pollak – Selected Works as Director and Writer Miki Chayat, 35 from Rehovot. Miki is the capoeira champion for 2019, and is ranked fourth in the world after representing Israel in several world championships. He is the CEO and founder of an organization Haredim Lakatsaf (STRONGERS) that deals with social change through sports and martial arts. Senior trainer, and representative of the global ABADA CAPOEIRA organization in Israel. Tamara Gayer is an Israeli-American public artist and longtime activist. Her works are installed across North America and she is represented in collections, including that of the Museum of Modern Art. In her activist life she is one of the organizers of Israelis for Peace and the Chair of the NYC Friends of Standing Together. Gili Getz is an Israeli-American photojournalist, actor, and peace activist. He is best known for his extensive documentation of Jewish American political activism and contributes regularly to Jewish and Israeli media as well as the Jewish justice movement. Gili served as a military photographer in the IDF and later as a news editor for Ynet. His one-man play, The Forbidden Conversation, explored the complexities of the Israel/Palestine conversation within the American Jewish community, and he executive produced the film Israelism, which follows transformation of young American Jews as they encounter the Palestinian experience often hidden from them. Gili serves as president of American Friends of Combatants for Peace, a joint Israeli-Palestinian movement, and as vice president of Partners for Progressive Israel. Following October 7, he co-founded Israelis for Peace, advocating for the freedom, safety, dignity, and humanity of both Israelis and Palestinians. Founding National Co-Director of Standing Together, a progressive grassroots movement in Israel established in the winter of 2015, which mobilizes people around issues of peace, equality, and social justice. Marcina Hale LMFT / Co-founder and Program Director, Reconsider Marcina Hale has spent over 20 years developing and presenting workshops for individual and communal change and transformation. A master therapist and dynamic facilitator, she challenges and inspires others to live their lives more consciously and to take responsibility for their own creations. She is an Executive Producer of Fantastic Fungi, Producer of Disturbing the Peace and There Is Another Way. She is also the primary facilitator for Reconsider workshop experiences, which have been given in the U.S. and internationally. Marcina spoke at TEDxKC Women about how to change the world in which we are living, and is both an LMFT and a trained psychedelic therapist. NURIT KEDAR is an acclaimed Israeli documentary filmmaker. Kedar was awarded “The Art Of Cinema Award”. The award was given by the Israeli Ministry of Culture. All her films were aired on Israeli broadcasting networks. Jamal Khalaily is a film director, writer, and producer who graduated from Hadassah College in Jerusalem in 2006. His work includes directing and writing several short films, such as MAKHRAJ and EBRAHEM, and a documentary called SHO QOSTAK. In 2024, he co-wrote and co-directed the feature film BELLA. Khalaily has also served as an assistant director on the miniseries OUR BOYS and the film OMAR. Lance is a Washington, DC-based filmmaker and co-founder of Meridian Hill Pictures. Lance produced HOLDING LIAT (Berlinale Documentary Award Winner); THE FIRST STEP (Tribeca, AFI DOCS); CITY OF TREES (Full Frame, PBS, Netflix); and the Webby Award-winning documentary series THE MESSY TRUTH. Lance was selected as an advisor to the 2025 Sundance Creative Producers Lab, a fellow at the 2018 Sundance Creative Producers Summit, the 2017 Impact Partners Documentary Producers Fellowship, and was named to the DOC NYC “40 Under 40” list in 2021. Lance was awarded five Individual Arts Fellowships by the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities between 2014-2022. In 2014, Lance received the DC Mayor’s Arts Award, the highest honor given to working artists in the city. Lance served two terms as Board Member of Docs in Progress, is a board member of the Foundation for the Augmentation of African-Americans in Film (FAAAF), and has been an active member of the Documentary Producers Alliance (DPA) since 2016. Lance holds a bachelor’s degree in history and film from Dartmouth College. Maya Lecker is deputy editor-in-chief and commissioning editor of Haaretz English. She lives in Tel Aviv. Libby Lenkinski (she/her) is the founding President of Albi and serves as Vice President for Public Engagement at the New Israel Fund, where she has led all aspects of NIF’s public efforts in the United States for the last decade – including communications, digital, programs, events, leadership, community partnerships and engagement, New Generations and fellowships. Prior to joining NIF, Libby lived and worked in the Israeli non-profit field for almost a decade. Libby currently serves on the board of American Friends of the Batsheva Dance Company and Heeb Magazine, and is on the Advisory Committee for the Inter-Agency Task Force on Israeli Arab Issues, Ayin Press, Schlepp Labs, and Diaspora Alliance. Libby is based in NYC and travels to Israel-Palestine frequently. Shany Littman is a magazine writer and culture critic at Haaretz. She has covered the aftermath of October 7 extensively and is currently a 2026 Nieman fellow at Harvard. Tal is an Israeli film and television director and editor, and a graduate of Tel Aviv University’s Film & TV Department and Comparative Literature program. Her documentaries – including Bukra fil Mish-Mish, Hunger, Israeli Hero, Call Me Ovadya, and Around the Bed of a Dying Collaborator (co-directed with David Ofek) – often explore the boundaries between self and other, the personal and the political. Through stories of conflict, belonging, and memory, Tal seeks to reveal the fragile humanity that connects people across divides. Etan Nechin is Haaretz’s New York correspondent. He is also a regular opinions writer and book critic at the paper and covers culture and leftist activism. Creator, writer, and documentary director, with a background in music therapy (MA). A group facilitator, social activist, and entrepreneur who believes in the power of documentary storytelling to amplify unheard voices. Currently, works both independently and within organizations in the fields of therapy and rehabilitation, managing a therapeutic choir for homeless women, alongside writing projects and documentary filmmaking. In addition to her film work, Sarah works as a writer and creative producer. Her journalism, essays, and creative writing have appeared in The New York Times, Harper’s, and other publications. She currently works alongside Etgar Keret as the assistant director of a new MFA in storytelling at JTS. She holds a BA in Film from Yale University, studied film at FAMU in Prague, and is pursuing an MFA in Creative Writing at NYU. She lives in Brooklyn and travels frequently to Tel Aviv. Jérôme Sesquin is a French journalist and documentary film director known for his investigative work on geopolitics and history, particularly concerning the Middle East and Africa. A graduate of the Center for Journalistic Education in Strasbourg, he has directed award-winning documentaries for French television, including Israël, les ministres du chaos (2024), Qatar, guerre d’influence sur l’Islam d’Europe (2019), and Dirty Gold (2014). His films explore complex topics like political crises, colonial history, and identity. Zohar Shachar is a filmmaker and social entrepreneur who uses her work to promote Jewish-Arab partnership in Israel. She co-directed the 2025 film Bella and is also a founding parent of the Wadi Ara Gesher School and a co-facilitator of a local “Madrassah” chapter, a workshop that uses Israeli and Palestinian films to deepen participants’ cultural and political awareness. Esther Sperber is the founder of Smol Emuni US, a growing movement of Orthodox Jews committed to justice, equality, and dignity for Jews and Palestinians. Rooted in Torah, the organization builds a courageous Jewish voice for peace through salons, cohorts, conferences, and publications. Born in Jerusalem, Esther has lived in New York for 25 years, where she is active in Darkhei Noam, the Hostages’ Family Forum, and pro-democracy protests. She is also the founder of Studio ST Architects, an award-winning firm specializing in synagogue and community design. Esther writes and lectures widely on Judaism, architecture, and culture. Jimmy Taber serves as the International Development Director of The Abraham Initiatives, an Israeli organization working to build a shared society with full and equal access to citizenship for all Israelis – Jewish and Palestinian. Born and raised in Portland, Oregon, he earned his BA in Critical Theory and Social Justice from Occidental College and his MA and MBA from Brandeis University’s Hornstein Jewish Professional Leadership Program and The Heller School for Social Policy and Management. Prior to joining The Abraham Initiatives, Jimmy worked with organizations including New Israel Fund and Center for International Migration and Integration at JDC-Israel. Jimmy lives on New York’s Upper West Side with his wife Rabbi Mia Simring and two small children, Nava and Ami. Documentary filmmaker, video creator, photographer, and editor.
Jerusalem Film Festival. Winner of five Ophir Awards, including Best Film.
Director and co-writer.
in Israel. Director, screenwriter, and cinematographer. Screened at the Haifa Film
Festival. Winner of an award at the Montenegro Film Festival. Selected for numerous
international festivals.
screenwriter, and cinematographer. Winner of the First Prize at the Jerusalem Film
Festival, a Special Mention at Rotterdam IFF, winner at the New Caledonia Festival,
and screened at many international festivals. Broadcast on television channels
worldwide.
Director and writer.
the series.
writer.
Brother. Director and writer.
Graduate of the Mendel Institute for Leadership.
Graduate of the IVLP program of the US State Department.
B.A Education and Society.
Master’s degree in Business Administration.
Won the Lifetime Achievement Award awarded by the Israeli Academy of Film and Television.
Kedar won the Van Leer Group Foundation Award for Best Documentary Film, for the film “Life Sentences” at the Jerusalem Film Festival.
“Life Sentences” won the Objectif d’or, grand award, also the Audience Award at the Millenium Film Festival.
“Schoolyard” won at the Jerusalem Film Festival and awarded at Primed film festival.
“Concrete” won “spirit of freedom” at the Jerusalem Film Festival.
Most of her films were aired on international networks, amongst: ARTE, ARD, VPRO, Canal
Plus, NHK, Multi-Canal-Spain, RAI-Italy, Planete-France, to name a few.
Kedar directed the award-winning
Schoolyard (2021)
Lieberman (2019)
Catch 73 (2013)
Life Sentences (2013)
Concrete (2011)
Wasted (2007)
One Shot (2004)
Asesino (2002)
Lebanon Dream (2001)
Borders (2000)
A graduate of the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design (Screen Arts, BA) and Tel Aviv University’s Film Department (Production Track, MA).
Toledano’s documentary work explores power relations and mechanisms of oppression within Israeli society, emphasizing storytelling and the human dimension behind each narrative. He believes in the power of documentary cinema to inspire empathy, shift perspectives, and challenge social discourse.Presented By
