Lamar University’s College of Fine Arts and Communication will host Israeli filmmaker Nili Tal as she screens her 2007 release The Girls from Brazil, with group discussion afterward.
An experienced journalist, documentary film director and producer, Tal’s most recent documentary film captures the stories of four Israeli women on the search for their birthparents in Brazil. The screening takes place at 2 p.m Thursday, March 6, in Room 103, the film-screening room, in the Communication Building.
Adopted in Brazil in the 1980s, four Israeli women returned there searching for their biological mothers and roots. Ayelet, who was adopted in Rio de Janeiro when she was 4, supplied the director, Nili Tal, with a photo taken on the day of her adoption. Tal sent it to a Brazilian daily newspaper with the caption “do you know me?” The next day, the director received an e-mail from a Brazilian woman who supposedly had Ayelet’s original adoption papers, but then she learns the truth is more complicated. Two of the women, Anna and Alma, had the name and address of a woman in northern Brazil, but no way of getting there. The documentary chronicles their journey to meet their biological mothers.
An experienced documentarian with titles going back to 1967, Tal has produced more than 20 films, including such titles as A Line and a Half, the story of five mothers whose sons were killed in the Intifada, Missing in LA, the story of two Israeli men missing in Los Angeles; Women for Sale, a documentary on Russian prostitution; and Murder without a motive, nominated for best documentary in the 2001 Israeli Academy Awards. Tal also produced 28 scripts and short films for the Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem.
Tal began her journalism career at the Israeli Haaretz daily newspaper in 1965, where she spent some 10 years writing. She has freelanced for other Israeli newspapers, including Yedioth Ahronoth and Maariv. She began working in the television industry for the Israeli Broadcasting Authority (IBA). Later, she became a director for Mabat Shenny, an investigative reporting program on IBA.
Tal’s 1984 documentary Eyal chronicled the experiences of a 20-something drug addict. It was the first time a scene of drug abuse was shown on TV in Israel, bringing the issue into public debate. Tal has directed and produced numerous reports and documentaries for all of the Israeli television channels and her work has been shown in numerous international film festivals.
For more information about the event, call the communication department at (409) 880-8153.
