9 Star Hotel

9 Star Hotel

Ido Haar (Documentary Filmmaker)
Friday, April 1, 2011 / 2:00 PM
MultiCultural Center Theater

Just as Mexicans cross U.S. borders illegally to find work as day laborers, thousands of Palestinians do likewise, into neighboring Israel, seeking jobs in construction. For 9 Star Hotel, Israeli filmmaker Ido Haar gained the trust of a group of nomadic young men whom he observed fleeing from police, risking their lives to cross highways at night, sleeping in makeshift hovels – a dramatic contrast to the luxury housing they build by day. “We think backwards- we never think forward. We are like scavengers, like those who harvest olives after the locust,” one of his subjects confesses with lyrical simplicity. This is a devastating cinema verite portrait of young men caught in an economic and political maelstrom not of their own making – their dreams subsumed by the hard reality of day-to-day survival. Winner of the Best Documentary Award, Jerusalem International Film Festival, 2006. A surprise hit in Israel.

Ido Haar is an Israeli filmmaker, working extensively for the Israeli TV focusing on Directing, shooting and editing documentaries on social, Political & Cultural subjects. His films 9 Star Hotel and Melting Siberia enjoyed worldwide success.

Sponsored by the Carsey-Wolf Center, the Dept. of Film and Media Studies, Dept. of Feminist Studies, Dept. of Spanish and Portuguese, and the IHC.