Comments on: ISRAEL: Decades Long Alleged Corruption at the Rabinowitz & Gesher Film Funds

By: ISRAEL: Decades Long Alleged Corruption at the Rabinowitz & Gesher Film Funds – De-normalizing nepotism in the film industry. – Kon/Spira[l]

Thu, 26 Dec 2024 10:23:33 +0000

[…] Giora Eini, Eti Cohen, Moshe Edery, Yoav Abramovich & others. Following our report on the revolving doors at the Israeli Film Fund, where a significant portion, if not the majority, of feature film financing is allocated to a small group of individuals affiliated with the fund, either as script readers or in other capacities, we — Weiterlesen filmindustrywatch.org/israel-decades-long-alleged-corruption-at-the-rabinowitz-gesher-film-funds/ […]

By: Film Industry Watch

Film Industry Watch — Sat, 04 May 2024 06:23:05 +0000

In reply to Jacob Potashnik.

Thank you for your comment. There are simple ways to combat nepotism and conflict of interests. Heads of funds and the people who make artistic decisions could easily be replaced every 2-3 years. Project evaluators should be full time employees under contract, and should not be working as directors at the same time as they make evaluations. Evaluations could also be made by outsiders who are brought in from other countries, so they evaluate the scripts based on merit only, and not according to their social network. There are many ways to combat these issues.

The point of these articles is that system is rigged everywhere not because of a bug in the system but as a feature of the system. It is designed to allow certain people to give out money to whoever they want because tens and hundreds of millions of Euros are involved, and it is sure as hell easier to steal money in the arts, than walking into a bank with a gun, or setting up a multi million Euro business. Wherever a lot of money is involved, people will find ways to manipulate the system to gain control and influence over it, and then stay there, indefinitely. Having the same people manage films funds for 10, 15 and 20 years (as in the example above) is the result of a deeply flawed system that has been hijacked and then manipulated and controlled by the same individuals, not in the best interest of the industry, but in the best interest of the people involved, their families and friends. You can also be rest assured that these people don’t think that they’ve done anything wrong – like every defendant, in any court, in any country, they have ways to self justify their behaviors, to everyone and especially to themselves.

By: Jacob Potashnik

Jacob Potashnik — Tue, 30 Apr 2024 15:51:27 +0000

These are problems conflicts and issues that confront pretty much every single country that has a film industry financed through public funds. The reality and the arguments are simple; to whom does one turn, to fairly evaluate the merits of a submitted project within a specific social context? Do you hire sanitation employees? How about dentists, they like to see films? Perhaps agricultural workers, or sales people in a high-end clothing stores? How about the guy who prepares your espresso every morning, surely he’s got something to say about the merits of any given film submission? As it happens all over the world, national film funds have to turn to the very community which benefits from their presence; filmmakers. Yes, you can get in the odd playwright, choreographer, practitioner in fine arts, writers of fiction, but principally the group you need to turn to for expertise in evaluating a project that is destined to be a film are the people who are making films. There are many checks and balances that can be put in place to prevent what you call the revolving door, and what I referred to as “logrolling.” But it takes political will and the integrity of the stakeholders. Unfortunately, Israel appears to have become a country where such backscratching is so common that the public does not even react. Cynicism tends to rule because of corruption not only in the film industry, but throughout society. Everybody knows someone who has influence or “schlep” in order to get things done. There is no judgement of what this is right or wrong, but there is an opinion about whether or not this is how it society wants to function and that is for the Israeli people to decide. It might be interesting for Film Industry Watch to take a deep dive into a country that has a similar system of film financing, to see if does any better. For that I would suggest Canada as a test case for the incidence of revolving doors, or log rolling and backscratching. Telefilm and Quebec’s SODEC have been coming under scrutiny for some of the reasons raised in this report. Now, that would be a great study.

By: Rachel C

Rachel C — Tue, 23 Apr 2024 02:47:57 +0000

This is incredible piece of investigation, well done. Israel has become a dumpster fire so this doesn’t surprises me at all, it is turning into South Africa, with the apartheid of the 1950s-1990s mixed with the corruption and security issues of 2000s, so the worst of both worlds. The corruption described in this article is a sign of a deeply disturbed and crumbling society.