By Avigayil Kadesh
The Utopia Festival, the Tel Aviv International Science Fiction Festival at the Tel-Aviv Cinematheque, runs from September 13-20 -- for the first time, in conjunction with the Tel Aviv DLD (Digital Life Design)
Innovation Festival, Israel's largest international high-tech gathering of startups, VCs, angel investors and leading multinationals.
On the bill is a wide-ranging panorama of about 40 Israeli and international films, premieres and special screenings. But Uri Aviv, founder and director of the Utopia Festival, explains that it’s much more than a film festival.
“I call myself a science fiction evangelist. I have strong beliefs in science fiction’s social and political contributions aside from its cultural impact,” says Aviv, a 34-year-old information technology professional who began organizing sci-fi events, workshops and screenings when he was 17. Now he devotes full time to Utopia, which he founded in 2005 as “only” a film festival.
Utopia includes science, imagination and “future vision” events – conferences, micro-talk sessions, exhibits and performances, all utilizing the platform of science fiction to discuss issues of technology and society, science and ethics, and perspectives on tomorrow.
Guests include, for example, producer and film exec Shaked Berenson, cofounder of Epic Pictures; award-winning artist, writer and director Johannes Grenzfurthner of Monochrom; fiction writer, management consultant and cyber warfare analyst Guy-Philippe Goldstein; and Guy Hoffman, an assistant professor in the School of Communication at IDC Herzliya and co-director of the IDC Media Innovation Lab.
“There is something for everyone, from directors to artists through programmers, neuroscientists, poets and inventors,” Aviv says. “This multidisciplinary festival is a platform for the genius and edgy scientists of our times; the amount of sheer talent in one event is just remarkable.”
Scene from The Zero Theorem by director Terry Gilliam (12 Monkeys)The festival opened with The Zero Theorem by director Terry Gilliam (12 Monkeys), about an eccentric computer genius hired to work obsessively on a mysterious project to discover the meaning -- or the lack of meaning -- of life.
He notes that sci-fi and fantasy buffs meet for film festivals in major cities around the world, and the genre is growing.
“The fact that Utopia is more than a film festival is unique. Most of the festivals focus on the horror genre, while we started out in the science-fiction realm. While we do have dystopia horror, thriller and action titles, we also will have events about science imagination and the future, using science fiction as a platform to talk about the relation between science and science fiction, and science and ethics.”
Connecting tech and arts
Aviv notes that sci-fi books and movies often confront moral and ethical dilemmas arising from technology and science, and sci-fi can be a source of inspiration for technology. He has been working hard over the past year to connect Israel’s tech and arts communities.
“We’re doing these amazing technological advancements and creating revolutions here. Every major tech company has an R&D site in Israel. And yet local culture and arts has not caught up. We’re trying to address that.”
He chose eight prominent Israeli authors and gave them short workshops with prominent Israeli scientists and tech entrepreneurs to get them better acquainted with “radical sciences and technologies coming out of Israeli companies” including robotics, 3D printing, brain research.
“Each author was requested to write a short sci-fi story that will be published later this year,” Aviv says. “We coupled this with Israeli artists creating concept art for the stories, and we’re exhibiting that at the festival.”
Teaming up with DLD, chaired by Israel’s startup “godfather” Yossi Vardi, represents a huge step forward for Utopia and is expected to boost attendance from about 10,000 or 12,000 in recent years to 15,000. Enthusiasts, mostly in the 20s and 30s, come from as far north as the Golan Heights and as far south as Eilat.
“Kudos to Yossi Vardi and the Tel Aviv municipality,” says Aviv, who credits his fluent English to watching episodes of Star Trek from the time he was a little boy.
Nearly 100 speakers from many different countries and disciplines agreed to lead discussions during evening events such as the Utopia Idea Bazaar. Aviv says these are “people who can talk at a tech conference and to filmmakers.”
For those more interested in the film aspect of the festival, there’s an exclusive sneak peak at JeruZalem, the new horror film by the Paz Brothers, and a discussion with the actors and production team.
An Israeli feature-length competitive section is collaborating with the Sitges International Fantastic Film Festival of Catalonia (Spain), one of the premiere fantastic film festivals in the world. Sitges Deputy Director Mike Hostench will be present as a guest and a jury member at the Utopia Festival. The winner will be shown at Sitges, starting October 3.
There will also be an Israeli short film competition, and international feature-length and shorts competitive sections.
A few of the films will be presented also in Haifa, Jerusalem, Herzliya and Holon over the next few months.