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Founded 2007; next festival (18th edition) May 2-4 2025 at the Haifa Cinematheque.   

About the Festival
The Haifa Labor Film Festival has been active since 2007 to create and promote class consciousness and culture, encouraging and accompanying political action. Cinema, the most widely watched art form in the world, taught the masses to dream, and today it has become an arena for the struggle over the content of that dream. The festival, in our view, is part of the struggle to free the consciousness of the masses from economic reality and the cultural dominance of late capitalism. We strive to present a counterculture that centers on the workers, and not a culture that only presents those who control them. “Red Haifa,” the first industrial city in the eastern basin of the Mediterranean Sea, is the city where the working class in Israel was born. In Haifa, the first class struggles for freedom, equality, democracy and peace took place, and it continues, in our view, to be a socioeconomic and cultural avant-garde. Therefore, we chose Haifa as the physical home of our festival – from the northern periphery of “Tel Aviv State” will come the tidings of the liberation of the working person!

About the 17th Festival

This year the festival marks its 17th consecutive year in the shadow of the war that broke out across our borders on October 7th. Not only were the territorial borders of the State of Israel abandoned and collapsed on October 7th: the conflict management concept collapsed with them, social support services collapsed in the absence of sustained universal investment, and the democratic and governmental crisis we are in has deepened even further. We find ourselves forced to fight not only for the rehabilitation of our national security but also for the rehabilitation of basic life infrastructures, support, and governance. “The strength of a chain is determined by its weakest link” – on October 7th our chain was broken in quite a few places… To mend the broken links, Israeli society must embark on a long and complex journey of rehabilitation and rebuilding. Art can serve as one of the delicate tools in the work of diagnosis and mending. Therefore, this year we have chosen to screen only original Hebrew works, describing the weakest links in Israeli society and to accompany them with testimonies and insights ‘from the field’. In this way, we will make a modest contribution to the work of rehabilitation.

So, what’s at the festival?

We will express our gratitude and give recognition to the School of Audio and Screen Arts at Sapir Academic College, which recently celebrated its 25th anniversary. We will salute the dream of establishing a thriving film industry in Sderot, far from the borders of the center. Over the years, this dream has become a significant, vibrant institution, whose graduates form an important part of the film industry in general and the documentary film industry in particular. The school continues to create films under challenging conditions even after October 7th. As part of the tribute, we will screen the following short films before the main screenings:

• Margins / Israel 2018 – A project that follows monologues of several homeless people, telling their story in their own voice. The storytelling voice was the basis for the animated films.
• Sderot-Rothschild / Israel 2019 – Mika Leshad’s documentary describes a week after another round of escalation in the south and five days before the first round of elections. Residents of the Gaza Envelope come to Rothschild to protest their situation until a guest arrives.

The opening film of the festival is Tzipi Karlik’s “Social Workers at War” (Israel 2024). In the docu “Social Workers at War”, a shocking reality of the social workers who were the first to treat hundreds of people in heartbreaking situations is presented. They had one mission: to provide support and think in a way that was adjusted to a situation they had not encountered until October 7th. Have the long months of difficult experiences, without a permanent place and a familiar and supportive environment, affected them? To this day, social workers are constantly treating many people who need help and support. They leave their thoughts and homes aside”… After the screening, there will be a discussion with the director Tzipi Karlik and with social worker Efrat Levi, who accompanies Kibbutz Kfar Aza on behalf of the Center for Resilience Sha’ar HaNegev, and participates in the film.

The closing film of the festival is Roni Ninio’s new film “Farewell Tour” (Israel 2023). The film takes place during the Corona period and the Balfour demonstrations and follows a left-wing journalist who is labeled a “traitor” in an orchestrated campaign, not afraid to point out the good side and the bad side in Israeli politics. Dror Keren is wonderful in the lead role and the ending is a punch in the gut. After the screening, there will be a conversation with the director Roni Ninio.

Festival Team

• Co-producers and founders of the festival: Rafi Kamhi, workers’ organizer at “Power to Workers” and Dr. Nogit Altshuler, artistic director of Haifa Cinematheque.
• Production team: Matan Hakim and Or Kitai from Tarbut Movement who protected us in intensive reserve service – we salute you heroes!
• Thanks to the Cinematheque team for their support and close assistance.
• Graphic design: Noga Shamir updated Maya Peretz’s design this year.

The festival takes place thanks to the collaboration between Haifa Cinematheque and Tarbut Movement. The festival is the fruit of the labor of volunteers whose souls yearn for freedom, have not sold it for a golden calf, who still believe in man, and in his strong spirit.

Ticket Sales and Technical Details

• The festival takes place at the Haifa Cinematheque: 142 HaNassi Blvd., Carmel Center, Haifa.
• Ticket sales at the Cinematheque box office on the evening of the meeting or by advance order.
• The Cinematheque box office is open Sunday to Thursday from 9:00 to 20:00 and on Fridays and holiday eves from 9:00 to 13:00.
• Tickets can be ordered in advance by telephone – 9300* and also at the self-service stand at the entrance to the halls and on the Cinematheque website http://www.haifacin.co.il
• Cost of an entrance ticket to a movie + lecture 35 ₪. For students, and senior citizens and the disabled 30 ₪ with the presentation of the appropriate certificate.
• Entrance for Cinematheque subscribers according to the subscription rules.
• Discount for groups and organizations in advance coordination with the festival producer.
• There may be changes in the festival program.
• Updated program on the festival website and the Cinematheque website http://www.haifacin.co.il.
• Any questions concerning the festival, please contact the festival producer: Rafi Kamhi, 0543311762, rafikom@gmail.com.

We call on and expect the Israeli government to make every effort to bring the abductees home, to reach a political settlement on our borders, to invest all the necessary resources to return the evacuees to their homes and to rehabilitate the southern and northern periphery of the State of Israel.

Click here for the 2021 Festival line-up.
Click here for the 2017 Festival line-up.
Click here for the 2014 festival line-up.
Click here for the 2012 festival line-up.
Any questions concerning the festival, please contact the festival producer: Rafi Kamhi, 0543311762, rafikom@gmail.com