A Short Biographical Statement

My name is Joshua Faudem. I am a thirty-two-year-old filmmaker, born in Detroit, Michigan. At the age of eight, my family moved to Jerusalem, where I studied drama at the School of Performing Arts. After high school, like the rest of the Israeli youth, I was drafted into the Israeli Defense Force for three years, where I served as a first sergeant in an airborne unit. While in the army, my unit saw combat in Lebanon, the West Bank and the Gaza strip. It was a life-altering experience.

After some traveling around Europe, I found myself living in New York City working for a fashion photographer. While living in NYC, I applied to study documentary filmmaking at the FAMU Film Academy in Prague, Czech Republic for two years. During those years, I visited the Balkans extensively, which allowed me to understand how people in other hot spot regions survive their turmoil. Following my studies in Prague, I worked in Toronto at Associated Producers with Simcha Yacobovitch on the documentary film "James", the story of James ossuary, produced by the Discovery Channel.

I think my diverse background and filmmaking experience will allow me to contribute to the group dynamic the understanding of larger issues in terms of the individual daily lives. My films attempt to humanize international issues, which have been negatively labeled by the world media. I have tried to open a line of understanding of individual people on subjects that have negative connotations. I try to appeal to an international audience to humanize issues by portraying individual people who make up these stories of very broad well-vocalized issues. To understand issues we must focus on the individual people that make up these stories.

In my feature length documentary film "A Will To Dance, I attempt to humanize the relationship between a Jewish Holocaust survivor following the Second World War and her former German soldier husband, portraying them both as loving, giving people in a family environment. I try to answer the question anyone would ask, How could this woman, with all she had gone through, marry a German soldier.

In my documentary film Blues by the Beach, I show how a suicide bombing impacts on the lives of normal everyday people through personal experiences of which I was intimately involved. It shows lives of people trying to cope from an experience that is beyond comprehension. Blues by the Beach is a unique documentary that shows the characters before, during. and after the bombing, with no political agenda as a film.

Born: 16.9.1975

Place of birth: Detroit MI.

Languages: English and Hebrew





INTERESTS

World history, world politics, photography, visual art/painting/film,
Psychology and music

Sports: 93'-98' Member of Israel's national softball team


EDUCATION

88'-92': Golda Meir High School, Jerusalem, Israel

92'-94': School of Performing Arts Theatre Department, Jerusalem Israel

99'-02': Academy of Performing Arts FAMU (Film, TV & Photography)
In Prague


PROJECTS/SHORT FILMS

1998 " In My Comfortable Shoes"

1999 " Full Service"

2000 " The Man Who Had Enough"

2000 " The Sound of Tolerance"

2002 "Jerusalem Pride"


PROJECTS/FEATUTE LENGHTS FILMS:

2001 "A Will To Dance" documentary

2004 "Blues By The Beach" documentary

2004 " Russki Battalion" documentary

MILITARY SERVICE:

1994-1997 - First sergeant in the 50th regiment/airborne, IDF (Israeli Defense Forces)


EMPLOYMENT:

1997-98 Nursery school teacher at Kibbutz Zellim, Negev, Israel.

1998 Commercial fisherman, Monterey, CA.

1999 Assistant photographer, Lighthouse Productions, New York.

2000-01 Director, " A Will To Dance" Axman productions, Prauge, Czech Rep.

2002 assistant producer, associated producers, Toronto, on the film "JAMES" for discovery channel.

2003-04 Director, "Russki Battalion", Globus Group, Tel Aviv, Isreal

2004-05 Director, "Blues By The Beach", Pax Americana, New York, USA

2006 Assistant director, The Third Temple Trilogy, FPAD Productions, Tel Aviv, Israel

2006 Director, "Sounds of Music from Ramallah", FPAD Productions, Tel Aviv, Israel

2007-08 Producer, "Sderock", Axman prouctions .

2007-08 Director, "Los Caparos",rockumentary film, Chaos films, Tel Aviv, Isarel


AWARDS

2004-Hamptons International Film Festival-Winner of Conflict and Resolution Award for Blues by the Beach

2005-Fire Island International Film Festival-Winner of the Red Wagon award for best documentary film-Blues by the Beach

2006-Avignon/New York Film Festival-Winner of the Pierre Salinger Award for Documentary Filmmaking for Blues by the Beach

This is a very, very important film. It ranks, along with ONE-DAY IN SEPTEMBER as an actual, undeniable presentation of the unmitigated horror of terrorism. Terrorism is the directed, purposeful taking of innocent life for supposedly political purposes. Innocent life is innocent life at the World Trade Center or in Tel Aviv its extinction is an act of bestiality. To which fact this film bluntly and incontestably testifies. David Mamet on the film Blues by the Beach