Eyal Sivan

Eyal Sivan (Hebrew: אייל סיון) is an Israeli documentary filmmaker, theoretician and scholar based in Paris, France.

Early life

Eyal Sivan is a Filmmaker, Writer and theoretician born in 1964 in Haifa, Israel; raised in Jerusalem; and based in Europe since 1985.

As a teenager, Sivan abandoned formal education to dedicate himself to his hobbies, which were photography and political activism.

Career

After working as a professional commercial photographer in Tel Aviv, he left Israel in 1985 and settled in Paris. He now splits his time between Europe and Israel. Known for his controversial films, Sivan has produced and directed more than a dozen political documentaries. Common State (2012), Jaffa (2009) and Route 181 (2003) won awards at various festivals.

Sivan's films are regularly exhibited in art exhibitions including Documenta, Manifesta and ICP New York. His work touches on such themes as the representation of political crime; the political use of memory; the ethics of documentary filmmaking; and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

He is the founder and artistic director of the Paris-based documentary film company Momento ! and of the film distribution agency Scalpel. He created South Cinema Notebooks, a journal of cinema criticism published by the Sapir Academic College in Ashkelon.

Academic postings

• Professor, Amsterdam University of the Arts, Nederlands Film Academy, Nederlands
• Associate Professor, Media Production, University of East London, School of Arts and Digital Industries, United Kingdom
• Honorary Fellow, European Centre for Palestinian Studies, University of Exeter, United Kingdom
• Visiting Professor, Netherlands Film Academy, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
• Visiting Professor, Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti, Milan, Italy
• Visiting Professor, Sapir Academic College, School of Sound and Visual Arts, Ashkelon, Israel