Films by Sagi Bornstein

2021, 90 min
by Sagi Bornstein, Udi Nir

Follow the journeys of 7 YouTubers through a year like no other, in a bitter-sweet portrait of the Gen Z and our new viral world. Seven young people from across the world shared their exciting plans for 2020 when “virus” started trending online. From the pandemic, through to the BLM movement and on to the US elections – VIRAL DREAMS features over a year’s worth o real-time video posts, and depicts the surprising resilience of a new generation to a global change no one saw coming.

2020, 90 min
by Udi Nir, Sagi Bornstein

VIRAL is neither a collection of video diaries nor a story about exhausted doctors and tragic deaths during the Corona crisis. It is a character-driven, bitter-sweet account of the struggle, ingenuity, perseverance, and creativity in the face of the unexpected. The film follows the lives of 6 protagonists throughout the period of one year, covering the time before, during, and after the height of the outbreak. As our protagonists encounter conflicts and obstacles and find creative ways to overcome them we follow them through 12 months of ups and downs and unexpected turns.Today we know that the Corona Virus will accompany us for months and possibly years. VIRAL uses YouTube as a gigantic archive of this ongoing development and – through the unfiltered and authentic material of our protagonists – tells how Corona inscribes itself into our lives and changes them. The dramaturgical condensation of individual stories into a grand narrative is at the heart of this project.

Israel, Germany 2019, 87 min
by Shani Rozanes, Sagi Bornstein, Udi Nir

Forty years after her death, Golda Meir’s image is still clouded with controversy. While perceived as a feminist icon in many places in the world, in the country she led as a prime minister for five years she’s seen by many as a total failure, a symbol of disgrace. 'Madam Prime Minister' invites the viewers to walk in her iconic shoes and reexamine her ground breaking and dramatic years as the first and only female prime minister of Israel.Shortly before her passing, Golda Meir was interviewed for the Israeli television. After the shooting ended the cameras kept rolling, recording an intimate talk with the first and only woman to ever rule Israel. As she lit one cigarette off the other, Golda spoke freely, pleading her case for her term as prime minister – five turbulent years that secured her place in history, at a high personal cost. Based on that never-seen-before talk, testimonies of supporters and opponents and rare archival footage, GOLDA tells the story of Meir’s dramatic premiership - from her surprising rise to power and iconic international stature as 'queen of the Jewish people', to her tragic and lonely demise.Key Interviewees:• Zvi Zamir head of the Mossad 1969-1978• Prof. Meron Medzini Prime Minister's spokesman 1969-1974• Gideon Meir Golda Meir's grandson• Dr. Yossi Beilin Labor Party Spokesman 1977-1984• Reuven Abergel Israeli Black Panthers• Uri Avnery Journalist & Knesset Member 1965-1981

2016, 75 min
by Sagi Bornstein, Udi Nir

Thousands of young Israelis join ’The Journey to Poland‘ each year to learn about the Holocaust. Looking into the journey through the videos they upload on YouTube reviles a moving and troubling image of the Israeli narrative and the way collective memory is formed in the web age. In the YouTube clips they create, students share private and moving moments of fear and despair – unmediated testimonies of themselves trying to make sense of the insane. Using these clips as raw material, we follow the journey to Poland from a variety of intimate points of view and explore how the personal becomes national, reality becomes cyber and history becomes myth.