Alma Har'el
- United States
- Member since 2018
Most famous for her award-winning films Bombay Beach and LoveTrue, Har’el creates narrative work that plunges deep into the heart of imagination and creates surreal, dream-like poetic meditations on life. Her wildly inventive approach to filmmaking produces genre-redefining work which is exceptional, fearless, and artistically blurs the line between documentary and fiction.
Born in Tel Aviv she began her film career as a photographer and video artist, mixing live video content for concerts which then led to directing music videos. Filmmaker Magazine said her music video for Sigur Rós ‘FJÖGER PIANO’ starring Shia LaBeouf contains a “Truthful fusion of fantasy and reality” after naming her one of their 25 new faces of cinema.
Her documentary Bombay Beach took top prize at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2011 and was nominated for the Indie Spirit awards and has been taught in several universities, including Harvard’s Sensory Ethnography Lab and NYU, as a genre redefining work.
Her latest film, LoveTrue, saw her collaborating again with Shia LaBeouf, this time with him in the executive producer’s seat. The film premiered at Tribeca Film Festival to rapturous applause in April 2016, with Indiewire writing ‘LoveTrue confirms that Alma Har’el makes movies like nothing else out there.
Her commercial work for brands like Airbnb, Facebook and P&G captures real life from a magical yet realistic perspective, garnering numerous awards for her innovative style. Her short film Jellywolf for Chanel was described as “The trippiest fashion film ever made” by Elle Magazine and won The Clio, Tribeca X, D&AD and Ciclope awards.
In 2016, Har’el has launched the initiative Free the Bid to address the gender imbalance among directors in the commercial industry. #FreeTheBid asks ad agencies, production companies, and brands to pledge a woman director bid on every commercial. Since its launch, over 40 of the worlds biggest ad agencies have taken the pledge along with 10 major brands including HP, Visa, eBay, Twitter, Levi’s and Airbnb. In the first year of Free The Bid’s implementation, pledged agencies BBDO and CP+B reported an increase of jobs directed by women of up to 400%.
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