For two decades, the Maaleh Film School in Jerusalem, Israel, has prepared students to produce unique, cutting-edge films. Their video efforts have built bridges across the Jewish world and fostered a deeper understanding and dialogue between religious and secular Jews.  

Jewish organizations and educational institutions across the globe have discovered Maaleh as a priceless teaching resource. Thousands of Birthright students, Federation missions, and community members from North America, Europe, and Asia come to Maaleh each year to take part in specially designed programs.

Maaleh students are shaping the future of Israeli film and television, while engaged in a rigorous, four-year curriculum in directing and producing, or a two-year scriptwriting program. Graduates are producing films and teaching in Israeli high schools in locations throughout the country and have also created some of Israel’s most popular television programs, such as the series Srugim. Maaleh also uses film to enrich the lives of some of Israel’s marginalized populations, creating a first-of-its-kind VideoTherapy Program for at-risk youth, Ethiopian immigrants, terror victims, and adults with special needs.

Now Maaleh has added another accolade to its credit with the international student film competition-winning film - Girl No. 60427.

Set in Tel Aviv during summer vacation, young Reut finds and reads her grandmother's secret notebook from the Shoah. Her grandmother's story resonates in Reut's well-developed imagination, 

In the film's brilliant combination of Live Action and Animation, Director Shulamit Lifshitz relates back to her childhood experiences with her grandmother. The Animation Director Oriel Berkovits did a marvelous job weaving the young girl's mental images as she reads about the horrors of the Holocaust into live-action portions of the story.

Tehilla Lifshitz, at ten years of age, did a marvelous job in the role of young Reut. Juanita Aronson and Avraham Selektar played the roles of the grandparents.

Ambassador Wigan impressed the audience by beginning his remarks in Hebrew. After changing to English, he emphasized that as the number of survivors decreases each year, we need "new ways to tell the story." 

Highly recommended when it becomes available, Girl No. 60427 has the potential to reach the "Third Generation" in a powerful way. After the screening, the translator who did the English subtitles confided to BJL, that over her many years of translating difficult reporting during the intifada and similar tragedies, for this she had to take breaks from time to time and come back to the translation, since the story flow so emotionally affected her.

The trailer to Girl No. 60427 is available online:

However, this powerful student film is to be entered into further festival competitions and is not yet available for commercial use.

Thank you, Neta Ariel Director of Maaleh Film School, Katie Green, Omri Levy, and Susan Levin for a memorable evening. Looking forward to more success stories from Girl No. 60427 and other Maaleh students and graduate films.