Victory of the rising sun
Creator and Director Daniella Meroz
DOP Misha Kaminsky
Music and sound design Tamuz Dekel
Camera Assistant Arman Sarkisov
Grip Mohammed Kahil
Grip assistant Efi Eisenberg
Producer Daniella Meroz
Producer on set Idan Bitton
Costume Design Daniella Meroz
Costume Creating Zion Avramov
Story Board Artist Mor Messeri
Makeup Artist esti nufusi romano
Art Assistants Ben Zion Port shirley naaman
Cast
Reches Itzhaki, Tama Castel, Dorin Amitzur Dorin Amitzur, Chen Steiner, Naama Shmueli ,Eden Kalif , Idan Helzer, Idan Bitton ,May Reznikov, Inbar Tanzer, Gili Inglis, Avigail Shklovsky
Editing by Daniella Meroz
Colorist Aliya Marcus
Graphic Design Anat Gutberg
After Effects Ofek Shemer
Production Assistants Danny Zilberg
itamar strauch
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With a title alluding to Victory over the Sun, the 1913 Russian futurist opera, Daniella Meroz’s video confronts two opposing bodily ideals as epitomized in two aesthetisized spectacles staged in Germany: Oskar Schlemer’’s Triadic Ballet from 1922, and Olympia, the 1938 film by Leni Riefenstahl, a documentation of the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin. A former actress, Riefenstahl went on to become the Third Reich’s emblematic filmmaker. In Olympia she harnessed her innovative cinematic talents toward praising the well-proportioned bodies of athletes – a “new body” in the mold of Nazi ideology; a body meant to counter an equally new – albeit grotesquely exaggerated – a body that figured in the modernist art of the Bauhaus school. Schlemer’s bodies are mechanical figures, specimens adapted to a new society. Setting her video in a stadium, Meroz saddles her performers in outsized geometrical extensions that, rather than impeding movement, recall Schlemer’’s visual vocabulary but also the bouncy props used in reality TV. Performing synchronized drills, races, or fights, performers are captured from below, an angle that – as with Riefenstahl – aggrandizes the body. However, Meroz allows for direct sunlight to highlight every minor imperfection, placing the scene at the threshold of success and failure, the real and ideal. Text by Sally Heftel.
Caterpillars
Directed & Edited by Daniella Meroz
DOP Misha Kaminsky
Sound & Music Aviv Stern
Colorist Michael Cohen
Costume Design Daniella Meroz
Costume Creator Yaron Bareli
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The caterpillar is a transitional stage, a stepping stone en route to total transformation. In the evolution of the relationship between man and the rest of nature, the end of this route is still hard to imagine. Will it be directed towards exploitation and annihilation, or rather towards a synergy which will reorganize the power balance currently in place? Caterpillar offers a new evolutionary stage, a human-animal hybrid which marks a possible trajectory. Like its fantastic image in the story of Alice, Meroz offers a hallucinatory experience in search of a way out of Wonderland, or in this case –Desert-land – as a reflection of reality.
Bouncing Ball
The video was created with the support of Outset Fund for contemporary Art and Mifal HaPais Council for the Culture and Arts
Created & Directed by Daniella Meroz
DOP Misha Kaminsky
Assistant Director & Producer Tal Kronkop
Music Composer Tamuz Dekel
SFX Design Aviv Stern
Camera & Production Crew:
Camera 1st Assistant Avi Siman-Tov
Camera 2st Assistant Maayan Toaf
Light Design Nik Kouleshov
Grip Gal Altshuler
Grip Assistant Ziv Raviv
2nd Grip Assistant Nir Ayalon
Stills Photography Ohad Aridan
Producer on Set Yuli Shiloach
Assistant Producers Ariel Harush, Etai Avital, Ori Mautner, Yuval Herman
Art Department
Art Director and Costume Designer Daniella Meroz
Costumes Illustrations Mor Messeri
Costume Creators
Hole in the Heart, Elephant Man, Bow of Clowns: Yaron Barel
Clowns: Zion Abramov
Tetris, Grass Dogs masks: Orgad Edri
The Circle: ‘Beit Ha’bad’ team
Grass Dogs: Daniella Mushinski
Hair & Makeup Sivan Rubinstein
Hair & Makeup assistant Gal Fima
Dresser Sharon Sirota
Dresser Assistant Tal Avraham
Performers
Elephant Man: David van der Veen
Hole in the Heart: Alma Karvet Shemesh, Tali Donin
Clowns: Patrick de Haan, Noam Palombo, Yoav Kleinman, Shahaf Baron, Grisha Lev, Yahav Sabag, Niv Elbaz, Yuval Aviram, Ayal Taibe, Itay Bibas
Tetris: May Raznikov, Dorin Amitzur, Omer Kahlon, Idan Kogan, Omri Rozen
Circle: May Raznikov, Dorin Amitzur, Omer Kahlon, Idan Kogan, Omri Rozen, Patrick de Haan
Post Production
Editor Daniella Meroz
Colorist Iilya Marcus
Animation & VFX Gil Mckneil
Graphic Designer Roy Siegel
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The video work Bouncing Ball shows a polarized world forged by just two actions – hitting the ball and escaping from it. On manicured lawns, a row of figures are seen being subjected to relentless attack from a single game ball, or running from it. The ball offers the central viewpoint of the work and is its plot generator. The video presents an imaginary world populated by characters that are fantastic, colorful, and humorous but also vulnerable. Their role is defined by their shape, attire, and attributes. Their limitations and narrow worldview, too, serve their destiny in the world. As in mythological plots or in superhero depictions, the imprint and characterization of the figures are deterministic, depending on their intended role in the great scheme of things.