Khen Shalem – Director of “On the Road to Tel-Aviv”
Khen’s first introduction to filmmaking began when as a young boy a French film crew arrived to shoot a film at his Kibbutz in the north of Israel.
Khen’s first actual steps into filmmaking began when like most young Israelis he joined the Israeli Defense Forces as a lieutenant in a bomb squad patrol unit. Khen independently filmed a short documentary of his unit’s operational activity.
His army career was ended when he was badly wounded in a battle in Southern Lebanon and was discharged. After the lengthy process of recovery, and a year travelling, Khen returned to Israel and completed a Bachelor of Science in extended physics at Bar-Ilan University and Master of Science in Particle Physics at the Weizmann Institute of Science. Physics, Khen’s choice of subject, was not intended as a future occupation, but as a profound need to better understand the laws of nature. Notwithstanding the intellectual assets gained by this studying and practicing science, he gradually became aware of his need to express a more underlying creative ambition.
In July 2004 he took part in a “one shot” filmmaking competition at the International Jerusalem Film Festival and received first prize. His one-minute, one-shot film was based on the historical myth of the founding of his kibbutz seventy years ago and its turbulent present. This gave him the impetus to further his career as a filmmaker.
He received a scholarship from the Florida-Israel Institute and was the first Israeli student to be accepted to the prestigeous FSU Film School. He wrote and directed a short film entitled “Abe” that won a College Television Academy Award (Student Emmy) and produced a short film entitled “State of Sunshine” that won a Student Academy Award (Student Oscar). His final and graduation film; “On The Road to Tel-Aviv”, played at numerous major film festivals around the world and won several international awards such as the “Outstanding Achievement in Directing Award” at the Newport Beach Film Festival and the “Audience Award” at the Palm Springs Film Festival.
In 2010 “On the Road To Tel Aviv” screened at the Sundance Film Festival, as part of the Windrider Forum of award winning films.
In 2009 Khen met producer & director of photography, Paul Robinson at the Asiana Short Film Festival in Seoul where “On The Road to Tel Aviv” screened in competition (winning the Audience Award) with Paul’s short film “Fanatic”. Together they decided to collaborate in on “The Other Side” and in 2010 won funding from “The Pears Foundation Short Film Fund” at “UK Jewish Film” to shoot the project.
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