Dana Goldberg is an Israeli filmmaker, poet and social entrepreneur. A Graduate of HaMidrasha School of Art, Beit Berl College 2003. Goldberg's debut feature film, Alice, premiered at the Jerusalem Film Festival in 2012, and was awarded the best screenplay award, best actress award, and the Jury's honorable mention. In 2017 Goldberg produced Death of the Poetess, her second feature film, written and directed in collaboration with poet Dr. Efrat Mishori. Death of a Poetess, Starring Evgenia Dodina and Samira Saraya, premiered at the Jerusalem Film Festival 2017, in which Saraya was awarded the best actress award. Goldberg has written and directed 10 short films and 10 experimental pocket films. Her films are all female portraits, exploring themes related to gender, identity, motherhood, violence and the language of cinema.
Goldberg is also active in other fields. The mono-drama Esti of the Pine Trees, her debut stage work, premiered at the Theatroneto Festival 2014. Orange Corals, her first book of poems, was published by Keshev Publishing House in 2011. Her second book, Direct Sun, was published by Locus Books on March 2020.
Goldberg was the co-founder of Kinoclan – women with cameras, an NGO promoting social change by amplifying women’s voices. Between 2016-2022 she was the director of the organization. As part of her social activity she combined her knowledge and experience as an independent filmmaker and developed the Pocket Film Workshop – a hands-on filmmaking workshop using smartphones. Since 2023 she continues her social activity as part of Pocketmedia.
Goldberg lives in Tel Aviv and teaches film at the Garage Art School for young artists facing mental health issues.
DEATH OF A POETESS: FILM REVIEW 2018
A beautiful example of how a memorable film can be made on a shoestring, Death of a Poetess poignantly describes the last day in the life of an educated Israeli writer, culminating in her casual encounter with a gay Palestinian woman in a bar. But it is equally about the Arab woman’s doomed conversation with a police investigator determined to make her confess to a crime she didn't commit. Well-known poet Efrat Mishori and young filmmaker Dana Goldberg (whose first feature Alice won awards a few years ago) co-direct two fine actresses — Evgenia Dodina (One Week and a Day) and newcomer Samira Saraya — to great effect. Their creative partnership produces dialogue as taut as a poem, and a story told in gritty black-and-white visuals with sets and camerawork reduced to a minimum.
Deborah Young, The Hollywood Reporter, January 2018
JERUSALEM FILM FESTIVAL: SEX
Whatever one may think of Alice as a character, and there are no easy conclusions in this film, the scene in which she and Yoel make love in the office is powerful in its portrayal of sex from the perspective of a woman’s pleasure.
Ayelet Dekel, Midnight East, July 2012
THOU SHALT NOT WORSHIP FALSE GODS BEFORE ME
Dana’s portrait of the alienated mother struck me immediately with its power — not only because of her sure but subtle direction, and the remarkably strong performance of Ilanit Ben Yaacov, but because an Israeli filmmaker who dares to show an unloving family, and a total disconnect between mother and son, is clearly an independent thinker.
Nina Menkes, The Magazine of Independent Film, July 2012
Death of a Poetess
Lenny Sadeh is a Tel Aviv based scholar who passes through the last day of her life. Yasmin Nasser, an Arab nurse who lives in Jaffa, is interrogated by the police. The worlds of these two women meet for a critical moment and bound together inseparably. A joint project of Dana Goldberg and Dr. Efrat Mishori.
Four Mothers
In this formalist, catalogue-like, cinematic ready-made, four mothers – well known Israeli actresses – speak up about the unthinkable.
No Shadow
NO SHADOW is a video poem, a surreal-associative dream/nightmare, a cinematic experiment lip-syncing the silence of one woman's subconscious. The entire film was shot with a smartphone – Samsung Galaxy S4.
The Last Word
In a dark, dubious space, a stunning woman converses with a young man who slowly surrenders to her magical power.
V
A woman is talking to a camera. A black and white monologue. She speaks of a man. Her face is twitching with rage or pain. She wants to be heard. She wants us to believe her. There's no other story like hers.
Alice
Alice, an unhappy mother and wife, works at a rehabilitation center for young girls. A power triangle with two of her patients makes her life go out of control.
Alligator
Ilana lives with her mother. Every conversation between the two turns into a quarrel that makes Ilana run off. Wandering the ruthless, dark streets, Ilana seeks human closeness and intimacy.
Alpha
The final minutes of an intimate night between two women. One is fifty years old and the other is her early twenties. What seems to be a fragile promise of harmony brings about the relationship’s demise.
Masha
A woman director and a young boy are sitting in front of each other. She auditions dozens of boys just like him every day. He can't afford questioning her.
Cell
In a red, smoky women’s bar, two young women spot each other. In the claustrophobic restroom the common conversation becomes a tight power game.
Untitled
A single shot fragment, produced for the Berlinale Talent Campus admittance exams, and with which I traveled to the 2005 Berlin Film Festival.
Nommy Teller
Nommy Teller can't sleep. She's haunted by a beautiful woman she met on the bus. This woman may not be the stranger she appears to be.
DEATH OF A POETESS: FILM REVIEW 2018
A beautiful example of how a memorable film can be made on a shoestring, Death of a Poetess poignantly describes the last day in the life of an educated Israeli writer, culminating in her casual encounter with a gay Palestinian woman in a bar. But it is equally about the Arab woman’s doomed conversation with a police investigator determined to make her confess to a crime she didn't commit. Well-known poet Efrat Mishori and young filmmaker Dana Goldberg (whose first feature Alice won awards a few years ago) co-direct two fine actresses — Evgenia Dodina (One Week and a Day) and newcomer Samira Saraya — to great effect. Their creative partnership produces dialogue as taut as a poem, and a story told in gritty black-and-white visuals with sets and camerawork reduced to a minimum.
Deborah Young, The Hollywood Reporter, January 2018
THOU SHALT NOT WORSHIP FALSE GODS BEFORE ME
Dana’s portrait of the alienated mother struck me immediately with its power — not only because of her sure but subtle direction, and the remarkably strong performance of Ilanit Ben Yaacov, but because an Israeli filmmaker who dares to show an unloving family, and a total disconnect between mother and son, is clearly an independent thinker.
Nina Menkes, The Magazine of Independent Film, July 2012
JERUSALEM FILM FESTIVAL: SEX
Whatever one may think of Alice as a character, and there are no easy conclusions in this film, the scene in which she and Yoel make love in the office is powerful in its portrayal of sex from the perspective of a woman’s pleasure.
Ayelet Dekel, Midnight East, July 2012
