VITA ACTIVA: THE SPIRIT OF HANNAH ARENDT, directed by Ada Ushpiz will be released in the U.S. by Zeitgeist Films.
Official selection at Jerusalem and Munich film festivals, as well as at IDFA, and winner – Best Documentary – at the Santa Barbara Film Festival, VITA ACTIVA will open at Film Forum in NYC on April 6 and at the Laemmle Monica Film Center in LA on April 29. A national release will follow.
The German-Jewish philosopher Hannah Arendt caused an uproar in the 1960s by coining the subversive concept of the “Banality of Evil” when referring to the trial of Adolph Eichmann, which she covered for the New Yorker magazine. Her private life was no less controversial thanks to her early love affair with the renowned German philosopher and Nazi supporter Martin Heidegger. This thought provoking and spirited documentary, with its abundance of archival materials, offers an intimate portrait of the whole of Arendt’s life, traveling to places where she lived, worked, loved, and was betrayed, as she wrote about the open wounds of modern times. Through her books, which are still widely read and the recent release of Margarethe von Trotta’s biopic HANNAH ARENDT (also a Zeitgeist Films release) there is renewed interest in Arendt throughout the world, especially among young people who find her insights into the nature of evil, totalitarianism, ideologies, and the perils faced by refugees, more relevant than ever.
Filmmaker Ada Ushpiz is a renowned Israeli film producer and director. She has a B.A. in philosophy and M.A. in history from Tel Aviv University and a significant journalistic experience in political-social writing for the prestigious Ha’aretz newspaper. She directed a number of remarkable documentaries in recent years – Detained(2001), Bloody Engagement (2004), Desert Brides (2008) and Good Garbage (2012) – which have been awarded numerous awards in Israel and around the world.
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