Akiva Barkin (1934-2014) was a director, author, film teacher, and founder of the Tel Aviv Cinematheque. Born in Warsaw, at the age of four Barkin and his family immigrated to Argentina on the cusp of World War II. When he was 19, he moved to Israel and joined the ranks of the IDF’s Nahal infantry brigade. In the early sixties, Barkin headed to Italy to study in Rome’s Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia where he directed the critically acclaimed short, One Thousand (1965).
After his return to Israel, Barkin directed a number of documentary shorts and news stories (e.g. Zalman the Old Tractor, 1960), in addition to writing several plays and novels including the autobiographical book, Emil: The Rise and Fall of a Film Director. In 1973, Barkin established the Tel Aviv Cinematheque which he also ran during its inaugural year. He was also the founder of two prominent Tel Aviv high schools’ film departments: Tichon Hadash (‘new high school’) and the Herzliya Hebrew Gymnasium, where he also taught. In 1980, Barkin directed Morning Star – his one and only feature-length film.
