Fred Dunkel (1891-1948) was a businessman, cinematographer, producer, and a film industry pioneer in the land. Dunkel got into filmmaking in 1912. Then, during WWI, he was stationed in Palestine and fell in love with the land. Following his return to Germany, he quickly found work in Berlin’s thriving film industry and even documented portions of Hitler’s election campaign in 1932. Dunkel married a Jewish woman and so, when the Nazis took power and promptly enacted the Nuremberg Race Laws, the pair were forced to flee Germany. Dunkel and his wife moved to Palestine where he then started a production company called Hafilm Ha’Eretz Israeli (‘the Land of Israel Film’) and the country’s first of its kind lab for developing 16mm film rolls. At the same time, Dunkel was actively producing films for the Jewish National Fund. On 16 May 1948, just two day after the Declaration of Independence, during an Egyptian air raid bombing campaign of Tel Aviv, Dunkel suffered a fatal heart attack. Highlights of Dunkel’s film credits include The People Serve (1938), Springtime in Galilee (1940), and They Find a Home (1941).

Documentary

Springtime in Galilee

Directed by Fred Donkle, 1939
אביב בגליל

14 min.

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