Nathan Axelrod (1905-1987) was a cinematographer, director, producer, and a founding member of the local film industry. Axelrod was born in Belarus and after immigrating to Palestine in 1926, he began producing short films for the Jewish Agency and the British authorities who, at the time, ruled the land. In 1933, he shot the film Oded Hanoded (‘wandering Oded’) directed by Chaim Halachmi – the first feature-length, narrative fiction film ever made in the country, that also became a box office hit. In 1935, he founded Carmel Films and the company began producing the Carmel Newsreels on a weekly basis. Those were shown regularly at cinemas until 1971, ahead of the main event (from the 1950s, the reels were rebranded, The Carmel Herzliya Newsreels.)
Axelrod was the only cinematographer to have captured the actual Israeli Declaration of Independence. In the years following the establishing of the state, he continued producing his newsreels whilst at the same time, making a string of unsuccessful narrative fiction films. Highlights of his film credits include The True Story of Palestine (1962) which he co-directed with Uri Zohar and Joel Silberg, and Girls’ Paradise Eilat (1965) which he co-directed with Leo Filler.
