Shirly Berkovitz is a documentary filmmaker, cinematographer, and producer. Berkovitz studied at Beit Berl College’s Faculty of Arts. Her graduation project, 100% (2004), made the official selection for the Docaviv International Documentary Film Festival, competing in the Student Film section.
In 2009 she shot and directed The Way Up, a deeply unsettling documentary about a drug-addicted rough sleeper’s struggle to survive, as she dreams of meeting her birth mother. The film was shown at multiple festivals domestically and internationally and won Best Documentary at the Belgrade International Film Festival.
She then followed it up in 2012 with The Good Son, a film that offered a rare intimate glimpse into the life of a young man planning to undergo gender reassignment surgery and live life as a woman. The film was showcased at various festivals in Israel and around the world and even made the official selection for Amsterdam’s IDFA festival.
In 2017 Berkovitz directed Empty Room – The State of Israel vs. Irit and Asher, which followed the story of two bereaved parents whose soldier son died in service. The grieving couple find themselves locked in a legal battle with the State of Israel over their wish to use their late son’s sperm to have a grandchild.
Four years later, Berkovitz directed Holes (2021), in which she exposed a shocking catalogue of police failings in the murder investigation of IDF soldier Itzik Mor, and his father’s mammoth crusade to find out the truth behind his son’s death.
Outside her filmmaking, Berkovitz has also shot and directed multiple investigative pieces for Israeli public broadcaster Channel One’s leading news programme, Yoman (‘journal’), and was a founding member of the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation’s news division.
