Yachin Hirsch (1934-2011) was a cinematographer and documentary filmmaker. He started out as a cameraman with the Geva Newsreels before heading off to New York to study film. On his return to Israel in the early sixties, Hirsh soon found work in the local industry as a cinematographer and director of documentary and government comms and PR films.
Highlights of his documentary directorial credits include The People of Masaha (co-directed with Micha Shagrir, 1965), Reuven – a Portrait (1969), Rachel the Poet (1970), He who Says No – Igael Tumarkin (1980), Dani Karavan (1982), and Neve Tzedek – The Birth of Tel Aviv (1997).
Hirsch shot several parts of David Perlov’s Diary (1973-1983), as well as some of David Avidan’s experimental films including Everything is Possible (1968). Additionally, he shot a total of six features, including two of the most iconic films that have since come to embody the New Sensibility movement in Israeli film of the late 1960s and ‘70s – Women in the Other Room (Isaac Zepel Yeshurun, 1966) and The Dress (Judd Ne’eman, 1969), the latter of which made the official selection for the Cannes Film Festival’s Directors’ Fortnight section. His other feature film cinematography credits include Motive to Murder (Peter Freistadt, 1966), Scouting Patrol (Micha Shagrir, 1967), The End of Milton Levy (Nissim Dayan, 1981), and Lena (Eitan Green, 1981).
Hirsch was also a still photographer and his work has been showcased in many exhibitions.
