Ronit Avni

Ronit Avni

Ronit Avni
Occupation Filmmaker, human rights advocate and media strategist
Genre Documentary
Notable works Budrus, Encounter Point

Ronit Avni is a filmmaker, human rights advocate and media strategist. Avni is the founder and executive director of Just Vision, a nonprofit organization that researches, documents and creates media about Palestinian and Israeli grassroots leaders in nonviolence and peace building.

Avni directed and produced the documentary film, Encounter Point, which received the 2006 San Francisco International Film Festival Audience Award for Best Documentary and was an official selection at the Tribeca Film Festival, Hot Docs, Atlanta Film Festival, Vancouver International Film Festival, Dubai International Film Festival and Jerusalem International Film Festival. Encounter Point has screened at the International Finance Center, the United Nations and in Gaza, Tel Aviv, Jenin and more than 200 cities worldwide and has won 5 international awards. Avni appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show in 2005 and her work was featured on Oprah.com, and on Christiane Amanpour’s show, Amanpour, on CNN.[1]

Avni produced the documentary film Budrus, which received the Berlinale's Panorama Audience Award [2] Second Prize, the Special Jury Mention[3] at the Tribeca Film Festival and the Audience Award at the San Francisco International Film Festival in 2010. Budrus premiered at the Cultural Bridge Gala[4] at the Dubai International Film Festival in December 2009, followed by a keynote address by Queen Noor of Jordan.

From 2000-2003, Avni co-produced short videos and online video advocacy features in collaboration with filmmakers in Senegal, Burkina Faso, the United States and Brazil while working for Peter Gabriel's human rights organization, WITNESS. Avni has trained non-governmental organizations to produce videos as a tool for public education and grassroots mobilizing, as a deterrent to further abuse and as evidence before courts and tribunals. She wrote and produced a short documentary film, Rise, with the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan. She co-edited the book Video for Change: A Guide for Advocacy and Activism,[5] with staff from WITNESS. Ronit’s essay, “Inverting the Shame-Based Human Rights Documentation Model in the Context of the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict,” was published in the spring 2006 edition of American Anthropologist.

Avni is a Young Global Leader,[6] sponsored by the World Economic Forum, a Term Member[7] at the Council on Foreign Relations[8] and a United Nations Global Expert[9] through the Alliance of Civilizations. She received the Auburn Theological Seminary’s Lives of Commitment Award[10] and a Joshua Venture Group Fellowship[11] for young, Jewish social entrepreneurs. Avni has lectured at universities across North America and her op-eds have been published in Haaretz and The Washington Post.

Avni graduated with honors with a B.A. in political science from Vassar College. She received a Burnam Fellowship[12] to intern at B'Tselem: the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories. Concurrently, Avni volunteered for the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI). She was a 2011 Woodhull Fellow.[13]

Director

Producer

Books and articles

Awards and nominations

In 2006, the film Encounter Point was:

In 2010-11, the film Budrus was:

In 2009-11, Ronit Avni was:

References

  1. ↑ Just Vision Announcements
  2. ↑ Berlinale Recent Panorama Films
  3. ↑ 2010 Tribeca Film Festival Award Winners
  4. ↑ High-profile speakers to analyse media at DIFF
  5. ↑ Full text of Video for Change: A Guide for Advocacy and Activism
  6. ↑ Ronit Avni at World Economic Forum
  7. ↑ Council of Foreign Relations Membership Roster
  8. ↑ http://www.cfr.org/about/membership/roster.html?letter=A
  9. ↑ Ronit Avni at Global Experts
  10. ↑ Lives of Commitment Award Winners
  11. ↑ Ronit Avni at Joshua Venture
  12. ↑ Burnam Fellowships
  13. ↑ Woodhull Fellows Program

External links