The following video is an open-ended three-week visual diary (shot with an iPhone 6S Plus) of my come back to Israel after a fifteen-year “second round” in L.A.-Long Beach. The fourteen-hour non-stop flight from LAX to TLV took a long time to become real. In the meantime, many things changed. I have changed, and so has Israel.
In spite of many distortions by those who look at Israel through the lenses of the media, in spite of Israel’s political contradictions, inequalities, extremists and inner quarrels, I found the country exceptionally vital, better than when I left it, back in 2001. Its energy cannot be described neither visually nor in writing; it must be felt.
[embedvideo id=”164065259″ website=”vimeo”]
What I See From Here from Rick Meghiddo on Vimeo.
The territory covered by the video is very small and one should not rush into generalizations. It includes only a fraction of Tel Aviv, mostly affluent areas, and also a two-day visit to the Technion in Haifa. I move around using buses and trains, guided by Mooveit, the Israeli continuation of Waze for public transportation. It is quite precise.
My filmic choices have been twofold: people and spaces for people. There was so much visual richness along my way that I wished I had a camera on my forehead running all the time. I saw people of all ages, colors and countries of origin. I sensed an informal freedom is much greater than the one in Southern California, border-lining anarchy and yet, combined with high technology, this complex country feels like a huge laboratory from which the world has much to learn.
Construction is going on everywhere. High-rise buildings are commonplace, not only in Tel Aviv. During an “Architect’s Day Symposium” at the Cinematheque, the city’s Director of Planning told us that, at this time, there are in plan check residential and commercial projects for a total of almost eight million square meters, or about 86 million square feet. These include several towers between 70 and 90 story high. That is the equivalent of four hundred twenty-story high Wilshire corridor buildings.
And if seeing it all is impossible, going through the weekend newspaper Haaretz is mindboggling. Entire pages of poetry, short stories, pages upon pages of op-ed’s on any subject that may cross the mind.
Beyond snapshots at some buildings and artworks, I included in the video some friends. I hope that this may help the viewer to get a more tangible sense of the country.
Rick Meghiddo is an architect and a filmmaker. As an architect, he focuses on innovative work that is sustainable, aesthetic, and budget-conscious, looking at each project as an opportunity to rethink solutions to conventional problems. As a filmmaker, he brings his "architect eye" to help non-professionals and professionals better understand the meaning, value, and complexities of architecture and art.
Born, Argentina, he studied architecture at the University of Buenos Aires, at the Technion in Israel, and earned his M. Arch from UCLA and his Dottore in Architettura from the University of Rome. Following over three decades of practice as an architect in Los Angeles, Tel Aviv, and Rome, he produced and directed over one hundred documentaries, mostly on architecture and art.
Rick is also a registered journalist with USPA and a published poet. He is fluent in English, Spanish, Italian, Hebrew, and oral French. Selected works in architecture, photography, art, and poetry can be seen in http://meghiddoarchitects.com/ His documentaries can be seen in http://archidocu.com/ and in http://architectureawareness.com/
Born, Argentina, he studied architecture at the University of Buenos Aires, at the Technion in Israel, and earned his M. Arch from UCLA and his Dottore in Architettura from the University of Rome. Following over three decades of practice as an architect in Los Angeles, Tel Aviv, and Rome, he produced and directed over one hundred documentaries, mostly on architecture and art.
Rick is also a registered journalist with USPA and a published poet. He is fluent in English, Spanish, Italian, Hebrew, and oral French. Selected works in architecture, photography, art, and poetry can be seen in http://meghiddoarchitects.com/ His documentaries can be seen in http://archidocu.com/ and in http://architectureawareness.com/