Humanities on the Hill: Film Screening & Panel Discussion:

“Spinoza: 6 Reasons for the Excommunication of the Philosopher”

Discussion with Yitzhak Melamed, Charlotte Bloomberg Professor of Philosophy, JHU, and Film director, David Ofek.

The excommunication of Baruch Spinoza, the Dutch Jewish philosopher who revolutionized modern thought, is a formative, mysterious event in the understanding of his work. Director David Ofek takes us on an intercontinental journey tracing six reasons for Spinoza’s excommunication. Between Amsterdam, the Hague, New York, Jerusalem, and Tel Aviv, he makes some surprising discoveries, and traces the figure of a man who continues to intrigue our culture with his ideas, which remain revolutionary, spiritual, and radical to this day. This is the 17th film created for The Hebrews project.

Running time: 56:05

Director: David Ofek

Producer: Yair Qedar

Year and place: 2023, Israel

Trailer: https://vimeo.com/ondemand/spinoza

Event Location: JHU Bloomberg Center – 555 Pennsylvania Avenue NW Washington, DC 20001

Date: Sunday, September 8, 2024

Time: 5 PM – 7 PM

Yitzhak Melamed “I am a professor in the Department of Philosophy at Johns Hopkins University. I hold an MA in philosophy and the history of science and logic from Tel Aviv University, and a PhD in philosophy from Yale University (2005). I have been awarded the Fulbright, Mellon, and American Academy for Jewish Research Fellowships. Recently, I have also won the ACLS Burkhardt (2011), NEH (2010), and Humboldt (2011) fellowships for my forthcoming book on Spinoza and German Idealism”.

David Ofek is a screenwriter and director who has helmed a string of TV programmes, and fiction and documentary films. Ofek was part of the Sam Spiegel Film and Television School’s graduating inaugural class. Two shorts he had made in the course of his studies, Hi-Tech Dreams (1993), and Home (1994) were both featured in festivals worldwide, winning him numerous awards. At the Jerusalem Film Festival, each film earned Ofek a Wolgin Prize in the Best Short category.

In the early days of his career, Ofek teamed up with schoolmate, Yossi Madmoni to create the critically-acclaimed, hit series, Bat Yam – New York (1995-1997). Certain elements that stand out in the series and which were previously, already prominent in Ofek’s student films will recur in all his later work, i.e. a naturalistic aesthetic and style, blurring the line between fiction and documentary, and using amateur actors.

Highlights of his films include The Barbecue People (2002, co-directed with Yossi Madmoni) and No. 17 (2003, documentary), the latter of which was featured at various film festivals worldwide, winning multiple awards including the top prize at the Syracuse International Film Festival, and the international Press Award at the International Chicago Documentary Festival. In Israel, No. 17 took home an Ophir award for Best Documentary, and also won Best Film at the DocAviv Festival. His film, The Tale of Nicolai & The Law of Return (2008) won Best Documentary at the Jerusalem Film Festival. In 2019, he made Born in Jerusalem and Still Alive which he co-directed with Yossi Atia. That same year, he also directed the TV series, Unchained, with his longtime collaborator, Yossi Madmoni and director, Tamar Kay.